Thread by @TeslaStars

A friend of mine asked me if I liked my electric car ⚡️ and what were the advantages of driving electric ☺️

I told her this was the best purchase I ever made and began listing why ⬇️

The most obvious and the reason I got interested in #EV back in 2006 is fighting #ClimateCrisis, the biggest issue Humanity has ever faced. #EV emit way less greenhouse gases than #FossiCars, even taking into account slightly higher emissions during production 😊

This is true even with the dirtiest electricity ⚡️ grids like Poland’s 🇵🇱 which is mainly powered by coal 💨

Also the same #EV becomes cleaner over time when the grid incorporates less carbon intensive electricity ☺️

The materials used to produce an #EV can easily be recycled for another car. Once lithium, manganese, cobalt, nickel and others have been mined, they can be reused indefinitely (and they will because they are valuable) ☺️

#FossilFuels are non renewable as they took millions of years to be produced by nature, then we burn 🔥 them and they are gone forever 😌

We’ll eventually run out of them, so why not start replacing them sooner than later? 😏

#FossilFuels are a scarce resource produced by mostly a few countries, the OPEC & OPEC+ cartels, most being quite undemocratic and the money 💵 generated only enrich a few oligarchs 😒

We depend on them 🙁

Wars are have been fought for decades to control these resources 💥

The sun ☀️ produces thousands of times more energy than we currently need. We just have to harvest its power to get free unlimited clean energy ⚡️ to power our civilizations, including vehicles 🚗🚙🚌🚚🚛

Solar and wind power today are the cheapest forms of energy ever 🤩

#EV don’t have a tailpipe. They don’t emit toxic gases like #FossilCars do, which kill about 8 million people worldwide per year 💨

My car is perfectly silent at low speeds, which solves the second biggest issue faced in cities after air pollution: noise pollution 🔊

Unfortunately #FossilFuels lobbying was successful and newer #EV have to emit an artificial sound at low speeds 🤬

#EV make no vibrations due to the absence of an internal combustion engine with thousands of moving parts 😊

The level of zenitude provided by this absence of vibration is hard to convey in words. It’s a fantastic feeling 😍

#EV have instant torque and powerful acceleration. This is really fun 🤪

With batteries 🔋 located close to the ground, the center of gravity is much lower than on #FossilCars, giving #EV a much better road handling 😊

Some #EV like mine have One Pedal Driving, which makes it possible to drive without touching the brake pedal, unless in an emergency or spirited driving 🤩

Regenerative braking (which puts back energy in the battery 🔋) is soooo nice 😍

The huge majority of #EV only have one gear ⚙️, making accelerations incredibly smooth without any jerk due to gear changes 😊

Traction control in #EV is much better than in a #FossilCar because the torque can be precisely monitored and adjusted at the wheel 🛞 level without the lag due to transmission ⚙️

Some #EV have multiple motors allowing torque vectoring 🤩

The absence of an internal combustion engine makes it possible to design an #EV from the ground up based on first principles, enhancing safety by a much better crumple zone 💥

Well designed #EV have small components which free space and allow for a bigger passenger cabin as well a bigger storage volume with both a rear trunk and a front trunk 🧳

The electric motor is much more efficient (90%) than the internal combustion engine (30%) therefore needing way less energy to move an #EV

This makes it way cheaper to operate 💸

You can charge your #EV at home on a regular outlet 🔌 and it takes only 10 seconds: 5 seconds to plug it and 5 seconds to unplug it 🏠

#HomeCharging is sooooo convenient, so much better than going to a gas station, and much cheaper 🤩

The number of charging stations 🔌 already far outnumbers gas stations ⛽️ and we are just at the beginning of #EV deployment. New charging stations are popping up every day, meanwhile gas stations are closing every day. The trend is clear 😊

With an #EV you charge while you park 🅿️ and do other things like eating, going to the restrooms, working, buying groceries… ☺️

Since I have #HomeCharging, the huge majority of my charging is done while I sleep 😴

And during road trips the car is ready before we are 😊

My car is always on. I can remotely put the heating or air conditioning on so that it’s at the desired temperature when I get in it 🥵🥶😊

I have Sentry Mode 🎥, a system that monitors my car’s surroundings 24/7 and records a video if someone gets close to it. This would not be possible with a #FossilCar as it would need to get energy from its running engine to do that 🚗⛽️💨⚡️

As long as there is electricity ⚡️ in my area I can charge my car. I do not depend on a long and complex supply chain (prone to disruptions or strikes) to provide me with petrol ⛽️

Also if there is no electricity ⚡️ in my area, gas pumps ⛽️ would stop working anyway 😆

I do not carry tens of liters of toxic inflammable liquid that can catch fire 🔥 when filling up at a gas ⛽️ station or when in a crash 💥

It’s much more precise to monitor the amount of energy left in the battery 🪫 than the quantity of fuel left in a fossil tank ☺️

I have ran out of fuel once in a #FossilCar and that never happened to me in an #EV. And I have gone quite a few times down to 0% 🪫 on purpose 🤪

Maintenance costs are much lower since there are just a few moving parts in an #EV compared to thousands in internal combustion engines (and they don’t have to sustain thousands of explosions per minute 💥)

My #EV even doesn’t have any mandatory scheduled maintenance 😊

#EV batteries 🔋 can last at least 500,000 km (ie almost 50 years of driving the average driving distance) with some newer models able to sustain over a million km 😀

Heavy users (taxis…) gain the most to switch to #EV, especially with cheap operating costs 😊

When waiting inside my car I can leave the heating or air conditioning on without having to run an engine and spewing toxic gases ☺️

Also, I can leave it on to keep an animal 🐶🐱 comfortable while running errands 😊

#DogMode

Lots of cities now ban or plan to ban most if not all #FossilCars from bigger & bigger areas due to air pollution concerns 😊

Driving an #EV allows me to be able to access these zones ☺️

When driving on hilly or mountainous roads, my #EV barely consumes more energy than on a flat surface, as the extra energy used to go up is regenerated on the way down 🏔️

No need to touch the brakes and no worrying about failing brakes downhill 🤩

I had forgotten to mention that one as it was too obvious but #EV have automatic gear ⚙️ boxes of the simplest form: most only have one gear and no clutch therefore no clutch pedal. This way there is no risk of stalling and driving is much more enjoyable, especially in cities 🤩

Due to the absence of tailpipe emissions you can drive an #EV indoors without restriction. This will be interesting especially in the case of delivery vans 🚚 and trucks 🚛

@Tesla has in particular a covered road inside their #GigaFactory Texas 😊

Also way cheaper tunnels ☺️

There are many free chargers 🔌 which provide electricity ⚡️ gratuitously as a mean to entice people to come there. It can be provided by hotels, restaurants, stores, recreation parks, castles, museums, airports… They want your business and give you a free charge for that 😊

In some cities like mine (@Bordeaux), it’s cheaper to charge & park (parking fee included in the charging fee) than just pay the regular parking fee ☺️

In some cities or countries, #EV are exempted from some charges paid by #FossilCars (for instance air pollution charge in London 🇬🇧) or pay cheaper at tolls, on ferries ⛴️…

This is an incentive for early adopters, it won’t stay long term but still nice to have for now 😊

When #EV charging is done right, with #PlugAndCharge or #AutoCharge, for instance at @Tesla Superchargers or @Fastned chargers 🔌, the user experience is vastly superior to a gas ⛽️ station. You just park, plug & be on your way to do something else. No need to wait by the car 😊

In most other cases, it’s just slightly less convenient as you have to swipe an RFID card, a credit card 💳 or use an app 📱

Still similar to a gas ⛽️ pump but getting better with time. #PlugAndCharge is on its way to be more widely accepted by charging networks 😊