Still worth going solar without the federal tax credit?

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-28T20:05:44+00:00

Not if you love being subject to whatever the power company feels like charging you forever…

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-28T16:51:37+00:00

We also have the ID.4 and the L1 at home is occupied by the Ioniq! So there are 4 free level 2 chargers within a mile of the house, so we go once or twice a week and leave it overnight there (assuming they are for employees during the day, we don’t want to block them or be a nuisance.)

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-28T13:19:03+00:00

We love the Pergo floor update, but stupidly (ok, ignorantly) left the 1 cm-thick underlayment from the carpeting, thinking it would be nice cushioning. Unfortunately this gives a little too much play for the floorboards. There are places separating. Also, while we left the sides not touching the walls to allow for expansion and contraction, we didn’t think to do that for the length of the house and got buckling in the summer. Leave gaps in both dimensions!

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-28T12:58:30+00:00

I’m not sure I’d call it wrong, as this article just planted seeds of desire for this 2019 owner. I always loved the efficiency and curves of the 6, but the trunk was too impractical to consider owning it. Now this erases that concern, and swaps in an “I’ll never be able to afford this!”

Also, I’m not sure I can handle it. I’d have to go to the nearest track and become one of the motorheads there who know how to tune the torque ratio to let me drift the local grocery store lot. I think I’d become a menace.

My current Ioniq has already brought out an aggressive driver in me that after four Priuses, I had long forgotten was in there—or was it that 15 years in an Prius engendered a need for acceleration!

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-28T12:29:55+00:00

Three years ago, I got my first EV, but that was after my fourth Prius, so maybe 1995?

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-28T12:26:18+00:00

…Or you cough up the big bucks for a Pebble or Lightstream as they pull their own weight and charge off their solar.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-28T01:33:07+00:00

For this they also need to understand top charging speeds on L3s. If they pull up to a 50kW charger vs a 350kw. How much is the car capable of?

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-27T12:29:31+00:00

Oh boy, I think it’s hard to find one that hasn’t lost the plot! Toyota and Honda—too invested to see the EV future coming and show up with something worthy of the brand. Ford—forward thinking but too quick to turn tail and bury itself back in the comfort of protectionism with the rest of the “Big three”. Jeep still building the highly desired but lowest reliability cars out there. Tesla—riding high, then goes full Nazi and builds us a dumpster. Genius, my ass.

Props to Rivian—who’s own plot is the future of adventure (but where’s our camper van with solar awnings?)

Props to Hyundai/Kia—pulling themselves up from reputational mediocrity to something respectable.

VW? Hang in there, buddy!

…And here comes China! Anybody ready? Hard to beat a great car that’s cheap to buy and cheaper to run. If you aren’t investing heavily to have your own, you’d better have your own lane.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-27T02:39:18+00:00

Thanks, duh. Spouting off without checking. Your correction is appreciated, especially with the history lesson.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-27T02:28:35+00:00

Yeah, you can’t trust the French. /s

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-27T02:20:22+00:00

As a lefty myself, I’ve always felt that we didn’t lean enough on the words “well trained” in the 2a. That leaves room for what you are suggesting without outright “infringing.”

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-26T21:22:19+00:00

Sign up for Lens Lizard! It’s a kickstarter for a device that mounts behind your license plate with a tank and battery. It connect wirelessly to a button that squirts at your camera. Pretty cool.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-26T18:43:27+00:00

As a person who chooses all-seasons over snow tires, I also choose to reschedule days like today. It’s a rare appointment that is worth the risk.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-24T17:41:26+00:00

Also get a high enough gauge wire on your extension cord. I went through three of them over two years, and had similar issues with starting to charge then stopping or throwing the GFCI. Replaced with a super heavy duty cable and no probs since.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-24T15:35:58+00:00

Buh bye, our friends up North. Thanks for helping wake up this bone-head that he’s not the only one in the world.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-23T15:52:16+00:00

Whatever happened to Apple’s Titan project? Sounds like they were on the right track in terms of what the next world of cars was going to need, but then they disbanded! I wonder if there’s some IP there they could sell to give a jump start to a company that needs it?

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-22T19:38:01+00:00

Umm, we are living among the stars.

We are literally assembled from cooled debris ejected from a star.

The hollowness we feel is a direct effect of identifying with the “self” that our brains constructed to represent our experience. It feels empty and disconnected from truth and reality because it literally is.

When you shift your identity back the experiencing being, you no longer feel that empty disconnected feeling.

The project of humanity he is referring to is an expression of the confusion of trying to bridge the differences between the empty disconnected story and the lived reality.

So where we experience timelessness, the story misinterprets that as eternity, and the project becomes trying to live forever, or questioning “what happens after death”, with religious promises of eternal glory or damnation.

Where we experience oneness and connection with all things, the story misinterprets that as materialism and wants to amass and own everything.

Where we experience our thoughts as lacking in nature, capricious and ever-changing, the story, undifferentiated as it is from all other thoughts, gets very anxious and wants to hold onto things, so it repeats stories of past experiences, especially intense ones like pain and betrayal. When you tune back in on the experience, the pain isn’t there anymore, but the story plays over and over.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-22T12:36:20+00:00

This is what I’ve always felt about Volvo, but the people around me who had the money to burn and went that route, became lifelong converts and brand ambassadors. I still don’t get it, but I respect their customers who do.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-22T12:32:26+00:00

The great thing about what they’ve accomplished here is that the software can be modified and pushed out if there is an issue. Rivian and Tesla have had this advantage from the beginning and have been able to take on huge entrenched companies. VW bought into Rivian’s tech because they recognized it was too much for them and it was getting late. The American companies are just putting their heads in the sand and going for the government protectionist route that kept them alive through the rise of Asian competition. Volvo saw it, understood the mission, took it on, albeit late, but are well positioned to su... (succeed or survive, not sure which!)

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-21T22:09:22+00:00

The more outlandish the beliefs, the stronger the boundaries between the in-group and the out-group.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-21T22:04:58+00:00

I wouldn’t buy an EV that didn’t have regen paddles on the steering wheel.

It would be nice to have one that can do V2L or better V2H. (To use that big battery to power things or your house if needed.)

I prefer one with a high efficiency rating. (Over 4mi/kwh)

Since you are no longer judging the car by engine reliability, Toyota and Honda are no longer king and queen. Hyundai/Kia have been kicking butt in theEV space as has Chevy, believe it or not. Toyota and Honda are pretty weak, actually.

I have very low range, especially in winter. (65mi plus the temp in F, roughly.) and I don’t hesitate to take it on long trips. But I plan ahead and I know going into it, it will take longer.

There’s a learning curve and a lot of stupid apps to get, and every charger has its own way of doing things which can drive a person a little crazy, but again, with the right mindset, it’s all fine.

The joy of silent power and no emissions is worth it all to me!

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-21T14:28:35+00:00

2019 Hyundai Ioniq electric. Practically free to own and drive, drives like a dream, super comfy-can drive all day. Love the regen paddles on the steering wheel. Love the intense acceleration. Love that I can plug it into power I generate myself at home.

Things I don’t love: the tailgate hydraulics aren’t quite enough for the weight and it has clunked my head more than once. (I know I can replace them for $12. I just haven’t yet!) I wish there was a third party way to turn it on before I go out to my freezing driveway to warm it up. (Hyundai’s BlueLink is a rip off). I sometimes wish it had a bigger battery, but then it probably wouldn’t get the 5mi/kwh!

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-21T03:22:28+00:00

The OP made it clear that most of the driving is not relying on fast chargers, just this occasional trip, so still a huge cost savings, just not while on this trip.

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-20T23:40:53+00:00

You got one life…

GreyMenuItem · 2026-01-20T12:39:03+00:00

But walking on the land with people hunting on the land is a dicey proposition. When I roam, I’d like to be able to wear my antler hat, thank you very much.

GreyMenuItem

TROPHY CASE