Me and the brood lived in MD and I worked in DC. My CA-born wife loves the east coast but New England even more so we always knew we’d retire up there. Last daughter looked at schools in the northeast and settled on one in VT. Looked at the cost delta between in-state and out-of-state tuition and stupidly muttered, “you could buy a house for that difference”. Wife was on the phone with realtors the next day. Bought a small place up there to establish residency and started spending some time up there. Lightly started spending long weekends up there and flying to DC Monday mornings and back to VT Thursday or Friday evenings for the weekend. When the pandemic hit, full-time VT made sense in many ways. As we came out of the pandemic, I’ve started going back to DC about half time. Staying at the house in MD with one of the daughters during the week and in VT with wife and other daughter on weekends or when teleworking up here for the week, depending on my travel or specific work schedule.
Fun fact: If I leave the house in Montgomery County MD at 6am, I get to work to DC in 42 minutes. If I leave at 6:15am, it takes 1h15m on average. If I leave at 6:30am, it can take 2 hours, door-to-door. When I fly to DC taking the 6am “bernie special”, it takes 1h45m door-to-door. So, faster than a bad traffic day in the Maryland suburbs of DC.
And, 5 northeast states are VERY different than 5 western states. Flight time is 48 minutes. Drive time is 8.5 hours.
One of the reasons I am looking to buy an EV is that I do so few miles that I will be keeping it for a verrrrry long time. That’s why I am so detailed about the tech involved, as I’m going to be stuck with it (and it’s in my nerdly nature anyway). The potentially longer life-expectancy of an EV just exacerbates this decision. Especially charging hardware; because if you’re trying to sell on an EV limited to 150 watts when everything can pull 300+ watts, you’re going to be sucking wind.
I’m going to be forced into a decision in late 2023, so that I can order something for delivery in early 2024, but I am not averse to an earlier switch if possible. I would be a very happy bunny if Audi took up the Gotion battery tech and made me an A5.
FWIW, I have seen reports that Lithium batteries only degrade by about 10% over 10 years (or 200,000 miles), so you’re only really looking at a very slow, incremental range reduction over that time. The battery pack should still be able to put out full power, so you’ll have “day one” performance levels, just with fractionally less real world range.
I was on a site visit in New England once. We took a wrong turn and went through 3 states to get back on track. Added about 5 minutes to the journey time.
Battery tech is improving on a daily basis. In addition to things like Gotion’s new tech (above), CATL (IIRC) is expected to have improved the energy density of LFP batteries such that they are equal to Li batteries by the end of the year. The advantage with LFP batteries is that they use no precious metals in their construction (cheaper and cruelty free) and they can be charged/discharged fully - 0% to 100% to 0% - without damaging the cells. That can be used either as a 25% everyday range bump, or installing 20% fewer batteries to save cost and weight.
As the tech improves, the demand will increase. Already - according to recent polls - over 50% new car buyers are looking at EVs. I think the EV revolution is going to overwhelm car makers for the next few years.
Just out of curiosity (since I’ve never had to deal with the issue) what exactly determines eligibility for in state versus out of state tuition purposes? I know for homestead exemption purposes some states won’t allow you to claim that on a second home if either you or your spouse claim such an exemption on a house located in another state. And that’s even if you and your spouse actually reside in separate locations.
Residency for admission and tuition purposes at a public college or university in Texas is different from residency for voting or taxing purposes. To qualify as a Texas resident, an individual must 1) reside in Texas for one year prior to enrollment and 2) establish a domicile in Texas prior to enrollment.
When I was in school, in-state tuition was $4/hr, out-of-state was a whopping $8/hour. I knew people who stayed out a year to establish residency to save that difference. After all, that’s a savings of $120 a year, almost $500 for your undergraduate degree.
It’s (vastly) different in each state so you have to do your research. VT was one of the most lax. Own or rent property for a year and be able to produce 3 or more of the following: drivers license, vehicle registration, utilities bill, local bank account, tax bill with local address (Fed, State or Local) and other things like that. We opened a bank account, tied to the mortgage for the place we bought up here, registered one of the beater cars we have for the girls up here, got local insurance on it and the house and made sure to sign up for local utilities. They saw the pile of info and gave us the green light. That said, this is also the same state that allowed me to register said beater car in my name with a title and registration from another state, another name (MIL) with a handwritten “letter” from the MIL saying she was giving us the car. I was incredulous.
Tesla is now headquartered in Texas, but I believe Texas residents still have to buy and take delivery of Teslas out of state, and then re-register them in Texas once they are “imported”. Apparently, Elon’s sway with Texas lawmakers is less than that of auto dealers.
Meanwhile, Ford got a huge black eye over early deliveries of F-150 Lightnings, where dealerships were extorting huge premiums over list price - that would go straight into their back pockets - from customers who had pre-ordered the vehicle for which they were now being gouged. Presumably, the dealership chains told Ford to go fuck itself because now Ford is saying “you first, pal.”
Given that Ford is selling all its EVs direct online, and within a decade or so they will be selling only EVs, I think the fate of dealerships was just sealed with this announcement. Way to fuck yourself out of existence for a quick buck!
The state only allows cars to be sold through independent dealers. Tesla only sells direct to the consumer. Hence the hoop-jumping required to buy one here.
You have to “take delivery” of it in another state where it will be registered, have it shipped to Texas and then go to your local courthouse to re-register it. I don’t know how much of this is taken care of for you, but it has to add to the cost/hassle of buying one.
I mean, it would actually be fun to be able to pick up a Model Y hot off the production line in Austin, but Abbott et al’s pockets are stuffed full of dealership campaign contributions.