Why a twenty percent drop in maximum mileage per charge for my Mustang Mach e GT? 

Cold weather? Geez, my car’s 250 to 270-mile range is now about 215. The weather in Fullerton, CA, has been colder the last month or so, sometimes in the low 40s in the mornings.

Can you imagine living in California Gold country where temperatures drop below freezing, or below zero, or…?

Electric Vehicles suck on mileage range. Ok for around town where I am close to home—my GT charges at a rate of about 25 miles per hour when connected to my home charger.  I charge to 90% as recommended by Ford. When my battery has about 100 miles range left, I will charge it overnight—set to start at 9 pm so I don’t overextend Edison’s ability to provide electricity to its customers.

Geez, we were even told by our good governor not to charge EVs between 4 and 9 pm last summer. California can’t provide enough electricity now. What happens in 10 years when we must only drive EVs?

They are wonderful as second cars for well-to-do urbanites who just need to go from here to there in a predictable way and no further. So if you own one, fine, but you need a gas car on hand just in case.

It is unclear whether and to what extent EVs contribute to reducing the carbon footprint. Electricity, after all, is still mainly a product of fossil fuels.  Again, temperature matters: coal burns when the wind turbines freeze and the sun doesn’t shine. And manufacturing and disposal of EV batteries require extensive energy use, which some calculations suggest exceeds that of gasoline-powered cars.

A conundrum, indeed.