Made the juant from Topeka to Maryland overnight. Filled up before leaving Topeka at $3.79 - which was up a dime from the prior day. Next gas purchase was on I-270 just before crossing ‘Big Muddy’ at $3.99. Crossing Illinois and Indiana and Western Ohio the highway visible advertised prices started at $4.29 and went to $4.99 with one sign advertising $5.05. Saw a sign approaching Springfield advertising the $4.29 and decided to stop there - once I got off the exit I found stations across the street from each other with $3.99 - and I stopped there. The rest of Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania were advertising mostly between $4.29 and $4.59. Made my final gas stop near Hagerstown two local ‘big chains’ one at $4.19 and next door was $4.06 - needless to say who got my business.
Diesel in most cases was in $5.00+ range with a couple advertising $6+.
Railroads, of course, do not deal with this level of fuel marketing, playing the high level ‘futures’ markets as well as various market hedging strategies. While ‘WE’ have no idea of what railroads (or airline, marine and others) in transportation are actually paying at the present time, however, it has to be significantly more than they were two months ago.
I bought a Honda Prologue back in October of 2024 — just for fun, actually. My wife and I primarily drive local errands under 100 miles in a day. Love it!
So at the end of 2025, before the 30% IRS credit expired, I bought 1600 watts of solar panels and 7.2 Kw power inverter and have been charging the Honda with it using the sunshine. If the car is topped off I then charge the golf cart, E-bike or any number of battery power tools. I don’t have the solar connected to the “grid” but if power goes out I can use either of the EcoFlow power stations to supply the house through a manual hookup and transfer switch.
My Chevy pickup was fueled back in January using grocery store ‘Fuel-Perks’ but I drive it so infrequently it still has ¾ of a tank. Bought the truck in 2019 and I have a whopping 12,000 miles on it!
Every ICE vehicle I have owned has done the task. 10-15 minutes for filling one tank and emptying another and back on the road. When I travel, I travel to get to the destination.
The drawback to EV’s, to my kind of use are the slow ‘refueling time’. Even with the various ‘supercharger’ strategies that have been created to date, no EV is getting a ‘full tank’ of working electrical energy in 10 to 15 minutes. I am fully aware that not everyone travels in the manner I do. A little over 1K miles in 16 hours - all through the night - in the hours after midnight one can actually have cruise control engaged for 20 - 30 minute or more periods of time without the requirement of disengaging it to deal with the requirements of other traffic; of course since I worked nights for over 30 years, the dark doesn’t present the fear factor to me that it does to others.
Back in 2014 when I broke my wrist and had to have surgery for its repair (a metal plate and 6 screws inserted) an acquaintance from work offered to assist in getting me to outpatient surgery center and back home after the procedure. He lived about 20 miles from my residence and the outpatient center was another 20 miles beyond my location. The friend had a Chevy Bolt EV, the total round trip would be in the 80-100 range and he expressed concern of making the entire trip. He did make the entire trip, but, to my way of thinking, no one should even have the ‘concern’.
As a automobile racing fan and participant - I have watched sever of Formula E races that are telecast on CBS (I don’t know if they are showing the races live or on tape delay). Somehow the whine of electric motors don’t give the same satisfaction as hearing ICE’s of any displacement or induction type being stressed to its maximum power and torque in competition.
An EV fits your needs. That is great for you! A EV does not fit my needs.
That is a very wise comment. I, too, am glad that charlie_hebdo2’s EV is satisfactory to him. I do have a question–what’s the lowest temperature you’ve ever been out driving in, and how well has it done?
Well obviously. But some are statistical outliers, most, by definition are in the hump. Driving 1000 miles nonstop at any age, let alone an octo, is pretty odd.
As I live in west suburban Chicago, even with global warming the winter has some cold spells though not like 50 years ago, I have driven with temperature in single digits. That isn’t the challenge. But range is ~10% less and recharging takes longer.
Dang! That’s still pretty warm, by my standards. And that is the reason why there are very few EVs around my area, and why I probably won’t be buying one. Also, why I don’t want to buy a diesel–though I’d be more open there, as diesels are at least cheaper to buy outright. But I guess that neither one likes temperatures below -40 degrees, which is not uncommon come wintertime…
But I am most glad that it works for you!
I don’t drive quite as far in a day as Balt does anymore, but when I go on a roadtrip, 5-600 miles in a day is normal. I haven’t had any trouble driving from Michigan to Bennington, VT, even staying on the US side. Going through Canada to Buffalo is about 90 miles shorter, but you have a lower speed limit and customs/immigration can eat up the minutes, depending on the backup.
ND is my home, and -40 degrees isn’t the lowest I’ve seen.
And any advancements in automotive technology take about 10-20 years until they can filter to me–and even then it’s liable to be too expensive.
Where i live in Alberta we usually have a week or two of -40ish temps. But it is quite typical to be in the -20 to -30 range for a few weeks or a month long spell. So one of the problems faced here is not only the reduced battery performance but also the additional use of electricity to heat the interior of the vehicle. That being said most heaters in electric cars are not powerful enough to heat the car to a comfortable level, or may not even be enough to defrost the windows if you have 2 or more occupants in those kinds of temperatures.
I live out in the country a short distance to town so a lot of the running around i do would be less then 100 mile range if i was heading in for groceries ect. But if i were heading to the city for something i would end up having to complete a charge cycle to get home so that doesn’t really work in my world.
Though i have though of perhaps a plug in hybrid.
Gas here is $1.83/L converted to US Ga. and for exchange $4.88 US/Ga.
Airlines disclose their per gallon fuel costs in their SEC reports. I’d be surprised if the RRs do not. I’ll dig once I have a chance. In the meantime you can find prices online at exchanges.
Note these prices are benchmark commodity exchange prices and exclude transportation and wholesaler and retailer markups and taxes. Fuel is actually cheap relative to cost to produce. By benchmark I mean individual refiners and buyers can negotiate a set spread against the benchmark to reflect local prices in their contracts.
Heating oil is essentially diesel fuel without the road taxes. Jet fuel is pretty close to diesel and heating oil.
Norway has the highest percentage of EV cars in the world. It’s probably the coldest country in the world too. Do you worry your electric motor won’t start your gas car in the morning? No. I’ve not had a car fail to start in a Chicago winter since the last century. I don’t even think of it.
