I’ve gone from a 20 year old 4Runner to a 3 year old Pacifica plug-in hybrid and it has changed many of my driving habits.

For my job I have a lot of deliveries in the neighborhoods of hilly San Francisco and I am curious about strategies I should use to increase the efficiency of battery driving and regenerative braking.

After a month of driving I can’t tell yet if I do better staying on flats or using the energy of the hills. And this thing is so damn heavy! 5000 lbs! (2200kg)

I’m finding that I touch the gas pedal far less and lean on the brake pedal far more, especially after realizing using the brakes won’t necessarily wear them down. But what techniques can I use to make sure I am regenerating instead of using the friction brakes?

Any other general advice about making this switch would also be appreciated. Thanks!

I am going to be in the market for a vehicle soon enough. My 2003 car is starting to show its age. Unfortunately my family still requires two cars often enough that I will need to find a replacement.

I have been bouncing the idea around in my head of getting an electric car.

As it stands, my 2003 has not gone over 50 miles in a single day more than a handful of times since we got a hybrid three years ago, and I don't see that changing soon. To me, this seems like an excellent opportunity to get a used electric vehicle that might not be getting the range that it once had. A vehicle that got 150 miles on a charge off the lot that now only gets 75 miles might be a problem for the original buyer but might not be for me.

My question to the users of Tildes - have you bought an "old" (I use this term very loosely) electric car for a similar use case? Are there problems with used electrics that don't have an ICE equivalent? Are you generally happy with the decision?

I subscribe to a YouTube channel called Motorcoach World, which is run by a guy who iworks for a charter company as both a Director of Operations as well as a driver. He's super passionate about busses and has a lot of videos talking about their history and operations.

He's currently trying to do a cross-country trip on a double-decker all-electric bus. The intro video is here, and he's doing most of his daily updates via live stream here.

I've been loosely following along since it's interesting. He's had a lot of issues with charging. Everything from chargers being unaccessible due to use, being down for maintenance/not working, being de-rated to slower speeds, etc. Obviously his issues will be much worse than typical cars due to the needs for a specific charger type and power rating, but I imagine that electric trucks would run into similar issues?

Anyway, thought it was an interesting. He left California about a week ago and as of yesterday, he's made it to Texas.

Why aren’t electric vehicles fitted with an alternator that can charge the battery while one drives; similar to how a gas engines recharge their batteries? With all the advancement in technology it would seem that they have figured it out and won’t implement it to force people to pay for electricity or my own lack of knowledge on the subject.