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Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

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Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#51
post #2

> And everyone should stop driving fossil vehicles starting now. [...] There’s no excuse not to. I have my doubts that everyone can switch over to a (prices starting at) $70,000 electric car like the author can.

I just splurged and bought a very used Prius for $3,400, when my $400 car was stolen. I can't afford an EV. Many oriole can't. That dictate just ensures fewer people will be able to afford a car. Which might work with decent public transport.

Median new car in the US is over 38k, give it time and plenty of cheap EV’s will be around. Standard Range+ Model 3: $39k. 2021 base model Nissan Leaf: $32.6k.

Considering even with a Prius most people would still be paying ~1,000$/year on gas, old EV’s will likely be more affordable.

Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#52

Also, charging by the minute seems wrong .... a Porsche Taycan is going to get a whole lot more range out of each minute than a five-year-old Nissan Leaf, so why should they pay less for the same amount of range? Hmmmm. Bear in mind that at home with the Level 2 charger in the carport, charging feels close to free. You are primarily paying rent to take up a charging spot vs. buying electricity. If it took some vehicl…

Yeah, I own an EV with piss poor fast charge rates so it pains me to say this, but charging per minute is probably the right move. It certainly feels like the bottleneck right now is charger availability, not amount of electricity available. We should be incentivizing higher charge rates to make the chargers more accessible especially as EV penetration increases.

Nothing more annoying than arriving at a charger on a roadtrip and having to wait 45 minutes just to start your charge because all the spots are full. And don't even get me started on the people who just leave their EV on the charger for hours at a time even after fully charged.

Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#53
post #6

Wait until the author finds out how the batteries are made. EDIT: just to be clear, I am not a "climate change denier"...although always interested to have lots of random people attempt to diagnose me. I worked in equity research, I have seen mountains of reports on this topic: lithium and cobalt production are terrible for the environment (ignoring issues with forced labour and human cost at mines, most people who m…

The rule of thumb I've seen is that electric cars are about 25-75% better than fossil fuelled ones over their lifetimes, depending on energy mix and taking into account battery construction.

So it's hardly nothing - it puts them roughly in the same league as steam trains per passenger-mile.

Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#54
post #44

I did a similar roadtrip back in 2015 (!) in my ex-boss's Tesla Model S: we traveled from Montréal to Atlanta for a weekend conference (JSConf, IIRC). We were driving continuously, switching drivers every time we hit a charger (we were 4 in the car). I think it took us about 24h to do the trip. My main takeaway from the experience is that charging wasn't actually "painful" at all. On the contrary, it was a welcome br…

I thought the reason the Tesla Model S sits 7 is because Elon had 5 kids at the time of the design. Maybe your kids are all too big for those rear-facing seats?

Model X you mean.

There's no way 7 can fit in an S (and be safe!).

Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#55
post #48
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I paid even less for my Bolt and while I think it's a wing dang doodle of a little car, I am not stupid enough to try to take it on a road trip. If I had to move the car any significant distance, I would not even attempt to drive it; I would ship or tow it. I "fast charged" the car exactly once, to test that it worked and familiarize myself with the process. $15 and 90 minutes later, I lost interest in ever doing it…

The public charging tech is improving steadily. You might want to give the Bolt another try at fast-charging. Look for a high-power charger, like 200kW or higher.

The issue is that Bolts are limited to 50kw of charging, even if the charger can offer more power.

Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#56
post #2

> And everyone should stop driving fossil vehicles starting now. [...] There’s no excuse not to. I have my doubts that everyone can switch over to a (prices starting at) $70,000 electric car like the author can.

I just splurged and bought a very used Prius for $3,400, when my $400 car was stolen. I can't afford an EV. Many oriole can't. That dictate just ensures fewer people will be able to afford a car. Which might work with decent public transport.

Mh, but you're on used cars, so you are a cycle or two behind. So yeah, you can't afford a new EV. But let's wait for until there are used EVs.

Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#57
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the reason the Tesla Model S sits 7 is because Elon had 5 kids at the time of the design. Maybe your kids are all too big for those rear-facing seats?

Model X you mean. There's no way 7 can fit in an S (and be safe!).

No, he means Model S. It was an option (that is currently discontinued) that put 'jump seats' where the trunk would be. Not useful for anything except younger kiddos, but could be fine for younger kids.

Sort of like the 7 seater option for the Model Y, yeah it technically exists but it sounds uncomfortable...

See: https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-discontinues-two-colors-rais...

Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#58
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The battery has a life of ~120k miles … This appears to be untrue. High-mileage Teslas are showing about 10% range degradation after ~250kms on the odometer: https://electrek.co/2020/06/06/tesla-battery-degradation-rep... Notably, this isn't about Tesla specifically — the broader point is that the technology exists for mass-market car batteries to support many hundreds of thousands of miles/kms within a reasonable…

Tesla warranty for 100-150k (depending on model). There is so much misinformation about Tesla it is unreal (and not really worth arguing about, just crazy stuff like: Teslas will appreciate in value).

> There is so much misinformation about Tesla it is unreal (and not really worth arguing about, just crazy stuff like: Teslas will appreciate in value).

How is this not real? This is literally something I can observe myself. I bought a new Model 3 LR AWD in 2019, and when I look for used listings for the same model right now, the exact same models from 2019 with about 22-30k mileage on them cost as much as what I paid for the new one 2 years ago.

Sure, you might say it didn't appreciate since it costs just as much. But imo, when a used car with solid mileage 2 years later costs as much as the new one with zero mileage did 2 years ago, I would definitely count it as, at least, "doesn't depreciate in value nearly as much as cars are expected to".

Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#59
post #35
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standard Range+ Model 3: $39k. 2021 Nissan Leaf: $32.6k. These are reasonable numbers. If you're buying a new sedan, electric is the way to go.

Apparently buying a Standard Range+ Model 3 for $39k is next to impossible.

Not sure where you get that. Just buy an SR+ without any options and it's 39.9k on the nose. Tax and fees not withstanding, so it'll be closer to 45k all said and done... but that's the same with any car price, it's pre-TTL pricing that people compare.

Re: Driving 1725km in an electric car in 2 days

#60

From the end of TFA: >And everyone should stop driving fossil vehicles starting now. [ ... ] There’s no excuse not to. Admirable sentiments, but can anyone point definitively to the net gain/loss in CO2 terms of actually ditching a fossil fuel based car and replacing it with a new EV? And how does that look if the FF car is something like a Honda Fit (good mileage, lower than typical emissions)? I'd be willing to dum…

The Honda Fit is 267 grams of CO2 per mile. https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=40076

If you include the upstream costs, that's another 56 grams of CO2 per mile.

The Prius is 158 grams of CO2 per mile and an upstream of 33 grams.

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=42810

For a 3 way compare with the Fit, an Insight and a Prius - https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=42810&...

Select the "Energy and Environment" tab.

Note that the Prius has a function grid sources. https://www.miloslick.com/EnergyLogger_files/State_Electrici... . 1 kWh in Wyoming is 2.278 lbs of C02 while its 0.456 lbs of C02 in Oregon.

Based on https://www.novatotoyota.com/blog/how-many-miles-does-the-20...

> The plug-in hybrid car also has an electric-only range of 25 miles in EV Mode

with an 8.8 kWh battery.

That gets us to 2.84 miles/kWh.

Going back to the lbs/kWh with a US average of 1.363 lbs/kWh that gives 2.84 miles / kWh * 1.363 lbs / kWh which gives us 2.084 miles/lb which is 217 grams per mile... and that's in the ballpark of the Primus value given on fueleconomy.gov

Lets assume that fueleconomy.gov is correct for the US average and use an adjustment of x0.72 to get the value.

Taking this to Wyoming and you've got to increase that number by 1.67x (just using the ratio of US average to Wyoming)

Prius at 158 * 1.67 brings it to 263 grams/mile in Wyoming... which is the same as the Honda Fit.

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