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I’m ready to trade in my electric car

latimes.com

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Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#71

Post by iknowstuff »

alistairSH wrote: post #56
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As great as electric is, an extra hour in the car on a road-trip with 3 kids is a tough sell. If you’re doing road trips frequently and you absolutely cannot find a charging station that coincides with a lunch break spot and you cannot afford a single extra hour, then sure, this seems like a reason to wait for things to improve. But I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard this argument from people who are more…

A very specific example… I live outside DC. I like to visit Canaan Valley WV to go camping. There is no charge infrastructure anywhere nearby. So, it’s a 2 hour detour on the return leg to recharge on what is normally a 2.5-3 hour trip (each direction). But, from my house, that’s about the only trip I’ve found like this. Any of the beaches are reachable. Most cities within a day or two Drive are reachable.

The Model 3 can travel that distance without charging. There is also a supercharger right in the middle.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=9daba0ea-ad2e-449...

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#72

Post by cronix »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #20

America seems really bad at basic infrastructure things. They're in some weird kind of panglossian mindset where, if it's not working in the USA then that proves that it is in fact literally impossible. So rather than sort themselves out and install some more plugs, they just shrug and give up. I imagine a Chinese General pointing to this article and saying "see, their army will topple like Russia's in Ukraine did, i…

Yeah, we did things like standardize the size of a gas nozzle so they're universal in all cars and trucks (and lawnmowers, and...) regardless of make/model or brand of gas. Then we just allowed anyone who wants to make an electric to have a proprietary system.

It's a standards problem, not infrastructure, per se.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#74

Post by TheCondor »

oh_sigh wrote: post #44
shireboy wrote: post #18

This to me is still the weak link. It’s not just chargers, it’s 30+ minute charge time. As great as electric is, an extra hour in the car on a road-trip with 3 kids is a tough sell. More chargers would help but it’s really battery tech and charge times that need a few more innovations before I’d consider for a car I might take a road trip in.

I have family in SLC and live in Denver(520 miles), so I've done that road trip probably a dozen times in an ICE and EV, so I'm speaking from experience. 30+ mins at a supercharger doesn't need to be a thing. You get the fastest charging 0-50%, which takes about 15 mins, so that is like 180 miles range, or about 2.5 hours in the car. So you can get about 700 miles with 2 15 minute stops, assuming you do 300 miles on…

What route do you take to SLC? 70? or 80?

Last summer we drove the i80 route on our way to Oregon and after Laramie (which I suspect has some super chargers) it looks like a wasteland until Rocksprings and I have no idea if they have them there either. On the southern route, after Grand Junkyard (which I imagine has super chargers) it looks like quite a spell before more. We go play in Moab periodically and it's pretty sparse out there. The distances seem manageable but if you mismanage things a little bit, you could have some trouble. I think I'd top off in Laramie and then probably think about it in Rocksprings, I assume they have chargers there. Even with an ICE out there, there are some pretty long distances between stops, seems like every time our range got below 100miles we were starting to get serious about planning a stop.

FWIW Southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon might have been worse. I think there were more people and it looked like more help if you were to have an issue but it might be farther between realistic charging stations. It's coming, it'll get there and most people aren't road tripping that much but it's still a factor.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#75

Post by indymike »

I just spent a week with a Chevy Bolt while one of our family cars was in the shop. The good: nice small car, everything is pretty easy to use. The meh: without hardware installed in my home, keeping the car charged up for regular family use is problematic. Sometimes there is just not 2 hours to swing by a charging station, and so we spent most of the week with the Bolt showing under 40 miles in range. The bad: hitting the charging station for 70 miles in range costing $13 (this was consistently the deal for the week). My Subaru Crosstrek has a lifetime average of 27Mpg, so at $3.80 per gallon of gas, the cost to get the same range would have been $9.86. I was pretty surprised that it was 25% more expensive to charge the Bolt. Note: I was charging between 4pm-6pm, and my understanding is charging rates are lower in the evening... but, apples to apples, the Bolt was more expensive to fuel.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#76

Post by comte7092 »

iknowstuff wrote: post #65
borski wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had zero issues charging either my Lucid Air or my Ioniq 5.

Happy for you, but your experience is not the norm. https://twitter.com/RateYourCharge

The norm is honestly that over 90% of the time, there are no issues.

The thing is, when there is an issue, it’s at minimum a huge pain in the ass, and a complete nightmare at worst.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#78

Post by jackmott42 »

borski wrote: post #41
cs702 wrote: post #19

At the moment, ONLY Tesla has decent supercharging (i.e., fast-charging) infrastructure in the US: https://www.tesla.com/findus I regularly go on ~300-mile drives that need only a single charging stop, lasting 15-20 minutes, on my Tesla EV. By the time I've gone to the bathroom and gotten a drink, the supercharger has added 100-150+ miles of range and the EV is ready to go. All the stalls always work. No other EV bra…

I’ve had zero issues charging either my Lucid Air or my Ioniq 5.

if you aren't doing road trips much you won't. When you don't do road trips you don't need any infrastructure at all except your own house

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#79

Post by iknowstuff »

jmclnx wrote: post #15

This is the chicken and egg issue. No one will build and/or maintain chargers unless there are lots of EVs. No one will buy EVs unless charging stations are easy to find/use. I do not know why the US Gov did not choose to subsidize existing Gas Stations to build these. Instead they are putting these in places that are close to impossible to find. I have said this before, until charging is as convenient and fast as ge…

Charging is more convenient than going to a gas station to get gas. 90% of charging happens at home.

Re: I’m ready to trade in my electric car

#80

Post by iknowstuff »

linguae wrote: post #48
MilnerRoute wrote: post #4

Specifically, the author's worried there aren't enough charging stations to travel all around the state of California. I know there's efforts to build more charging stations, so that may improve somewhat. But my question is how do you charge an electric car if you live in a small apartment building? If we're all going to drive electric cars in the future, we're going to need viable ways for everybody to charge them.

Indeed. I ultimately ended up purchasing a Toyota Mirai (a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle) for this reason; my apartment has no charging units and my landlord has no plans to install them. There is public charging about an eight minute walk away from me, however, which I did consider when evaluating my car purchase options last summer.

Wow a Mirai owner in the wild. Hydrogen cars are hilarious! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5lUkOHnjLsM
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