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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

#151

Post by cs702 »

synaesthesisx wrote: post #93
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…

Agreed. I never have issues predictably charging my Tesla on long trips. Range anxiety is non-existent. The supercharger network is glorious. When I tried to charge my previous EV (a non-Tesla) at public chargers, half they time they didn’t work, or charged at unpredictably slow rates.

> Range anxiety is non-existent. The supercharger network is glorious.

Yes, that's my experience too. I never worry about range.

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

#152

Post by Psychlist »

harshaw wrote: post #143

I have an Ioniq 5 and a PHEV pacifica. I love the ioniq5 and do new england road trips with it for skiing. I only have to hunt for fast charging on these longer trips so it's kind of a fun route planning game. I also love having the minivan to take 6 people anywhere and not worry about charging. I have the luxury of picking the right tool for the job. Not everyone else does. After owning an EV I have come to apprecia…

My expectation is that one combustion car owners have to pay more of the cost of that fuel choice they'll change over. Lots of people already drive 20 minutes to save $10 on a tank full, or queue at the gas station ditto.

What we're really waiting for is second hand EVs in real numbers, or the political decision that small, electric cars are the only ones allowed on most streets. That would dramatically cut the death rates from both pollution and vehicular homicide.

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

#153

Post by lIl-IIIl »

borski wrote: post #128
iknowstuff wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That is not necessarily true. The outliers are widely reported, because successful experiences do not generally cause people to post online about how great their experience was. You’re going to hear about the negative experiences because that is what people commiserate about. It’s human nature.

I wonder if they can combat that by only incorporating the user data once they posted 5 reviews or so.

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

#154

Post by borski »

lIl-IIIl wrote: post #153
borski wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not necessarily true. The outliers are widely reported, because successful experiences do not generally cause people to post online about how great their experience was. You’re going to hear about the negative experiences because that is what people commiserate about. It’s human nature.

I wonder if they can combat that by only incorporating the user data once they posted 5 reviews or so.

That’s a good idea.

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

#155

Post by noogle »

mkozlows wrote: post #121

In 1997, I bought a DVD player, and didn't have a VCR. You couldn't rent DVDs at Blockbuster, or indeed anywhere. Most movies weren't available on DVD, so you could watch only the few that had made it to the format (and had to purchase them for full price, at that). Being a DVD-only owner was limiting and annoying in a bunch of ways, even though the DVD experience was a lot better than the VCR experience. If in 1997,…

So the article seems to be right - wait with EVs until they improve. Why suffer the pains of an early adopter?

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

#156

Post by noogle »

hn_user2 wrote: post #103
jackmott42 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

With most rental cars giving you unlimited miles, I'm very much of the opinion that when you factor in mileage and wear and tear on the car plus vehicle depreciation due to the long miles on the road trip--that renting a car for long trips is the way to go. Especially when compared to owning a second care with an ICE just for the occasional trip.

1. Flexibility. For a rental car you need to plan ahead, pick it up on time and return it on time. Traffic jam delaying you? too bad. You now pay a surcharge.

2. Cost: the rental cost is actually only a small portion of the cost. Extra insurance and other fees end up more than the rent itself.

Your car will depreciate regardless of that road-trip, just by virtue of time passing. Rental companies won't subsidize the wear and tear for you, so you have to pay that anyway.

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

#157

Post by cs702 »

mangosteenjuice wrote: post #108
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…

This was the only reason I got a Tesla instead of literally any other EV brand. I make frequent trips between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Electrify America is now an alternative, but it's not as reliable when it comes to availability and uptime.

> This was the only reason I got a Tesla instead of literally any other EV brand.

It was a key reason for me too. I considered BMW, MB, and Audi EVs, but ruled them out due to horrendous state of non-Tesla charging in the US.

Another reason was software. Tesla's UI has a lot of issues, but it's the only car UI that feels smooth and responsive to me. And now I'm looking forward to this: https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/1362/tesla-update-2023-12-...

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

#158

Post by wcoenen »

TheLoafOfBread wrote: post #97
gumby wrote: post #46

What is the reason for a failing charger? When one fails do all the ones in an installation fail (common failure?) I wonder if the cars could help here: if you plug in and are unable to charge the car could report that à la waze. Though there is a possible false positive if your credit card is declined.

From my experience it is often software incompatibility between charger and a car. I can often see that charging company will charge my debit card for charging credit (20-50EUR) and then charger will refuse to charge my car. Good luck getting those money back, loser.

That's just the "pre-authorization" on your card. It gets released again when you end the charging session, minus the charging cost for the kWh you used. Same thing as gas stations where you use your card before using the fuel pump.

If you didn't end the charging session (e.g. by pressing a button or presenting the same card again), you may have given the next person a free charge?

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

#159

Post by edbaskerville »

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…

Non-Tesla supercharger pilot:

https://www.tesla.com/support/non-tesla-supercharging

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

#160

Post by mkozlows »

noogle wrote: post #155
mkozlows wrote: post #121

In 1997, I bought a DVD player, and didn't have a VCR. You couldn't rent DVDs at Blockbuster, or indeed anywhere. Most movies weren't available on DVD, so you could watch only the few that had made it to the format (and had to purchase them for full price, at that). Being a DVD-only owner was limiting and annoying in a bunch of ways, even though the DVD experience was a lot better than the VCR experience. If in 1997,…

So the article seems to be right - wait with EVs until they improve. Why suffer the pains of an early adopter?

I think it is absolutely true that people who don't want to be early adopters shouldn't be. At the same time: I had no regrets about being a DVD early adopter, because (hot take incoming) DVDs were in fact better than VHS tapes, and not dealing with VHS's badness was really nice, even if it was also annoying in some ways. Similarly, there are going to be people who are happy being EV early adopters because the (very real) wins of EVs outweigh the early adopter annoyances.

"This technology is still relatively new, and if you buy into it, you're going to have some early adopter pains" is a fine message that will help people sort out what they personally want to do, but isn't the same as a blanket "wait until they improve."

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