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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

#211

Post by PhantomGremlin »

gambiting wrote: post #183
carcostthrow wrote: post #85

>And everyone should stop driving fossil vehicles starting now. [...] There’s no excuse not to. Isn't there? Right now for me to own a Ford Mach E, a Tesla Model 3 or a RAV4 Prime is $3400 to $3700 per year for comprehensive insurance, $1400 a year for liability only. My SUV right now costs $1100 a year to insure comprehensive, but even a 2021 Acura NSX or Jaguar F-Pace is only $1400 for the same level of insurance t…

>>$3700 per year for comprehensive insurance, Bit of an aside - how is American insurance so stupidly expensive. Here in UK I have a brand new Volvo XC60 PHEV, £60k, 400bhp car, in one of the highest insurance groups(like group 45 out of 50), I'm 30 years old and my fully comprehensive insurance is £400 a year. That's including 20 million liability limit, legal cover, courtesy vehicle, key cover.....etc etc. Yeah whe…

That's including 20 million liability limit

This is the most noticeable difference between US and UK.

Cars here generally have perhaps $300,000 liability, perhaps $500,000. I have $1,000,000 but larger number is covered by an additional "umbrella" policy that includes liability for multiple cars and also my house.

I imagine there are much greater limits for the likes of Bill Gates. But not commonly for the ordinary 99%. Also, despite auto insurance being legally required, probably 10% or 20% don't have it. They don't care, they have no assets, so they're "judgement proof". There are never any serious criminal consequences for this.

Ordinary people can protect themselves against uninsured drivers by adding additional coverage for that to their own insurance policy. In effect, if you have an accident with an uninsured driver, your own policy pays out whatever liability that driver would owe you. This added coverage is not all that expensive.

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

#212

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

carcostthrow wrote: post #167
NotSammyHagar wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

120v over night will add about 45 miles of range to your typical tesla. Most people drive less than 20 miles a day, so you always start out with a full tank. When I go skiing, I drive 120 miles, so I come back with a lot of range depleted, but it charges up the next few days. On the rare occasions over the past 8 years when I needed to go a long distance, I just use the super charger in my town, although once I went…

The main issue is that it's a single 120V circuit for everything in the garage, including the garage door opener. Assuming you open the garage door (say with a remote garage door opener) while the car is charging, it will trip the breaker in the basement. IIRC your average garage door opening motor uses 500W to 700W while in operation. So at the least I need to install a second circuit. But the cost of installation i…

> it will trip the breaker in the basement

Will it? It’d depend on the breaker and load rating of the wire run to the garage.

I can draw 6kw from one 240v, breaker, so about 25 amps, for a few minutes before it trips from thermal overload.

I load tested a new outlet that was wired on the same circuit, with five devices plugged in, kettle, pressure cooker, slow cooker, fan heater, and hair drier for good measure.

The breaker should trip before the wire is damaged, it did.

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

#213

Post by YarickR2 »

jacquesm wrote: post #161
linsomniac wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different people react differently to long car trips. I can drive the 1,800 miles to my wife's family in one shot, especially given time to nap while charging and the driver automation taking up the slack for being tired. I can then have a normal nights sleep and be fine. My wife, on the other hand, being a passenger for such a trip, she arrives and then is wasted for 2 days. But if you really want to be miserable on…

You probably are a danger to others on the road, yourself and your family. More than 8 hours behind the wheel in a single day is irresponsible.

Key word here is "probably'. I made multiple 16 hour almost non stop trips through Europe, and it's fine for me. LA to San Jose and back in one day, with useful activity in SJ (working in the data center servicing our colo hardware) is almost a monthly routine now, without the need to book a hotel overnight

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

#214

Post by chrisseaton »

watt wrote: post #194
chrisseaton wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having no oil changes adds up in savings. You probably don’t need to change your oil as often as you are, if it’s registering as an expense at all. Check what the manufacturer actually says - for example my manufacturer says don’t bother changing for two years. Lots of Americans driving the exact same cars change their oil every three months for no reason.

Actually this is exactly about expenses you are not consciously "registering", but they are real, and they add up. A daily coffee is not "registering" as well, but it's massive amount of money if you consider how much you spent in a year.

> but they are real, and they add up

But that was the point - the requirement to change your oil that often is not real, and so it does not add up.

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

#215

Post by _ph_ »

PhantomGremlin wrote: post #211
gambiting wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>$3700 per year for comprehensive insurance, Bit of an aside - how is American insurance so stupidly expensive. Here in UK I have a brand new Volvo XC60 PHEV, £60k, 400bhp car, in one of the highest insurance groups(like group 45 out of 50), I'm 30 years old and my fully comprehensive insurance is £400 a year. That's including 20 million liability limit, legal cover, courtesy vehicle, key cover.....etc etc. Yeah whe…

That's including 20 million liability limit This is the most noticeable difference between US and UK. Cars here generally have perhaps $300,000 liability, perhaps $500,000. I have $1,000,000 but larger number is covered by an additional "umbrella" policy that includes liability for multiple cars and also my house. I imagine there are much greater limits for the likes of Bill Gates. But not commonly for the ordinary 9…

Here in Germany, liability limits are usually much higher. 100 million isn't unheard of. The reason certainly is partly advertising, but also because some freak accidents have caused these amounts of costs. A few millions are not uncommon for bad accidents where for example semis with delicate load are involved.

The most severe damage caused so far in a single car accident in Germany is about 30 Million €: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiehltal_bridge

Fortunately, they were finally able to repair the bridge and didn't have to completely rebuild it, which would have been vastly more expensive.

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

#216

Post by _ph_ »

the_biot wrote: post #177
carcostthrow wrote: post #85

>And everyone should stop driving fossil vehicles starting now. [...] There’s no excuse not to. Isn't there? Right now for me to own a Ford Mach E, a Tesla Model 3 or a RAV4 Prime is $3400 to $3700 per year for comprehensive insurance, $1400 a year for liability only. My SUV right now costs $1100 a year to insure comprehensive, but even a 2021 Acura NSX or Jaguar F-Pace is only $1400 for the same level of insurance t…

You're forgetting the initial layout -- that's a car starting at $70000. Who the hell pays that for a car, when half that gets you a car just as nice but running on gasoline? I haven't bought a new car in ages, but my limit was, and remains, €30k. As long as electric cars cost double what comparable fossil fuel cars cost, with half the range, I don't see any electric revolution happening.

But that isn't the case. The Jaguar in the article is undoubtedly expensive, but a Tesla Model 3 currently starts in Germany at €35k. Basically the same price as comparable ICE vehicles. And that is not even counting in the savings on operating the car.

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

#217

Post by _ph_ »

dylan604 wrote: post #106
alvah wrote: post #105

"In this context, there’s another number there that I think is really interesting: The “km/c-h”, how far you can get on an hour’s charge. For this particular car on this selection of chargers, it was over 200km (124 miles) per charge-hour. I think that’s enough? Maybe in the lower regions of enough, but there." So at 110km/h, less than 2 hours of driving for every hour spent charging? In what world is that close to "…

Exactly right. EVs are perfect for day-to-day commutes and what not where it's drive a distance, let it sit for several hours (while at work or at home at night), lather-rinse-repeat. Long distance continuous driving would be brutal with an hour pitstop every couple of hours.

But you don't need an hour pitstop. Teslas usually stop for 20-30 minutes. The new Ioniq 5 even claims 18 minutes to go to 80% charge.

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

#218

Post by _ph_ »

jacquesm wrote: post #148

> And everyone should stop driving fossil vehicles starting now Except of course there aren't nearly enough electric vehicles to make this a possibility, and if they did the grid capacity wouldn't be there.

It varies from country to country. If your grid is at the brink of collapse, it might be a challenge.

Here in Germany, even changing all cars to electric would increase the total electricity consumption by less than 20%, not counting in the elektricity savings by no longer providing gasoline. This would probably doable by todays grid and the transition to electric cars will take 15 years even in the best circumstances, just by comparing the 45 million cars owned with the 3 million cars sold every year. Enough time to do adjustments to the grid where needed.

One also needs to consider how much electric cars can be beneficial for the grid. With charging of parked cars remotely controlled, they can help with stabilizing the grid.

An electric car in Germany uses about 8kWh/day - that is probably less that the AC unit now use in Greece. And if Greece doesn't have ample solar yet, it would be about time to change that urgently.

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

#219

Post by frosted-flakes »

ecpottinger wrote: post #124
throwawayboise wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most recent long drive was 725 miles in a gasoline-fueled Volkswagen. Took about 12 hours with one 10 minute fuel stop.

So what you are saying, you could do the 2000 mile trip in 33 hours! Of-course, that assumes you do not sleep for the entire trip, don't take bathroom breaks or stops for food. I think I rather do the 2000 miles in a BEV and take some breaks in the driving.

With multiple drivers, sure, why not drive non-stop? My brother and his family drove across Canada a year or two ago to visit family; with kids, flying would have been exorbitantly expensive ($1000 per person) and he only had so much time off of work, so him and his wife made the 4000 km trip in less than 40 hours. And the same on the way back.

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

#220

Post by _ph_ »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #21

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…

It would probably not be a great idea to destroy a perfectly fine ICE, though even that can in some cases be a win, if you drive very high mileage.

But that isn't the point. We should stop buying new ICE vehicles as soon as possible. So instead of buying a new ICE vehicle, which might be on the roads for another 10-15 years, rather drive your existing one a bit longer and then switch to an electric vehicle. Currently the manufacturing capacity wouldn't be high enough to go to 100% electric vehicles for new cars anyway.

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