Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

recurrentauto.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 557 posts

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#361

Post by sbt »

therealrootuser wrote: post #187

As someone that is currently in the market for a new car, I would love to get an EV, but I also don't have a good way to charge. Seems like most EV owners just charge at their house, but what about people that don't have access to a good power tap? (apartment dwellers, renters, etc.) Sometimes it feels like there is a group of EV elites out there that are predicting the complete demise of ICEs while conveniently down…

As an EV owner, I would say you either need access to a commercial charger (e.g. at work) or be able to charge at home. But either of those alternatives would be fine by itself.

I don't charge at home, but do most of my charging in the parking garage at work. This is not a fast charger (~2kW), but is wholly sufficient because I just plug it in in the morning. Alternatively, you could charge at home and not having access to any other charging would also be fine. The home charger doesn't even need to be good, because you can just leave it in overnight and even for a slow charge this will fill up aroun d 200km. The only time I actually use a "supercharger" location is for road trips.

The two most common qualms I hear from prospective EV buyers is range anxiety and time to charge. None of these are real issues for me. A full battery anyway lasts for around 400km, which is either 2 weeks of driving to work for me, or ~4 hours of roadtrip driving. After 4 hours of driving on the highway, I have no problems waiting 20min at a supercharger while I get food. Usually, the charger is actually too fast for me in this case.

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#362

Post by slavik81 »

blahedo wrote: post #272
therealrootuser wrote: post #187

As someone that is currently in the market for a new car, I would love to get an EV, but I also don't have a good way to charge. Seems like most EV owners just charge at their house, but what about people that don't have access to a good power tap? (apartment dwellers, renters, etc.) Sometimes it feels like there is a group of EV elites out there that are predicting the complete demise of ICEs while conveniently down…

Thanks for raising this issue—as you point out, it's often ignored—but I'd posit it's even worse than you (and others on this thread) indicate. When the issue is framed at all, it's usually boiled down to "landlords won't want to install chargers in the apartment garages" with the possible counterpoint of "demand will force them to" or there will be subsidies or etc etc. But there are vast, vast numbers of people who…

The streets in my neighbourhood have plenty of parked vehicles with extension cords running out to them. The cords are there to power block heaters, not to charge EVs. Nevertheless, that would at least be one option for slow charging.

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#363

Post by sandos »

ht_th wrote: post #345
yourusername wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Netherlands bicycle paths are also walking paths when there is no dedicated walking path (which is quite common).

Yes, outside the cities and villages, where the number of pedestrians is low and that of cyclists often not large either. In those situations sharing infrastructure generally isn't an issue. Inside cities and villages, I don't think I've seen roads with a bike path, but without a pedestrian path. Maybe I've seen one in an industrial park or so.

Combined walking- and biking-paths are the norm here in Sweden. Granted maybe we don't have enough big cities for it to be a problem, but Ive never really heard complaints about it. These "roads" are generally fairly wide, so its not really a problem with 4 "lanes": pedestrians and bikes going each direction.

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#364

Post by KptMarchewa »

Gud wrote: post #295
toast0 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a cyclist there isn’t really any good way to reliably avoid startling a pedestrian in a mixed environment. A loud freewheel is probably as close as it gets. I'd guess a loud freehub could work too, but I like my bikes old, so no freehubs. Maybe some sort of jetsons noise generator.

Where do you guys live? Here in Sweden we have a small bell on the steering you ring when you want to pass. https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&channel=iphone_b...

The problem with bells is that people tend to act very unpredictable; you never know whether they freeze or jump left or right.

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#365

Post by danielbln »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #322
Gud wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you guys live? Here in Sweden we have a small bell on the steering you ring when you want to pass. https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&channel=iphone_b...

This sadly has become less useful with the increase in headphone usage by pedestrians.

In that case a loud freewheel wouldn't do much either though.

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#366

Post by adrianN »

anon291 wrote: post #238
sandworm101 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just completed a ~1600km drive back from visiting family. Half way through the outbound trip, in the middle of the mountains, I had to make a 300km detour due to a massive accident (two semi trucks head-on closed a mountain highway for more than a day). The detour was through a valley with no cellphone coverage for 150+km. At a rest stop I met a tesla driver in a panic. Without internet he was unable to figure out…

Europeans don't understand how sparse and unpopulated the United States is . Even if they visit they visit the densely populated areas not realizing that most Americans regularly drive across areas where you may not see anyone for miles around. It's not that uncommon an occurrence. Most Americans will do something like this a few times a year. Many do it daily... Canadians too

Average trip lengths in the US are only slightly longer than in the EU. Americans like to emphasize the vast emptiness of their country, but in reality a large fraction of the trips could even be done on a bicycle. I don't think that the requirement to plop down a couple of fast chargers in remote areas should stop us from replacing almost all fossil fuel cars with EVs (or, better, public transport and bicycles).

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#367

Post by KptMarchewa »

caycep wrote: post #243
endisneigh wrote: post #74

I love EVs. That being said I wish someone would make an enclosed bicycle/motorcycle that costs less than $2000. Something like that which can go 30mph and had space for 2 days of groceries would be enough for me to eliminate my car all together. I'm cobbling something similar now with a Class 3 cargo ebike, but rain sucks =/ The idealist in me says that electric ebikes could eliminate most of Americas problems in on…

that being said, I'm wondering why companies don't double down on the BMW i3 model vs. the tesla X/Y/big SUV model? The i3 is 3000 lbs or less, and when it was discontinued, it had a bigger battery pack, and plenty of range and room for a family. In my mind, it's ideal...and it wasn't like there wasn't a market for it, as demand apparently was growing right up until end of production I otherwise agree that American c…

i3 is one of the vehicles that designers thought end user is a "eco freak" vs "normal person". It's pleasant to drive, but extremely ugly.

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#368

Post by adrianN »

sandworm101 wrote: post #84
ThunderSizzle wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your facts are inconvenient and will probably just be dismissed sadly. EVs need to win by being better without more risk, not by trying to ban people currently using ICEs.

More inconvenient facts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Fort_McMurray_wildfire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E_OLgC4nV0 88,000 people in perhaps 50,000 vehicles all taking the ONE road out of town. Some kind companies setup fuel trucks by the roadside to top up tanks. Gas delivery can be scaled up and even made portable in an emergency. Had those 50,000 vehicles all been EVs, tens of thousands of people would…

Some kind companies can probably also set up generators to top up batteries.

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#369

Post by adrianN »

sandworm101 wrote: post #98
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would anyone here allow their Tesla to discharge when parked, allow it to feed power back into the grid? I absolutely would, in fact it's a major reason I am not getting a Tesla and am instead opting for an EV that emphasizes its vehicle-to-home power capabilities (e.g. F150 Lightning and Lucid). I also know a ton of other Texans who feel the same way I do given our (deserved) lack of faith in our electric grid. Al…

But why involve your car? The logical thing to do is install a large lead-acid battery pack for the house, one which is dirt-cheap and won't suffer being charged/discharged. Lead acid batteries of a capacity equivalent to a Tesla can be had for a few hundred dollars. Lead-acids are also infinitely recyclable and don't involve the nasty/complex chemicals of lithiums. The ideal system would be to slowly charge the mass…

Lithium batteries live longer than lead acid.

Re: EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted

#370

Post by Gibbon1 »

adrianN wrote: post #369
sandworm101 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why involve your car? The logical thing to do is install a large lead-acid battery pack for the house, one which is dirt-cheap and won't suffer being charged/discharged. Lead acid batteries of a capacity equivalent to a Tesla can be had for a few hundred dollars. Lead-acids are also infinitely recyclable and don't involve the nasty/complex chemicals of lithiums. The ideal system would be to slowly charge the mass…

Lithium batteries live longer than lead acid.

My company tried designing a unit that runs off a solar panel and battery. We initially designed around a lead acid battery. And as we kept accounting for things it just got larger and more expensive. We then switched to a lithium ion battery and it's literally a 1/3 the cost and a tenth the weight/size.
Post reply on HN