“And while China’s getting there, an executive in the U.S. aren’t so convinced that’s true.”
Why does this sentence bother me so much?
I mean. That’s kinda the root cause of Range Anxiety.
Even if it was double the time to charge when compared to filling a petrol car. That would go a long way.
Gasoline cars need to accept grass if they are ever to be a viable replacement for a horse. Like, what if you’re far from a gas station but there’s a meadow right there?
Only fringe enthusiasts can own a gasoline car that doesn’t have a biofuel fermenter attached.
It’s a dumb take on the face of it; splash n dash trips are extremely common, that’s why they put points of sale on the pump stands. It’s common enough for people to want to pay at the pump rather than ever walk into the store. Extremely common weekly errand.
Now, with an EV, likely charged at home every night thus starting most trips with a full battery, that should sharply reduce routine visits to gas stations. That leaves refueling on longer journeys. Which varies.
Me personally traveling alone, I’ll still do quick splash n dash stops on medium length journeys, say 200 miles or so? At interstate speeds that’s about 3 hours of traveling, I’ll use the restroom before setting out and one 5 minute fuel stop will do the distance.
Now, if there is a planned stop, say on a 400 mile trip, I’m gonna stop, bathroom, grab a snack and a drink, and fuel the car. That’s maybe a 15-20 minute stop to use the bathroom, grab a gatorade and a bag of funyuns from the convenience store, pay the clerk, walk back outside, then stand there at the pump while the car fills.
I will grant you, you can plug in your EV and have it charging while you’re in the store, but none are going to charge in 15 minutes. So you’re going to end up just standing there, or sitting there, while it finishes charging. With nothing at all to do. Even simulating the same behavior as with a gas car, stand there next to the charging cable staring at the price going up for ~5 minutes, the car’s not going to have taken on enough power.
I have refueled my car at night at unattended gas stations. Sitting there for a couple hours while a car charges enough to reach the next station sounds real fun.
Nobody stops to fuel their vehicle taking gasoline, gets out, rushes as fast as possible, puts as much fuel in the car as possible, and gets back in the car and drives away
This almost reads as satire. Like this has to be a joke, right? No way this guy can really be this stupid (or out of touch), right?
The reality: “Nobody stops to fuel their vehicle taking gasoline, gets out, rushes as fast as possible, puts as much fuel in the car as possible, and gets back in the car and drives away,” Cutler said.
I, in fact, do exactly that. I pull up in front of the pump, get out, stick my card in, fill up, and leave. It’s been over ten years since I went inside the store at a gas station, there’s nothing in there I want to buy.
However, needing to spend half an hour recharging if I were on a road trip would be fine, because on a road trip I would stop for a break from driving in any case. But, I almost never go on road trips, and 99.9% of my trips around town would be well within one charge, which I could do at home.
So, while I agree that charging doesn’t need to be as fast as gas, it’s not because of his stated reason.
If the charge is 6x longer than filling, then there need to be 6x the charging points. Stations will need to have a much larger footprint which isn’t always possible in urban environments. Then the occupants are stuck there for 30min so there better be adequate security otherwise it’ll be ground zero for crime.
Wrong.
I would like it to be as fast as gas. But, yeah, if you can walk from the charger to a restroom and maybe grab some food, I really don’t care if it take 15-30 minutes to get back up to 80%.
I currently own a Volt and usually charge at home. My last road-trip OK->IA (and back a week later), I found it hard to find compatible charging stations so much so that I barely used them. On the way back, I did go out of my way to find one – the first one had no facilities at all (it was a dealer parking lot at the corner of two 5-lane stroads with no crosswalk signals), the second one was inaccessible behind a locked gate, the third one several blocks away from any facilities but close enough to walk to one restaurant.
I still plan to get an EV when I finally have to replace the Volt, but I gotta say the charging situation away from home is pretty bleak, IME. Maybe it’s better in different parts of the country. It is almost certainly better on DC charging; I found a few convenience store / gas station / fast food combination buildings that also had DC charging that I would have used if I could. (Volt only has AC charging.)
there’s a supermarket by me that has EV chargers for free while you shop. absolutely genius
Uh, the only reason I go into the gas station now is to pick up a six pack of beer.
Longer trips in EVs require one small reframing, at least when compared to how we used to do longer trips before.
In longer trips with an ICE, we would have a meal before the trip, then drive until the destination, and have a meal when arriving.
With an EV, you should plan to have a meal on the road, and charge while you eat.
I’ve had a few experiences with this recently on a 300k trip we do fairly regularly. We do it in an older EV with comparatively poor range, but still we get away with making one stop to eat and charge.
ITT: Lots of people dont realize how infrequently you actually stop at a charger if you have charging at home or work.
Okay, now what about the people who don’t live in SFHs? I could charge at home most nights if I had an EV, but a lot of people literally can’t install chargers.
It’s so easy to install communal chargers, that no house has an excuse to not do it. It just needs to be normalised.
Here where I live, I don’t think there is a house with no ev charger at a parking space.Of course your daily mileage comes into play… but
You don’t have to install a charger, if you can charge your laptop/phone at home you can charge your car at home.
It’s just an extension cord.
Of course this requires you to run the cord outside if you don’t have a garage but it’s not like you have to bury it or anything. Because again it’s just an extension cord.
And even if you want “fast” charging at home you aren’t really “installing” a charger you are just getting a 220v outlet installed in the US. If you have a central A/C unit or electric dryer as an example you already have this installed in your house you are just adding an additional outlet for ease of access.
The “real” fast chargers that are installed for public use are not being installed in your home because those are 480v or even 800v. Which is considered industrial use, as far as I am aware you can’t get that power connection in your garage because the infrastructure isn’t there.
You live somewhere that allows randoms to lay trip hazards across the pavement?
Allowed? No. Do people do things that they aren’t allowed to do even when they aren’t the best option. Yes all the time.
I would be willing to bet wherever you live there are things that aren’t allowed happening all the time. In fact you, just like everyone else probably participate in some of those activities regularly.
For example, since this conversation is about cars. You have never once driven over the speed limit (depending on where you are under the speed limit) or drove somewhere without a seat belt or used your cell phone with your hands while driving. How about using your turn signal to change lanes 100% of the time.
The world is full of rules not being followed.
Anyone doing those things should have their car crushed.
Turning walkways into a hazard course is not an acceptable approach.
With the layout of the road outside the house here there’s no pavement on our side and with the car right next to the gate there’s no cable across anywhere someone could walk unless they go through the gate. We’re usually charging from the main charger on the drive though, it’s only when we have multiple cars to charge that the extra cable comes out.
So like, out my door and into the parking lot?
I’m very pro ev, but getting apartments to have charging stations is a big step forward we need to take to encourage adoption
I’ll let my friends living in apartments know they can run an extension cord from the 5th floor then lol, I’m sure there’s nothing unsafe about that.
Daily mileage isn’t the only factor either. I’m not sure why I would pay 30k for a used EV if it costs almost the same to charge per 100km as a diesel car worth under 2k takes to refuel per 100 km but takes much more time to do so. EVs start making more sense for people in apartments when public fast charging is nearly free, like charging at home is.
Hey everyone with an electric car did you know you are wrong because if i follow this correctly.
1 .You can buy a 20 year old car for $2000. 2. This person knows someone who lives on the 5th floor.
Yeah it’s called individual choice. It’s not for everyone in every situation. Just like diesel versus gasoline or natural gas or walking or riding a bike or taking a bus.
But the point I made still stands you don’t “have” to install anything.
And yes I have seen people running cords out of windows from apartments. Is it the best option. No. Would I do it also no.
But there are options available.
Make the choice that works best for your situation.
If we’re going to ban fossil fuels 100%, we need EVs to work for everyone. If we don’t ban fossil fuels altogether, people can continue driving old cars which is bad. I know I will.
It doesn’t have to be a binary choice. We could have regulations that require EV charging stations on new construction, from street lamp poles, etc, and still let people fill up their gas car.
The government should probably do something to combat the proliferation of huge pickup trucks, but idk what that would look like.
Since they installed chargers at my workplace roughly one year ago, I have stopped exactly 3 times to charge in a public charger:
First was when we had an issue with chargers the day before I was going on a 2 weeks holiday out of town.
Second was when I arrived to my holiday destination.
Third was the day we were going back home from the holiday destination after two weeks.
That’s about it in a whole year.
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Most trips don’t eat 100%, if your commute eats 10-40% of your battery 5% an hour on 110v at home is just fine.
Probably a lot better for the batteries too.
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Why do you think these screenshots add anything of value to this discussion?
Ha you’re right!
I do 120v / 12A charging at home and an overnight charge exceeds my daily commute. But, yes, a 240v / 25A charger is much faster and an overnight charge in them can cover a daily commute I would find punishingly long.
From someone that actually uses an EV: I don’t even have a charger at home. I charge twice a month on a station that takes around 30~45m a session to 90%. You go for a nice coffee or light meal and it is charged when you come back.
Sounds like another chore I won’t wish to add to my pre-existing list.
Yes. Because with an EV you live at the gas station.
People need to stop thinking about EVs like cars that need to be fueled. They’re more like phones that need to be charged.
And you know what they keep trying to do with phone batteries? Speed up charging time. They keep trying to find new novel ways of making a charger charge a phone from 0 to 100 in less than 5 mins.
You think they aren’t doing the same for EV’s?
