this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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The first question I always get about my EV is "how long does it take to charge?" Most people can't wrap their head around the concept of waking up every day with a full battery.
And also that they are probably stopping for around 20 minutes every 300 miles on road trips anyway. A certain 450 mile trip I have make several times per year for two decades takes me about 20-30 minutes longer in an EV vs my previous 35mpg vehicle. There are just a bunch of these small cognitive blindspots people have about their own driving habits that you see repeated over and over again.
We must stop all EV development until they're good enough to serve the small percentage of people who drive 700 miles at once, pee in a bottle, and eat sandwiches they prepared ahead of time. Think of all the bottle urinators being left behind.
Seriously, I don't think there's a good reason to have ranges much over 400 miles. If you work out a highway speed of 70mph, charge to 80% at each stop (which is significantly faster than going to 100%), and add some margin for cold days, then about 400 miles is around the max you need considering you'll want a break, anyway.
If there's battery improvements to throw on top of that, then use them to reduce weight, not increase range.
Those people should drive cars that run on biodiesel.
Or EVs with biodiesel range extender generators
I have said for ages that a company like U-Haul should rent tow-behind or even overhead gas or even biodiesel engines to power EVs for longer trips.
Have you ever road tripped with an EV? It's not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. Stopping once every couple hours for 15 minutes and charging while you pee, eat, etc isn't bad at all. It's not like a gas station where you're supposed to stay at the pump. I can't imagine towing a trailer just to get around that. Would you tow a trailer full of gasoline to extend the range of a car with a gas engine? Of course not.
This assumes you can find adequate charger coverage, and that the chargers are actually functioning when you get there... Which, if you're in a Tesla, you'll probably be fine, but most others is going to be highly dependant on the infrastructure where you're going, and at least in a lot of the US, that's not as well built out as it should be.
That will, however, change, and probably fast once there's enough people driving EVs
I'd say it depends on the EV. The Leaf S can only go 149 miles before needing to recharge. Giving it an engine to help it along is just turning it into a hybrid.
Good point, I wouldn't recommend road tripping in a Leaf. Still probably easier to just rent a car.
Yep. I stop for 20 or so minutes every 200 or so miles, and honestly I'm stretching it to go that long because my wife and kid want to stop even more often. I spend basically 0 extra time road tripping in my EV unless it's a holiday weekend and the charger is packed.
"About as long as I'm charging my phone, and at around the same time: while I sleep, so who cares? It's full when I wake up."