Electric Vehicles

I've driven a EV as a daily for six years now and while daily range M-F anxiety is mostly not an issue but that one day a month when your spouse tells you there's a last minute change in plans and you're running at half charge because you forgot to plug in at night and hitting a charger that's miles out of the way isn't going to work is a thing.

You're also going to be doing a lot of planning for trips to another city, eating into the day of fun for charging which can be more stressful.

Work trips where you can't get someone to drive you to the airport in your car is always fun.

Don't get me started on road trips, we don't take the electric vehicle because range anxiety is very much a thing when you don't know if a cold front is coming up your ass and you're mid charging stations and debating if you turn on the heat or not (spoilers there was no heat). Add to that, the battery degradation and charging stations being fewer and farther between than gas, that range anxiety will hit you on long trips and not to mention the hours it adds to your trip.

I'm still a proponent of electric cars but range and time are issues still.

Range anxiety isn't even real. The problem is really charging anxiety, and it's entirely solveable.

Let's describe it like this... You're on a road trip, and you realize that you are using more fuel than expected, and you're going to need to put gas in your car in the next 50 miles. No problem, you've been passing gas stations for the the last hour, there is practically two at every exit, and they have their prices up on signs that can be seen for miles around.

Now let's switch over to our EV. Same scenario, you need to charge in the next 50 miles. The most signage I've seen for EV charging is a single "amenities" sign showing available gas stations, and one of them has a small green strip on the bottom that said "EV charging". No info on how much it is going to cost. No info on what plugs are available. Sure, I can check one of the 3 apps I have for finding charging stations, but that involves using more range to pull over and scout around. My car will tell me if I won't make it to my destination and suggest a charging station, but now I mucking about in my infotainment screen instead of focusing on the road, which is also stressful.

So the easy fix for "range anxiety" is to put up signage for charging stations that lists the types of plugs they have, and incentivize them to put pricing up on their electronic billboards.

I'd actually like to see a chain of dedicated EV charging stations that have small venues attached to them, like a restaurant, bowling alley, putt putt, library, etc... where they get the benefit of a captive audience, and the people charging get the benefit of some food and activities for the 15-20 minutes that they are charging. If I had the money, I start the business myself...

The author doesn't understand marginal utility. Not all time is equally valuable. When I am on a road trip, an extra 10-20% longer really sucks. The longer I can drive between charging, the shorter the trip, and the more time I can enjoy at my destination. Range consistently ranks as the highest concern for potential EV buyers for good reason. No matter how comprehensive the charging network, more frequent stops are annoying and time consuming.

Disclaimer: I own an EV.

Oh my god buy a Prius

This problem was solved handily by hybrids before most porn stars were even born

Most people drive around their city.

People don't have range anxiety about driving around their city.

It's for the few times they need to be able to depend on a car to take them to the next city.

Well, yeah, but going 100.1% over capacity can be very inconvenient, particularly if you are far from service. So "on average" doesn't consider that some numbers are worse than others.

I have an ice maker at home. Most days I use maybe 5 ice cubes total to make a cold drink.

However, if my ice maker could only hold 5 ice cubes max at a time, I would consider it a shitty ice maker and would be looking for a new one.

The 1% trips are what people worry about, not the average trip. When you do make that dream road trip to the bckwoods...

It’s overblown, but this is a stupid way to point it out. For those that dont stay entirely in highly populated areas, even stops for gas require some planning ahead.

I want to go all electric, but it would currently mean a 3.5 hour trip into the mountains would become a 8 hour trip because no EV can reliably handle that much altitude gain in winter on the route I take. There are no chargers on the way, thus having to take the considerably slower route. Even in summer A Better Route Planner doesn’t think it’s worth the gamble to try the direct route.

I don’t press my brakes too hard on average either, might as well get rid of 3/4 of em

Yeah, however we are worried about non-typical days, like the surprise drive for four hours out of the city. Then we are quite literally fucked.

I hope the irrational fear of battery degradation lasts long enough to buy one used next year.