Interesting road trip video, Lewiston, Me. to Alexandria, Va. in a Chevy Bolt EV...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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I was watching an interesting YouTube vid about a fellow New Englander (who lives in Lewiston Maine) who did a road trip from Lewiston to just outside of Alexandria, Va. in his Chevy Bolt EV, to “prove” that road trips in EV are possible and “easy”…

roughly an 1100 mile trip one way, he had to stop roughly every 3-4 hours to top off his EV at around 20-45 minutes per, and charge up at hotels overnight…

in my Golf, the same trip would only require me to fuel up once, at no more than 10 minutes, and if I wanted to push it, I could make the trip in one day…

Yes, EV’s are getting better very rapidly, but this same trip wouldn’t even faze a diesel, plus, the Golf has more cargo room than the microscopic (and admittedly cute) Bolt EV, the Golf is still far more practical as a daily driver.

That said, my resistance (heh, electrical pun! :wink: ) to EV is dropping, my next vehicle might actually be an EV, once good used ones are available, I want a Golf sized hatchback with 250-300 miles of range (no, the Golf EV doesn’t yet qualify)

a new Bolt EV is around $35K, my used Golf TDI cost $9,000, has a range of around 500-520 miles, and can be refueled at most gas stations in less than 10 minutes, for MY purposes, diesel is still more practical and usable than a pure EV…for now…

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Edit; once they arrive in the York, Maine area and are driving into NH, and are coming off the Piscataquis bridge, they’re driving through my stomping grounds…

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The Golf has half a cubic foot more cargo room than the Bolt. And I strongly disagree, any EV is superior to an ICE as a daily driver, by which you surely mean moderate commutes and no road trips. Any EV will never need to go to a gas station except for air in the tires; most cars will need to fill up about once a week.

Yeah, that’s going to take a while to achieve. Used Bolts seem to generally be in the $25k range, and the range isn’t what you want. I’m going to guess that it will probably take about 10 years before a long range, low purchase price EV may meet your criteria. VW actually has a Golf-like ID3 coming out next year, which I think looks great. Unfortunately, it’s for Europe only.

Totally agree, EV’s have not yet arrived for quite a significant segment of the population. However, I think there’s more people who would fit right into an EV than is currently recognized. For example, people thing of EVs as quite pricey, but the true cost to own is coming down quite fast and is starting to bust into the long-term cost of a Camry (though even that chart I’d say is probably quite rosy scenario).

Plus, imagine having the pickup of your turbo diesel with zero lag and no changing of gears, ever. EVs are way, way more fun to drive in comparison to their ICE equivalents.

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I think it’s 1100 miles round trip, but that might have just been a typo. Part of the issue is the choice of EVs. At the moment, Tesla superchargers are more common than high speed charging stations which support the Bolt. For example, if I did the trip in my car, it would only require three charging stops, for a total of 50 minutes out of an 11 hour drive (one way). I don’t think I could do it any faster with gas.

Another big difference is price. At a generous 50 mpg, that trip is going to take 22 gallons of diesel, at about $3.20/gallon for $70, while the cost of supercharging is $28. That diesel will also release about 500 pounds of CO2, while the electricity is around 290 pounds. Of course, the CO2 from the electricity is just the national average, by state and region it will vary. The CO2 released from gas or diesel is constant.

I do agree though that diesel cars are great if you’re optimizing for long distance endurance, keep a pee can in the car, and don’t care about blood clots in your legs. You should be able to drive 8-9 hours non-stop.

I just so rarely need to drive more than 250 miles in a single day. I know there are some people who do that frequently, but I don’t think it is many people.

I am pleased to see that you are so excited about your Golf. It is good to see people who are clearly happy with a thing they have.