The style of housing does present problems for EV’s but perhaps not as much as one thinks at first. Many apartment dwellers in that type of situation live in areas of high density which generally means they don’t have to go that far per day, and usually drive in stop and go traffic, both add up to one can go for many days before needing to recharge. So a weekly trip to a supermarket charger or other such stop may be all one needs. I don’t think a parking meter style charger would be needed for every spot.
Yeah. People underestimate L1 charging. You can easily add 40 miles a night, which is fine for most commutes (most people average less than that). You don’t need a 100% charge every night; averaging over the course of a week works fine. And if on occasion nightly charging isn’t quite keeping up, you can always hit a public charger.
Something for the future: A few supercars now come with a wireless charging pad. (Speculation) It might be possible to install wireless charging under the pavement(much like stoplight sensor wires are installed) thus solving the security problem of on-street/driveway/carport charging.
I’m currently driving a Toyota, and I’m sure it’ll last long enough that my next car will likely be electric. While I’m not hostile to the idea of an EV, there are some concerns I have.
How often, where, and how long will I need to charge up while driving on long trips? If I want to drive from Arkansas to Colorado, I don’t want to stop every 3-4 hours and take 30-45 minutes to charge my vehicle up. I’m assuming the infrastructure to “refuel” EVs will only improve as more people purchase them.
I’m going to know two things about my EV; Jack & $%#@. When things go wrong with my EV, I’m going to be completely reliant on my mechanic to tell me what’s wrong and to take care of it. It’s true, these days I pretty much always get a mechanic to work on my car, but I at least understand how my vehicle works and I can generally tell if someone is feeding me baloney. With an EV, I’ll pretty much be at the mercy of the mechanic.
Will auto manufacturers view this as an exciting new opportunity to monetize features that used to be standard on automobiles? Will I need to pay a subscription service to use my radio, have heated seats, or an air conditioner? For the life of the vehicle, will I be prohibited from taking it to a third party mechanic because I’m only licensing the software used to run the vehicle I don’t actually own it?
Will I be able to modify my vehicle with spikes Mad Max style? This might be important during the coming apocalypse.
No. Oh, they will monetize once-standard features–but it has nothing to do with it being an EV. BMW is already offering a seat heater subscription for their ICE vehicles:
Subscription based services for products one owns, proprietary software that one can not modify or use their own and anti-right to repair is it’s own problem in itself and not unique to EV’s, and many ICE’s have those now.
There are much fewer things to go wrong in an EV so you shouldn’t need a mechanic as much. (Actually, a fourteen-year-old relation by marriage is about to start his freshman year at a vocational-technical high school with the goal of being an auto mechanic. I thought about suggesting he rethink that, on the theory that the profession might be a dying one. But on the other hand, there will still be ICE vehicles for a long time.)
My concern about distance is that as a person perceived as queer and not white, I’ve already been hassled by gas station attendants and needed to get the hell out of there quickly in the vast tracts of the US where gasoline stations were thin on the ground. Until there’s as good or better EV charging infrastructure, I’d be afraid of getting stranded somewhere hostile or unsafe.
There’s an editorial I won’t bother to link in today’s NYT on the theme of “who really drives 300 miles, anyway?” I’ve had to do so many times this month due to family medical crises, and stopping somewhere to charge wouldn’t have been an option.
I didn’t say they were unique to EVs, only that I wonder if auto manufacturers will see this as an opportunity to dive head first into that kind of nonsense.
I rarely have problems with any of the cars I’ve owned for the last twenty years. But when I did have a problem, I generally understood what the problem was. In a lot of cases I could have fixed it myself had I wanted to go through the colossal pain instead of paying someone else. For my first EV, I’m going to be at the mercy of the mechanic when something does finally go wrong. Though truth be told, with all the fancy computers in automobiles today, I’ve probably been at their mercy for a while.
This seems like a reasonable idea if they can pull it off.
I don’t think a stop every 3 hours can be avoided with even the best EV currently on the market. However, the stop may only take 20-30 minutes. Enough to get you to the next charger plus a small cushion.
Now that’s if you’re driving a Tesla. They have the best (by far) charging network. It’s supposed to be opened up to non-Teslas soon, so maybe everyone can use that. But right now, non-Teslas have to use one of the other networks and I’ve heard lots of horror stories about those. Lots of broken chargers, having to hold the charge plug in place because it slips out of the socket if you don’t*, failure to accept your payment, things like that. So you will likely need a larger cushion of energy if you use those, which means a longer charging time.
*The CCS charger plug is significantly bigger and heavier than the Tesla one, so it’s more likely to fall out of the socket.
Seriously? Anyone who needs to travel someplace that’s not convenient to a major airport. (Plus people who like road trips.) What a weird question.
I’ve been able to avoid driving 300+ miles for years, now, but it’s partly by living close too a major airport, and partly because i can afford to fly most of the way and rent a car for the last 100 miles.
Um… That’s a broken charger. A lot of my friends drive EVs, and a few have groused about taking them on long trips. But no one stands there for 30+ minutes to charge their car. You’d go to anywhere with an outlet and use the portable charger (that just plugs in) that every EV driver carries in the trunk, like jumper cables and a jack, and have a cup of coffee while waiting for enough of a charge to get to the next real charging station. But I’ve heard lots of EV annoyance stories, and that’s just not one that happens.
No doubt. I just read about this, didn’t actually see it. My impression was that wear on the socket and plug caused the connection to be a little too loose, so the plug slipped enough to break the circuit. Yeah, plug needs to be replaced, but the repair service on these charger networks is not the best.
The point of the piece is that many Americans don’t need a 300 mile range and that a variety of solutions for how individuals drive makes more sense.
“For some American households that may mean owning a single plug-in hybrid. For others that may mean a 150-mile E.V. for weekday miles and a hybrid truck for weekend projects and outdoor activities. Still other households might be able to serve their mobility needs with a mix of e-bikes, public transit and an occasional rental car. All of these options are better at delivering short- and medium-term fleet electrification in an era of battery scarcity than simply waiting for batteries to become cheap enough for every American to own a 300-plus- mile E.V.”
Oh, that makes more sense. Yeah, we have two cars. The next time we but a car, it’s going to be an EV, and i won’t be looking for a 300 mile range. I’ll plan to keep one of the ice cars for that.
We owned a plug in hybrid for a few years. Brand new, in warm weather, the battery only took us 20 miles. By the time we sold it, it was good for 12-15 miles. Half the miles we put on that car were electric, even so.
If we can get 150 miles on a charge, that will likely be good enough for 80% of our miles, with the rest being road trips and times we both need to drive.
My point is that no one holds the car charger any more than anyone holds the plug on their toaster. Did someone, somewhere, do it? No doubt. But if i came across a charger that wouldn’t stay in, I’d honestly be afraid to use it. I’d wonder what else was wrong, and if I’d get electrocuted, and…
For what it’s worth, when i drove a plug-in i used a lot of public chargers. (Short range, and all that) and that’s not a failure mode i even came across. I did encounter a lot of chargers that were out of order and not available.
Yeah, we’re buying a Chrysler Pacifica plug in hybrid. Most of our driving won’t use any gas and about once a quarter we take a long drive, it’s the perfect solution for us.
That NYT OpEd suggested that since EV batteries are still scarce, rather than building one 300 mile range EV, instead six PHEVs with fifty miles of electric range and several hundred miles of gas range be built.
It’s an interesting idea.
Yeah and that people mix and match a variety of approaches to meet their needs. It’s kind of obvious in retrospect, just like some people want a pickup and some people want a motorcycle.
Yes and we are looking at getting a PHEV, however the downside which should be mentioned is cramming 2 systems into the vehicle and the added complexity of such a hybrid system compared to the simplicity and lower repair/maintenance costs of a EV ownership.
Though PHEV’s do spoil the tin hatters argument what to do when ‘they’ cut off the electricity to control the masses. Not that that argument hold any water as ‘they’ can just as easily cut the gasoline, and to stop a EV you need to also stop solar, gas with generators etc.