Well, electric vehicles are selling at a premium price plus it is a Mercedes, so not so crazy expensive perhaps.
The app I use most, Chargepoint, tells you all that and more. Stations that are not available are greyed out on the map, and if you click on any particular station, it will tell you price, hours, a chart of popular times, and tips/comments from other drivers. If a station is in use, you can ask the app to tell you when it becomes available.
Sometimes…
Plugshare is probably the largest listing of chargers, because it combines everything from commercial high-speed level 3 chargers to people who are willing to let you plug into an outlet at their house. It is a combination of crowd sourced information, and information supplied directly from the charging networks.
Plugshare usually lists costs, but there is no guarantee of the accuracy. Here is an example page listing the costs of some chargers near me (just click the X to close the ad to register). I can’t link directly to the charger on the Chargepoint network, but the page for it also shows the same fee schedule.
Other times Plugshare might show that the fee is unknown, and Chargepoint might say something cryptic like “fee is set by Trade Winds Condo Assoc LLC” but not show what the fee is.
Plugshare will similarly often list hours of availability and other restrictions “charging for hotel guests only”. Sometimes you have to look at the comments for useful information “charging is supposed to be free, but it’s behind a locked gate, and appears to be only for county vehicles” or “the street says ‘no parking between 2am and 6am’”. The comments, check-ins, and charging history on Chargepoint are also good ways to estimate how busy someplace is.
All of that is for level 2 chargers, which are either chargers of opportunity (I’m here for a few hours, may as well charge) or destination chargers (I’ll let it charge overnight in the hotel’s garage).
Level 3 chargers, which are the fast chargers people will mostly use on trips, should be much closer to typical pay-at-the-pump gas stations. Pull in, and for Tesla just plug-in. For EvGo and other networks you may need to poke the machine with a credit card to get it going. They tend to be located in parking lots and other places that are accessible 24/7, because they’re expected to be used by people who want a quick charge, and get on their way.
If you’re the kind of person who absolutely refuses to do any planning or research before leaving on a trip, then you’re likely to find yourself out of gas somewhere in West Texas or marooned at a level 2 charger overnight at a library, because the nearest level 3 charger is in a closed parking garage.
A bit of research with Plugshare, A Better Route Planner, Google, and your preferred charge network can avoid those problems. For example, a few minutes on Plugshare shows me that if I drive to Vail to ski, I might be able to park at a level 2 charger and fill up during the day, but don’t count on it. Plan to stop at the Supercharger in Silverthorne for a few minutes on the way home.
Does Chargepoint have Google maps-like leave at ___ routing?
The Holland Tunnel is closed at night for construction. If I left now from Hoboken to NYC, it would route me thru the Holland; however, if I changed my depart time to midnight, it would route me thru the Lincoln; more miles but quicker because I don’t need to sit in my car for 6hrs until the Holland reopens
Let’s say this station is in the middle of a long trip for you; if you recharged here, you’d only need to stop once, but if you left at 8am, you’d need to hit the stop 50 miles earlier & then would be required to stop twice to make it to your destination because this one is unavailable to you until after 5pm.
I don’t think Chargepoint does routing. It’s just a network of mostly level 2 chargers.
A Better Route Planner can do much of that, but it is not as sophisticated as Google Maps at getting road closure information and that kind of stuff. It might do it with a subscription, because Google charges for external access to traffic and other information. ABRP is versatile enough that a combination of Google Maps and ABRP can often come to an adequate solution.
For your example, if you want to avoid a particular charger in ABRP, you can exclude it from the route or permanently ban it, and ABRP will then select an alternative route or charging locations. I have the Colorado Springs Supercharger excluded, because it is in a pay parking garage. Parking is supposed to be free if you Supercharge, but if there’s no attendant, then you still have to pay to get out. Much easier to just charge in Monument a few miles away.
Our wonderful EV got rear-ended pretty bad (nobody hurt) and is in the shop for at least two weeks but probably longer. In the meantime, we are borrowing an ICE car from a family member who is out of town and not using it.
And I have to say it has been jarring going back to an ICE car after driving an EV exclusively for a year. This is a lower-end luxury brand of vehicle, but it just feels so clunky and … frumpy. Hard to describe accurately, but it has definitely confirmed my intention never to return to ICE vehicles.
Was the damage to the structure or to the electrical components? 2 weeks for body work seems reasonable (ish) but I’d expect replacing batteries/motors to take quite a while.
Well, we don’t entirely know yet. So far only structural (and some sensors in the bumper/hatch area), but we haven’t heard back yet since they opened it up. I am desperately hoping there is no damage to the main battery system. I don’t think there is, as we were able to drive it without any anomalies after the accident, but you never know.
I drove my friend’s Tesla Model 3 today and I can definitely see how you’d get addicted to EVs. It was just so ridiculously smooth. I kept waiting for a gear change that never happened. I took it out on the highway and the acceleration was just incredible. And his was a plain 3, no performance package or anything. I had driven one our company’s Bolts before but it was absolutely nothing like the Tesla.
Now, I’m just going to have to talk my wife into it.
I’d love a Tesla, but even if i had a ton of money, I just don’t trust Elon. What if he decides to make software changes to my car on the fly? Or gets distracted by say building a city on Mars and sells the Tesla plants to Stellantis?
So I’ll wait a few years to see what the market looks like. I think this ad was aimed at me:
If you don’t want to click, it’s a Polestar Ad with no voiceover, just type saying things like “No Dieselgate”, “No Conquering Mars”, “No Greenwashing” and I think the last one is “No Compromises”.
Polestar seemingly has OTA software updates as well. I’d say it’s one of the big benefits of a Tesla, but others are slowly catching up.
It’s funny; I just got a recall notice for my Tesla via snail mail. It says there is a problem with the unbuckled seat belt warning system. And then it says to install the latest OTA update and that no other action is required.
Stellantis can’t afford Tesla. Tesla’s market cap is about 20x that of Stellantis. The reverse could conceivably happen, though.
I was totally joking. I picked the car company that would be least likely, and least able, to take over making Teslas. (Jeep can’t even make good Jeeps…)
And all that was to show that I just can’t trust Elon Musk. I think he and Zuckerberg are from adjacent planets, but neither of them are near Earth.
I’ll buy a Tesla the day they produce a convertible.
Soooo . . . fourteen years ago?
Even the used ones are going for over $100K, over my budget. The new roadster with a removable sunroof is at least $200K and I guess hasn’t been released yet, but you can reserve if you wire Elon $45K.
Currently I drive an Infiniti Q60S convertible that cost me about $47K. If Tesla ever comes up with anything comparable I’ll switch in a heartbeat. But I’m not holding my breath.
Since he’s a CEO, presumably he could be removed from his position by other board members and/or shareholders if he started down a path that would hurt Tesla’s bottom line (or cost shareholder’s their money).
Plus, I assume if he did anything to the vehicles that would make them dangerous, the NTSB/NHTSB could step in.
Just ordered a Cadillac Lyriq. A little ostentatious for us–we’ve always had utilitarian cars. I’ve never owned a GM product before. The dealer is actually honoring MSRP. There are literally no options other than AWD vs RWD and color–everything is included. We’re getting the blue AWD with the grey interior. 500 hp, 320 miles of range, $66k out the door. Lot of money but it’s a lot of car. Sold out in 2 hours. Should have it early next year.
A buddy’s Rivian is in transit, so I should get to see that this week.
I can pretty much state that I will never own an electric vehicle. At least not until they develop one that can do SoCal - Las Vegas and back on a single charge. That’s my need, and I don’t think they’ll ever meet it.
Why is that your need? It’s a very strange and specific need, as it doesn’t seem to directly relate to anything useful like minimizing time or cost.
I travel to Vegas quite often. With a standard ICE I tank once, for less than 5 minutes. Until the major Strip hotels offer to charge my electric while I’m staying there, I’m not sitting around someplace in the middle of nowhere charging my car because it doesn’t have the range or refueling speed I want.