Posted on 02/15/2023 1:35:02 AM PST by Libloather
My daughter’s employer has an older BMW EV. He’s taking it about 150 miles and has to plan for two charging stops. Utterly insane.
I just returned from a long road trip, about 3000 miles. It was work related and I pulled a 20’ trailer most of the way. I had to stop about every 250 miles for gas which was absolutely no big deal. Even in some areas where it was many miles between exits, I just didn’t have a single worry about it.
within five minutes, we were back on the road.
Someone played a clip last week of Kamala discussing EVs. She was SUPER excited when she said something like, “Imagine. You can charge your cell phone while you’re driving!”
Um ... yeah, Kamala. We’ve been doing that for about 30 years now.
True that. In this case the EV was rented. And even if you buy an EV you need to stop and think before going on long trips. I just used plugshare.com to casually map a trip in 5 minutes from Detroit, MI to Tampa, FL (since the article says the trip was from MI to FL). All of the charging stations are at least 120kW, which will charge the EV6 to 80% within 15-20 minutes. It's when you top it off past 80% to 100% that always adds a lot to the time (because the EV demands the charging rate slow to max 50kW to protect the battery). And since the farthest distance between charging stations was 144 miles, the EV6 they drove can easily do that with 80% even driving 75 to 80mph.
If I was making the trip for real I'd spend more time (maybe 15 minutes) looking at the various charging stations and looking at reviews (i.e. good lighting for nighttime charging, got the full charge rate, etc.). Plus the hotels along the way I plan to stop at might be ones with chargers. Save that in the plugshare app and you have your route planned along with charging stops. If you try to do all of that on the fly after you start the trip you'll spend more time focusing on range and such instead of enjoying the trip.
It's very analogous to the days before GPS when we'd get out maps to plan our trip in the days before leaving to a destination we'd never driven to before.
And even if you have an EV (which I do), have an ICE car too for the times an EV won't cut it. I'm married -- my wife and I need 2 cars anyway -- when it was time to replace one of our old used ICE cars we replaced it with an EV. The end result is we now have the best of both worlds. Most of the times we ride together it's in the EV car to save on gas, and also because it's the new car so it's more enjoyable anyway. Sometimes we drive the ICE pickup either because our trip involves pickup chores or because the trip goes through a long stretch without charging stations. This hasn't happened yet since we got the EV, but if I drive on a long trip without my wife I might take the ICE pickup even if there are plenty of chargers. My wife's the one who likes to stop every 200 miles or so to stretch her legs anyway. So stopping to charge the EV for 10-15 minutes is conducive to her driving habits. I'd rather go 300 to 400 miles before stopping, so the EV isn't good for me if I'm driving alone.
I have done it in one day. It’s a long day but can be done.
Local shopping trips may be about the extent of what the EVs would be good for & then only if it’s not too hot or too cold. That’s an awful lot to pay for something less satisfactory than a used Yugo.
Wow. What a waste.
What I can’t figure is all the car manufacturers are going in on EV’s knowing that it is an expensive golf cart. They are expensive in price and expensive in time.
Fear not! The nation’s elite will always have gas powered cars,gas stoves,gas heat,thermostats at 73 in winter and 74 in summer,all the air travel they want. It’s the middle class and working class that will have their thermostats,their ovens,their cars,their lights controlled by the Feelings Ministry at Rat Party Headquarters.
Throwing away the most efficient and plentiful energy system ever invented with a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure for an fake crisis.
LOL, when I was a young twenty-year old guy in the Navy, I made the trek driving from Jacksonville, FL to Boston, MA many times.
I always drove it straight through, took me about 24 hours each time. Once, as I was driving south, I had been nodding off and weaving on I-95, when I became aware that there was a car in the high-speed lane coming straight at me. I swerved, and realized the car was upside down sitting on its roof in the high-speed lane, its headlights pointed at oncoming cars. I pulled over, and ran across four lanes of traffic to the car. The roof was crushed, and the passenger side window was about half its normal height. As I got to the car, this hand and forearm shot out of the window, and a long-haired guy wearing only blue jeans, no shirt, no shoes, clambered out and stood up next to me as he looked at his car. In my memory, he looked exactly like Jeff Spicoli in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. I asked him if he was okay, and he said “Yeah...I think so. I fell asleep.” When I went to get a cup of coffee, a trucker asked me if I was driving the yellow MG, and when I said I was, he suggested I drink some strong coffee. I lasted until I was down in Georgia, and the sun was coming up, but I had to pull off the road and sleep for an hour or so, I was so tired. So, I pulled off the road, put my seat back, and tried to snooze. I think as soon as I dropped off, I awoke yelling and grabbing for the wheel. I dreamed I was still driving and thought I had fallen asleep at the wheel. My heart was pounding so hard it nearly hurt. Needless to say, I was fully awake then.
One other time I made that trip, I had been awake for something like 60 hours straight and fell asleep at the wheel taking a girl home at 1:30 AM from a day at the beach.
I had awakened at noon on the base, worked the night shift, got off work, jumped in my 1976 MG Midget, drove straight through to Boston, had breakfast, washed my car, partied all day long with my friends, took a girl on a date to a beach, and fell fast asleep behind the wheel with no warning as I was driving her home.
I woke up as the car was bouncing up and down in the median between the North and Southbound lanes, my head hitting the fabric roof with each bump.
It was one of the stupidest things I have ever done.
I could have killed that poor girl. Or some other innocent person. It was criminal. I have never done anything like that since then. But at the time, I was so homesick, missed my family and friends, and was bound and determined to squeeze every last drop of juice from that lemon called shore leave.
“you meet the nicest people at a super charger location”.
Yeh, thugs driving gas vehicles who have just relieved you of any valuables.
Amazing average 125 miles before recharging. Let’s hope the charging stations had heated shelters.
Really like that analogy. EVs are about as useful as golf carts...fun for short trips when you don't need heat, AC, windshield wipers, stereo, lights, etc...
Exactly! And that’s the plan of the NWO...keep everyone within a short distance to their home. That means less gas use and less unnecessary travel that is deemed as wasting resources. Just think “lock-downs”. We went through it with little resistance so it should work again, but permanently.
As a practical matter, most folks do not travel for great distances regularly. Most people live in or around cities and driving is commuting.
I do drive long distances of 100 miles or more one way pretty regularly. I am seeing the trunks of Teslas more and more as they pass me by cruising at 70 mph.
Try driving the AlCan in an EV. 😏
The additional charging time needs to be valued and added to the comparison of costs and benefits. The cost of subsidies and tax breaks also needs to be considered.
Those features were the very ones that got people stranded in harsh cold weather.
The car mentioned in article has a max range of 275 miles in ideal conditions. Realistically it has a range of about 200 in ideal conditions. One doesn’t DC fast charge the battery beyond 80% unless they really need the range. I think it unlikely many people would drop below 10% charge. Where I live in the midwest I would be lucky to go 100 miles with single digit temperatures or below.
This reminds me of Rush’s song in a Yugo.
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