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To: Cincinnatus.45-70
I make several 500-mile trips per month. I can do it in just over 8 hours with my ICE vehicle. With an equivalent EV, the trip would take two days.

It depends. EV's shouldn't be mandated or subsidized or any of that. But to say that EV's aren't good for trips, well it depends.

Take the 500 mile trips you speak of. And I'll assume they are 500 miles one way. In our EV driving 80 mph would require two charging stops of 10-15 minutes each. Of course, that doesn't compare to a 5-10 minute gas fill up (my ICE pickup gets 500 miles running the AC, so I'd need a fill-up to be sure I make it)...unless you realize that your first fill-up (the one for when you leave home) doesn't have to happen in an EV (charged at home). So two 10-minute stops to charge the EV is just 10 minutes longer than two 5-minute gas fill ups in the ICE. The same for starting the trip back if the hotel you stay in has a complimentary charger (wake up to a full charge unlike with an ICE car needing a fill up).

All the more so with my wife being always with me on trips and she always asks to stop every 200 miles anyway and walk around for 10-15 minutes to stretch her legs, our EV charging is conducive for that. Maybe if you're not asked to stop every 200 miles you'd be more inclined to not want to make that 10-minute charging stop --you'd take the ICE car. Likewise geography matters. Our road trips aren't up north in the winter where it's too cold for EV's to function efficiently (perhaps your trips are in the cold and an EV isn't wise). Likewise if driving 500 mile trips through the low populated midwest where there are few fast chargers.

Another thing to consider is if you're married and need 2 cars anyway. By having one of them an EV and one an ICE (like we have), we're diversified in our energy dependencies for transportation. Basically, if we want or need to make a road trip at a time when the Dims jack up the price of gas to $5/gallon (IMHO it's still too expensive at $3.45/gallon) or there are shortages at the pump --- we have the EV car. Or if the Dims make the grid less dependable (brownouts) in areas we're driving to -- we have the ICE pickup. In other words, just like it's a mistake for the Dim cultists to be all EV, it may be unwise for us conservative couples to be all ICE.

Last but not least is what home solar brings to the table for energy self-sufficiency -- an EV extends that onto the road at least for local driving. Solar sucks as far as making the grid depend on it -- the grid should be nothing but dependable power. But decentralized solar in the south works for us, and that includes charging the EV. On your 500 miles trips obviously home solar can't handle the whole trip. But it makes the first 240 miles free for us (during the 10 months out of the year I have good solar, and driving 80 mph). We drive 26K miles per year in our EV largely because my wife and I share it -- whoever drives the most that day takes the EV. Plus we take it on our trips (I'm sure the day is coming when we'll drive a trip that the ICE would be better at). About 22K or 23K of those miles are charged at home. In the past 12 months (since I added onto our solar) 82% of our power has been free for our all-electric home, including charging the EV. (Most of the 18% of the power I pulled from the grid was during 2 cold winter months.)

There are many free market reasons to not get an EV (i.e. take lots of trips in cold weather or charging deserts, not married and thus need only 1 car so it should be ICE for the times an EV won't cut it, can't charge at home, etc.). But it's a mistake to completely diss EV's altogether without seeing if an EV is best for your situation (at least the next time you have to replace one of your cars anyway and are deciding what car to get). At least, that's my two cents' worth.

12 posted on 09/05/2023 8:55:05 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Tell It Right

Sorry, there is no way to recharge an EV in that time on any route available for me. Maybe you have a super expensive EV I can’t afford, but I need a pickup truck at the other end of the trip. None have the range and charge time you refer, especially with the available charging stations.

And you didn’t mention the extreme wear on the hugely expensive tires. Tire replacement alone would cost as much as gasoline in a non-government mandated price schedule. (Jack up gasoline prices to make EVs more attractive.)

And you didn’t mention the extreme danger of the electric batteries. I need an off-road capable truck. If I run over a stump in the swamp in 4WD and damage the EV battery, will I survive the fire? It’s a rhetorical question. If it just gets stuck in the swamp, the EV truck will be massively heavier than my current vehicle. What kind of tow vehicle will get it out of the swamp?

EVs are great for pasty white liberals in 15-minute cities, and can be made to work for some other folks, but otherwise I just don’t think they are ready for real-life prime time. Not your fault, of course, and if it works for you, great!


14 posted on 09/05/2023 11:05:32 AM PDT by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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