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How often do you drive that far? The farthest I drive in one go is 350 miles and I only make that trip once every other year because it's exhausting. (If I coul

How often do you drive that far? The farthest I drive in one go is 350 miles and I only make that trip once every other year because it's exhausting. (If I could fly there I probably would.) A vehicle with a 100 mile range would cover pretty much all the other driving I do regularly.

dhdhhdd 5y ago
Funny. I would not fly for a trip of 350 miles. Being at the airport early, going through security, checking in luggage, all of those are unpredictable. Most of the time i leave home 3 hours before scheduled flight, it can take 1 hour to get to the airport (depending on traffic, usually 20 minutes), and then all of the above. 3 hours can get me almost 200 miles away, and then I'm left with 150 miles of driving.
- skeeter2020 5y ago
  plus adding in (I think) the magic number is 400 miles when flying becomes safer than driving.
- weehoo 5y ago
  NorCal to SoCal using regional airports (avoid sfo lax etc) can be less than 2 hours door to door. Online check in + no checked bag means you can show up at small airports 30 minutes before takeoff. 50 minutes in the air, 10 minutes to deplane and leave the airport, and less than 15 minutes driving on either end and you have 2 hours door to door (and a lot more leg stretching than driving the 5).
jackson1442 5y ago
I'm curious... are you in the US? 350 miles is definitely within the realm of reason here-- a couple friends and I made an impulsive 250-something mile trip a couple weeks ago, and my family took a road trip to Florida over the past summer (normally we'd fly, but COVID)-- that trip was actually in an electric car and ended up being about 4 hours longer than it would be in a gas car. Depending on where you are, 350 miles might not even get you out of Texas!
- CameronNemo 5y ago
  I struggle to see how an electric car added four hours to a 250 mile trip. Unless you are counting both ways maybe? Even then, a 250 mile range EV would need one or two charging stops. Fast charging could just be 2-3 hours for both stops. At most.
  - sumtechguy 5y ago
    I think they meant it added 4 hours to the total one way trip. "a trip to florida". Electric is pretty good in many cases. But long road trips is not one of them. A full recharge is on the order of an 30-60 mins. You can refuel an ICE car in 5-10 mins and get the same range. 4 stops in a long trip is not unheard of. It would put them in the middle of the united states somewhere going to florida. For local travel electric is decent and you can work around the 1 remaining issue for electric with some planning. For long road trip the refuel is the bottleneck. I think when electric cars can recharge a 300-400 range in 5-10 mins you will see people switch very quickly.
  - jackson1442 5y ago
    That was the trip to Florida! It came out to about 1,250 miles and was actually rather enjoyable in the Kia Niro EV. We used the Electrify America charger network the whole way there and back so each stop was 20-40 minutes, perfect to stretch your legs, use a nearby restroom, and grab a bite to eat. Admittedly it got to a bit of a lull at night since it was a 20-something hour trip. I think it would have been better to have a little bit more range so the stops are spaced farther apart, but charging was cheap and rather fast. The worst part was dealing with some of those chargers; there's usually at least one charger offline at EA stations and some charge really slow (which sucks when you pay by the minute) so there's a bit of trial-and-error. I honestly kinda liked these forced breaks... usually when we take a long road trip I feel stiff as a board when we arrive, but I felt fine when we got there.
- hodgesrm 5y ago
  Actually not even half way, depending on origin and direction of travel. IIRC highway I-10 starts around milepost 810 on the Texas/Louisiana border. It's a big state. Off-topic but Texan inhabitants I know used to measure the length of the drives in number of beers consumed en route. Austin to Waco was a comparatively modest 5 beer trip, for example.
closeparen 5y ago
If I drive somewhere 2 hours away for the weekend, drive around town while I'm there, and then drive home, that's easily 350 miles between home-charging opportunities. With less range than that, EV charging becomes a constraint on which lodging I can choose or else how I'm going to spend ~hours of my vacation.

dhdhhdd 5y ago

Funny. I would not fly for a trip of 350 miles. Being at the airport early, going through security, checking in luggage, all of those are unpredictable. Most of the time i leave home 3 hours before scheduled flight, it can take 1 hour to get to the airport (depending on traffic, usually 20 minutes), and then all of the above. 3 hours can get me almost 200 miles away, and then I'm left with 150 miles of driving.

skeeter2020 5y ago
plus adding in (I think) the magic number is 400 miles when flying becomes safer than driving.
weehoo 5y ago
NorCal to SoCal using regional airports (avoid sfo lax etc) can be less than 2 hours door to door. Online check in + no checked bag means you can show up at small airports 30 minutes before takeoff. 50 minutes in the air, 10 minutes to deplane and leave the airport, and less than 15 minutes driving on either end and you have 2 hours door to door (and a lot more leg stretching than driving the 5).

jackson1442 5y ago

I'm curious... are you in the US? 350 miles is definitely within the realm of reason here-- a couple friends and I made an impulsive 250-something mile trip a couple weeks ago, and my family took a road trip to Florida over the past summer (normally we'd fly, but COVID)-- that trip was actually in an electric car and ended up being about 4 hours longer than it would be in a gas car. Depending on where you are, 350 miles might not even get you out of Texas!

CameronNemo 5y ago
I struggle to see how an electric car added four hours to a 250 mile trip. Unless you are counting both ways maybe? Even then, a 250 mile range EV would need one or two charging stops. Fast charging could just be 2-3 hours for both stops. At most.
- sumtechguy 5y ago
  I think they meant it added 4 hours to the total one way trip. "a trip to florida". Electric is pretty good in many cases. But long road trips is not one of them. A full recharge is on the order of an 30-60 mins. You can refuel an ICE car in 5-10 mins and get the same range. 4 stops in a long trip is not unheard of. It would put them in the middle of the united states somewhere going to florida. For local travel electric is decent and you can work around the 1 remaining issue for electric with some planning. For long road trip the refuel is the bottleneck. I think when electric cars can recharge a 300-400 range in 5-10 mins you will see people switch very quickly.
- jackson1442 5y ago
  That was the trip to Florida! It came out to about 1,250 miles and was actually rather enjoyable in the Kia Niro EV. We used the Electrify America charger network the whole way there and back so each stop was 20-40 minutes, perfect to stretch your legs, use a nearby restroom, and grab a bite to eat. Admittedly it got to a bit of a lull at night since it was a 20-something hour trip. I think it would have been better to have a little bit more range so the stops are spaced farther apart, but charging was cheap and rather fast. The worst part was dealing with some of those chargers; there's usually at least one charger offline at EA stations and some charge really slow (which sucks when you pay by the minute) so there's a bit of trial-and-error. I honestly kinda liked these forced breaks... usually when we take a long road trip I feel stiff as a board when we arrive, but I felt fine when we got there.
hodgesrm 5y ago
Actually not even half way, depending on origin and direction of travel. IIRC highway I-10 starts around milepost 810 on the Texas/Louisiana border. It's a big state. Off-topic but Texan inhabitants I know used to measure the length of the drives in number of beers consumed en route. Austin to Waco was a comparatively modest 5 beer trip, for example.

closeparen 5y ago

If I drive somewhere 2 hours away for the weekend, drive around town while I'm there, and then drive home, that's easily 350 miles between home-charging opportunities. With less range than that, EV charging becomes a constraint on which lodging I can choose or else how I'm going to spend ~hours of my vacation.