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Also, in a petrol car you are literally never worried about running out of fuel. I can confidently take detours, drive a bit faster if I want to, run the AC/hea

Also, in a petrol car you are literally never worried about running out of fuel. I can confidently take detours, drive a bit faster if I want to, run the AC/heater on max, and I am 100% sure I will always find a filling station when I need to. I don't have to "plan" my refuelling stops at all. I stop whenever I feel hungry or need a bathroom break. There will always be a petrol station at every stop. Another benefit comes into play when I am going to a less populated/remote place. For example the Ladakh region in India where petrol stations are far and few between. Just fill up a few 5 liter cans with petrol and you have a spare 500-600km range in your trunk. Cheap, easy and efficient.

macintux 6y ago
> Also, in a petrol car you are literally never worried about running out of fuel. Slightly hyperbolic. I was on a long trip through Arkansas one night, and was very worried about finding a gas station. These days, with smartphones and more 24 hour stations it's less of a concern, but if you're not careful it's certainly still possible to end up somewhere without a gas station in easy range. The world is a big place.
- WorldMaker 6y ago
  It's going to be interesting to watch this perspective drastically shift soon, likely in the next few years. The electric grid is wired just about everywhere and even worst case you can always find a boring "Level 1" plug somewhere to at least get you trickled a couple miles to try to make it a bit further. "Anywhere the light touches" has electricity (because most lamps this century are electric). On the other hand gas is a highly volatile liquid shipped at great expense across the country to pump stations that typically sell it for low or no margin loss leaders for convenience stores and grocery stores. It's a great miracle of logistics that it seems like gas stations are everywhere, and have more than enough supply to meet demand. The 1970s isn't that far back in human memory to suggest exactly how fragile that supply chain really is and why disruptions in that supply chain are likely to snowball really quick and how quickly petrol cars may have to soon worry again about running out of fuel.
  - vineyardmike 6y ago
    > how quickly petrol cars may have to soon worry again about running out of fuel The nice (?horrrible?) thing about petrol is that those stations are environmental disasters, and in many parts of the US the laws governing the dismantling/re-purposing of the stations/land make it an extremely expensive development. This means that you're not likely to find significantly less stations in most areas anytime soon
    - WorldMaker 6y ago
      You'll certainly find far fewer operating stations in most areas "soon", but you are right that the stations themselves will likely stand as historic monuments of an earlier time far into the future under current US regulations, because dismantling/cleaning/repurposing them is extremely expensive. (I've got a couple old unused stations in my neighborhood already and watching the various ways they are reused, left to rot/wild, signed and resigned and signed again for sale/lease is an odd past time. I can't imagine what things are going to be feeling like when this is an even far more common phenomenon out in the suburbs and exurbs.)

macintux 6y ago

> Also, in a petrol car you are literally never worried about running out of fuel. Slightly hyperbolic. I was on a long trip through Arkansas one night, and was very worried about finding a gas station. These days, with smartphones and more 24 hour stations it's less of a concern, but if you're not careful it's certainly still possible to end up somewhere without a gas station in easy range. The world is a big place.

WorldMaker 6y ago
It's going to be interesting to watch this perspective drastically shift soon, likely in the next few years. The electric grid is wired just about everywhere and even worst case you can always find a boring "Level 1" plug somewhere to at least get you trickled a couple miles to try to make it a bit further. "Anywhere the light touches" has electricity (because most lamps this century are electric). On the other hand gas is a highly volatile liquid shipped at great expense across the country to pump stations that typically sell it for low or no margin loss leaders for convenience stores and grocery stores. It's a great miracle of logistics that it seems like gas stations are everywhere, and have more than enough supply to meet demand. The 1970s isn't that far back in human memory to suggest exactly how fragile that supply chain really is and why disruptions in that supply chain are likely to snowball really quick and how quickly petrol cars may have to soon worry again about running out of fuel.
- vineyardmike 6y ago
  > how quickly petrol cars may have to soon worry again about running out of fuel The nice (?horrrible?) thing about petrol is that those stations are environmental disasters, and in many parts of the US the laws governing the dismantling/re-purposing of the stations/land make it an extremely expensive development. This means that you're not likely to find significantly less stations in most areas anytime soon
  - WorldMaker 6y ago
    You'll certainly find far fewer operating stations in most areas "soon", but you are right that the stations themselves will likely stand as historic monuments of an earlier time far into the future under current US regulations, because dismantling/cleaning/repurposing them is extremely expensive. (I've got a couple old unused stations in my neighborhood already and watching the various ways they are reused, left to rot/wild, signed and resigned and signed again for sale/lease is an odd past time. I can't imagine what things are going to be feeling like when this is an even far more common phenomenon out in the suburbs and exurbs.)