3 ms·

I agree with your last point. I don’t own a truck because I can rent an 8 foot bed truck at uhaul for <$100 with little notice. It’s been fine. But range “anxi

by mlac 5y ago

I agree with your last point. I don’t own a truck because I can rent an 8 foot bed truck at uhaul for <$100 with little notice. It’s been fine. But range “anxiety” (concern?) has stopped me from buying an electric car so far (though the next one will be). Your first example doesn’t account for variance, charging where you wind up, and fluctuations in demand. Most people travel on busy travel days. So this could be a problem if I’m going to the beach on a Saturday. Suddenly I’m in line behind 3 other cars that drove the same distance to minimize the number of charges they need between my city and the beach. So I now need to wait 1 hour before I can start charging, and I don’t have enough fuel to get to another charger. Now I arrive at the beach house and I either can only slow charge or need to find a charger. I can also go 500 miles on a tank of gas. That’s one trip without stopping (realistically 250 miles over 3.5 hours of highway driving). That’s right on the edge of charging, and then it’s making a 3.5 hour trip a 4 hour trip, which makes a difference. That’s an hour out of the weekend.

cogman10 5y ago
> Most people travel on busy travel days. So this could be a problem if I’m going to the beach on a Saturday. In my experience, I've only had to wait to charge once. There are generally more than enough chargers for weekends. It's holidays you have to watch out for. > Now I arrive at the beach house and I either can only slow charge or need to find a charger. 24 hours of charging will fill up most EV to 100%. Most EV owners would say "Yeah, slow charge at the beach house, why look for a fast charger?". You probably aren't doing anything at night and even if that's the only time you slow charge, 16 hours would give you a pretty decent chunk of range.
- mlac 5y ago
  Agreed, but I think it’s going to be a mess in the next couple years when ford starts shipping the lightning. There are going to be way more trucks than chargers to handle them for long trips. Practically that doesn’t make a difference (and I’d probably take my gas vehicle for long road trips). And slow charging works at the vacation spot, unless you’re at a condo / parking garage without power outlets. It’s just enough inconvenience (with fairly significant consequences if you run out of charge [half day of vacation waster]) to make it less practical right now as a single car solution.
  - cogman10 5y ago
    > Agreed, but I think it’s going to be a mess in the next couple years when ford starts shipping the lightning. Agreed there. The lightning is going to sell like hotcakes. I only hope ford starts investing in charge networks. This won't really affect tesla's, but it will put a lot of strain on these smaller networks. > And slow charging works at the vacation spot, unless you’re at a condo / parking garage without power outlets. It’s just enough inconvenience (with fairly significant consequences if you run out of charge [half day of vacation waster]) to make it less practical right now as a single car solution. Personally, I plan my lodging around EV chargers. Though, I'd be the first to say that sometimes there's not enough chargers for everyone that wants to charge. My hope is that as time goes on, we'll see bigger expansion of L2 chargers. It's something that I believe more EV adoption will drive more L2 deployment.

by mlac 5y ago

cogman10 5y ago

> Most people travel on busy travel days. So this could be a problem if I’m going to the beach on a Saturday. In my experience, I've only had to wait to charge once. There are generally more than enough chargers for weekends. It's holidays you have to watch out for. > Now I arrive at the beach house and I either can only slow charge or need to find a charger. 24 hours of charging will fill up most EV to 100%. Most EV owners would say "Yeah, slow charge at the beach house, why look for a fast charger?". You probably aren't doing anything at night and even if that's the only time you slow charge, 16 hours would give you a pretty decent chunk of range.

mlac 5y ago
Agreed, but I think it’s going to be a mess in the next couple years when ford starts shipping the lightning. There are going to be way more trucks than chargers to handle them for long trips. Practically that doesn’t make a difference (and I’d probably take my gas vehicle for long road trips). And slow charging works at the vacation spot, unless you’re at a condo / parking garage without power outlets. It’s just enough inconvenience (with fairly significant consequences if you run out of charge [half day of vacation waster]) to make it less practical right now as a single car solution.
- cogman10 5y ago
  > Agreed, but I think it’s going to be a mess in the next couple years when ford starts shipping the lightning. Agreed there. The lightning is going to sell like hotcakes. I only hope ford starts investing in charge networks. This won't really affect tesla's, but it will put a lot of strain on these smaller networks. > And slow charging works at the vacation spot, unless you’re at a condo / parking garage without power outlets. It’s just enough inconvenience (with fairly significant consequences if you run out of charge [half day of vacation waster]) to make it less practical right now as a single car solution. Personally, I plan my lodging around EV chargers. Though, I'd be the first to say that sometimes there's not enough chargers for everyone that wants to charge. My hope is that as time goes on, we'll see bigger expansion of L2 chargers. It's something that I believe more EV adoption will drive more L2 deployment.