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I have family in a very rural area, we drive one-way 500+ miles, ~9 hours, several times a year to see them. In my ICE SUV I have to stop twice for gas assuming

I have family in a very rural area, we drive one-way 500+ miles, ~9 hours, several times a year to see them. In my ICE SUV I have to stop twice for gas assuming I start with a full tank. Trying to do that trip in an electric vehicle, in order to account for charging stations, would add 4 stops and around 2 hours for charging. Tesla's trips webpage also estimates that I'd save...$13 in fuel compared to gas. The cars are more expensive, the number of required stopping locations is increased while severely restricted, and overall I don't save much money charging compared to buying gasoline. Overall it doesn't add up, and I think a lot of Americans see it this way as well. In the US the automobile has historically been marketed and used as a tool of freedom, independence, mobility, etc. It's hard to market something as a provider of mobility when in my mind I see an orange extension cord tethering it to the cities and metro areas.

rnk 5y ago
Electric cars have their limits, just like a small toyota or honda car won't be right to pull your big boat of travel trailer. You need to find charging along your route, and you don't want to arrive with only a tiny range left and be stuck with slow charging. But that very rarely happens to me today driving all around the northwest to ski, go to canada (precovid at least ;-)), Banff, Oregon, Idaho, you can just drive there. I'm curious about the route, because that's not that far. The first gen lucid air cars have a 500 mile range. That max range vehicle costs about 160k at the moment. Many cheaper cars are 300+ miles today, even the rivian truck has an epa range of 314 miles (and this is far from the best long range car). Tesla has 400 mile range cars today (latest model s at 396 miles), model 3 is 350 miles w awd. Tesla superchargers make charging easy and fast generally for the entire area, with that distance and a tesla or other current gen car, and allowing 1 or 2 20 minute charging stops it should be easy to go that distance. I'd consider trying one of the websites that let you pick a route and input your car and they suggest distance and charging locations needed (e.g., https://aBetterRoutePlanner.com https://aBetterRoutePlanner.com). With tesla you usually pay around the price of electricity; unfortuatenly electrify america charges double or triple local power prices. It's not that hard for me to go anywhere I want in my 7 year old model s.
- treesknees 5y ago
  I just tried that site and set it to "fewest stops", it dropped from 4 to 3 charges for a Tesla model 3, and reduced charging time to a little bit over an hour. That's not as bad as Tesla's planning site was showing me. I also tried adjusting the car type to a Ford Mach-e, and I only have to stop twice as long as I drive a 5-hour stretch at 55 MPH max. The speed limit on this stretch is 75 MPH. I do understand that different vehicles have different functionality and targeted use-cases. In this case, I'm not pulling a boat or a trailer. I'm "just driving" which is a pretty standard thing to want to do in a car. My point still stands, if I need to spend $160k to drive 500 miles in an electric vehicle, I'd rather go buy a $40k ICE vehicle that can do it with fewer stops.
  - tracker1 5y ago
    The bigger thing to me is the time for the stops. I can generally fill up, go to the restroom and grab a meal in well under 20m with ICE. Depending on the trip, I'd have to sit for another half hour or more. My last Vegas trip, one of the stops near a charging center had several cars waiting for chargers. I don't think I'd enjoy that at all. I've thought about an EV for local commuting, but the costs just don't seem worth it. Let alone even less ability for independent repair or maintaining. And dropping $15-20k every few years on a new set of batteries is definitely less than appealing.

rnk 5y ago

Electric cars have their limits, just like a small toyota or honda car won't be right to pull your big boat of travel trailer. You need to find charging along your route, and you don't want to arrive with only a tiny range left and be stuck with slow charging. But that very rarely happens to me today driving all around the northwest to ski, go to canada (precovid at least ;-)), Banff, Oregon, Idaho, you can just drive there. I'm curious about the route, because that's not that far. The first gen lucid air cars have a 500 mile range. That max range vehicle costs about 160k at the moment. Many cheaper cars are 300+ miles today, even the rivian truck has an epa range of 314 miles (and this is far from the best long range car). Tesla has 400 mile range cars today (latest model s at 396 miles), model 3 is 350 miles w awd. Tesla superchargers make charging easy and fast generally for the entire area, with that distance and a tesla or other current gen car, and allowing 1 or 2 20 minute charging stops it should be easy to go that distance. I'd consider trying one of the websites that let you pick a route and input your car and they suggest distance and charging locations needed (e.g., https://aBetterRoutePlanner.com https://aBetterRoutePlanner.com). With tesla you usually pay around the price of electricity; unfortuatenly electrify america charges double or triple local power prices. It's not that hard for me to go anywhere I want in my 7 year old model s.

treesknees 5y ago
I just tried that site and set it to "fewest stops", it dropped from 4 to 3 charges for a Tesla model 3, and reduced charging time to a little bit over an hour. That's not as bad as Tesla's planning site was showing me. I also tried adjusting the car type to a Ford Mach-e, and I only have to stop twice as long as I drive a 5-hour stretch at 55 MPH max. The speed limit on this stretch is 75 MPH. I do understand that different vehicles have different functionality and targeted use-cases. In this case, I'm not pulling a boat or a trailer. I'm "just driving" which is a pretty standard thing to want to do in a car. My point still stands, if I need to spend $160k to drive 500 miles in an electric vehicle, I'd rather go buy a $40k ICE vehicle that can do it with fewer stops.
- tracker1 5y ago
  The bigger thing to me is the time for the stops. I can generally fill up, go to the restroom and grab a meal in well under 20m with ICE. Depending on the trip, I'd have to sit for another half hour or more. My last Vegas trip, one of the stops near a charging center had several cars waiting for chargers. I don't think I'd enjoy that at all. I've thought about an EV for local commuting, but the costs just don't seem worth it. Let alone even less ability for independent repair or maintaining. And dropping $15-20k every few years on a new set of batteries is definitely less than appealing.