8 ms·

I Rented an Electric Car for 4 Days and Spent More Time Charging Than Sleeping

34 points by georgecmu 4y ago

gvb 4y ago
https://archive.ph/vH2Px https://archive.ph/vH2Px
ahmedalsudani 4y ago
Another perspective in the form of a video: https://youtu.be/1Vm_ASm2zfs https://youtu.be/1Vm_ASm2zfs Spoiler: this person had a very different experience. They spent 2h20m charging going from Illinois to Florida (at least I'm pretty sure it was Florida)
- yaomtc 4y ago
  Here is the companion Technology Connections video from the other person on the trip: https://youtu.be/sZOuz_laH9I https://youtu.be/sZOuz_laH9I
joshstrange 4y ago
Wow, what drivel. Almost zero planning/research and they are surprised they had a bad experience? I honestly don't know what to call this other than FUD.
- throwaway0a5e 4y ago
  >Almost zero planning/research and they are surprised they had a bad experience? B) The author did much planning, as described in TFA, other commenters have noted this. The author just didn't have the requisite experience to know their plan was unrealistic. B) Having to to planning/research in that level of detail the kind of stuff you expect when you're like "Imma tow my big-ass boat over the mountains with my old minivan", not when you're renting a modern car for a trip with no special requirements.
  - joshstrange 4y ago
    Hard disagree. An EV at home/around town should be something you don't have to even think about (let it charge overnight at your house) but I would never consider going on a trip longer than 1 full charge worth of range without mapping out the route. There appear to be apps that specifically do this for you instead of just searching for stations along your route as you go and no excuse as to why they didn't do that (other than trying on purpose to make EVs sound bad or being woefully bad at planning).
    - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
      What did I say that you are disagreeing with? >but I would never consider going on a trip longer than 1 full charge worth of range without mapping out the route. This represents a level of planning that is far greater than what has been the status quo since the advent of consumer GPS, arguably longer. > without mapping out the route. There appear to be apps that specifically do this for you instead of just searching for stations along your route as you go and no excuse as to why they didn't do that (other than trying on purpose to make EVs sound bad or being woefully bad at planning). Having to search for services in advance is a regression to the days of paper maps, road atlas's and printed tourist guides (though in those days people were searching for food/lodging, not fuel, but it's mostly the same IMO). I think the author was naive to just wing it but anyone pretending the current state of EVs is not a regression is either being dishonest or naively projecting their specific use case (traveling with family, lots of stops, etc) onto everyone.
      - joshstrange 4y ago
        I never said that EVs don't have some regressions but anyone who gets behind the wheel of one and doesn't take that into account is not someone I would trust with almost anything requiring problem solving skills. I'm not aware of anyone saying "You can jump in an EV and go anywhere with reckless abandon", I know you can more or less do this with ICEs but no one is saying they are completely equivalent. If you want to save money on the medium your car uses (gas vs electric) there are currently some downsides that you may or may not find acceptable. Jumping into an EV and expecting it to work just like an ICE or to be able to do a cross-country trip with little planning or knowledge of the car you are using is just silly. There are countless videos/articles about people successfully doing this, but that's not as interesting as this clickbait BS.
- TrevorJ 4y ago
  Counterpoint: consumers can embark on a long road trip with a gasoline powered car with zero planning or research with respect to refueling. If electrics want wider adoption in the free market, that is something that will need to be addressed.
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    You don't need to do the planning ahead of time, your passenger does it on the road on the giant touchscreen. And it's really simple, you're just choosing restaurants and hotels based on availability of charging.
    - TrevorJ 4y ago
      A fair point, and many early adopters are perfectly willing modify their behavior in these small ways to make an electric workable. There's another segment of the market that will likely only open up once fast electric charging networks are ubiquitous enough to exist off of (nearly) every major highway exit.
  - notacoward 4y ago
    It's too simplistic to say that the charging situation needs to be addressed before the cars become viable. It's a real chicken and egg problem. The charging infrastructure and the variety of use cases that EVs cover need to be addressed together. Right now, EVs are fantastic as second cars, or for people who never drive more than an hour or so at a time, or for specific longer trips where you know and are comfortable with the charging options. That's enough to get more EVs on the road, which will provide economic incentive for a higher density of chargers, which will be enough to enable even longer trips without burdensome planning, and so the cycle continues. That's how free markets actually work. Demanding a one-sided "big bang" approach is tantamount to demanding deliberate distortion of the market (whoever goes first needs to be supported by some external means), which itself a good way to ensure that EV adoption remains slow. It doesn't seem like a particularly good-faith argument.
    - TrevorJ 4y ago
- aldebran 4y ago
  I watched the video and they did plan. The journalist showed notes she had prepared.
  - joshstrange 4y ago
    She wrote down a handful of stops in a paper notebook. I cannot take someone like that seriously. In life you have to roll with the punches and adapt, even more so when using new technology. To rely on a static list and then act surprised that you needed to use an app as weather conditions change is disingenuous.
    - nathanaldensr 4y ago
      Imagine blaming the driver for steps that are completely unnecessary in an ICE vehicle.
- parkingrift 4y ago
  What? She planned her entire route around charging. Meticulously picked L3 for in-day top-up and L2 for overnight stay. Planned the entire route around the charging network using the PlugShare app. What happened was that the charging stations were sometimes broken, sort of broken, or outright not as claimed such as L2 instead of L3. And it should be stated that none of this planning would be required with a combustion engine. This comment is FUD.
- gfdgfdgfsdafds 4y ago
  You could re-phrase that as "doing a long-distance trip in an EV requires meticulous planning with little margin for error and no concessions for novices, which may add hours to your total journey time". Or maybe "if you buy an EV, you will need to re-calibrate your definition of a distant destination".
  - alar44 4y ago
    - gfdgfdgfsdafds 4y ago
      What? I've seen loads of commenters defending their EV's ability to do huge long road trips.
    - cbmuser 4y ago
      No, it’s not. On the contrary, it proves that BEVs cannot replaces cars with combustion engines.
  - sliken 4y ago
    Or just get a Tesla. I literally just said "navigate to <destination>" and did a 1100 mile road trip that crossed the two tallest mountain ranges in the USA. Charging added an hour or so to the trip, but it was 18 hours or so of driving and people needed to stretch, eat, hit the bathroom etc so much of that hour was used for other things anyways.
- cbmuser 4y ago
  And? The point is: I don’t need any sophisticated planning with an ICE car. New technologies are supposed to be better, not worse. BEVs are clearly a huge step backwards in usability.
outside1234 4y ago
People need to slow down on car trips. You will enjoy it a lot more if you are driving less than 300 miles a day, which puts it into the range of most electric cars. If you can't do that, just fly.
- mwint 4y ago
  Flying is often slower than speed-optimized road trips for medium drives, once you factor in all the extra time spent not in the air: Logistics to & from airport, security, buffer time so you don't miss flights, possibly renting a car at the destination.
  - gpapilion 4y ago
    Around 500 miles; basically Sf to la. That trip is 2.5-3 hours by plane in the best case, and can tick up to 5-6 easily. You also have to figure in rental car etc. That said I’ve spent 10+ hours going from sf to la in a car.
- marssaxman 4y ago
  Different people like different things. I would almost always rather drive than fly. 300 miles is just getting started! My limit for a day is more like 750... I have frequently chosen to drive from Seattle to Sacramento, when visiting family in CA, rather than going through all the rigmarole and discomfort of a plane trip. Flying is worse for the environment, anyway, since there will be no electric jets in the foreseeable future.
obnauticus 4y ago
There are a lot of weird almost anti-EV articles like this hitting headlines recently. I wonder if someone is sponsoring these?
bryanlarsen 4y ago
We drove 3000km in an EV and spent a grand total of 15 minutes waiting for charging. Every other time the car was charging we were either bathrooming, eating or sleeping.
pjerem 4y ago
I'm not from the US and I know that road trips are part of the US culture but I'm not sure that they are the first use case of a car. Electric cars are designed and are suitable for everyday trips. If you are buying an EV mainly to do road trips, you are probably stupid. You are using the wrong tool for the job. If you really want to do road trips, well... you'd still better buy an EV... and use the money you spared by not buying oil all year long to rent a nice road car.
guardiangod 4y ago
So the conclusion I got from this article is "If You want to do road trips in an EV, get a Tesla."
- lelag 4y ago
  There is some truth to that statement but the article does not even do any justice about what that trip should have been. Charging at Walmart / Electrify America would have make the trip just as easy as using Superchargers. They didn't because it was not an interesting story if everything went smoothly.
lelag 4y ago
So infuriating to read. I guess "We took a car to go from point A to point B and everything went fine" does not make for a good article. Those idiots goes on a thousand miles journey and don't bother doing the slightest research. 2 minutes with ABRP (abetterrouteplanner.com) would have showed them where the fast charging station were, allowing to take advantage of the great charging speed of their KIA. Had they done so, they would have been able to do the 1000 miles with less than 2 hours charge total (ABRP claim 1 h 34 min), very little in comparison of the 17h drive... I wonder who pays for having such crap published...
- lelag 4y ago
  Also, they do state that charging at Electrify America in Walmart was a good experience. Well, had they planned properly they could have had this good experience at 6 different Walmart along their route over the 7 stop they needed. But again, that would not have make an interesting read...
- gfdgfdgfsdafds 4y ago
  >Given our battery range of up to 310 miles, I plotted a meticulous route, splitting our days into four chunks of roughly 7½-hours each. We’d need to charge once or twice each day and plug in near our hotel overnight. The PlugShare app—a user-generated map of public chargers—showed thousands of charging options between New Orleans and Chicago. But most were classified as Level 2, requiring around 8 hours for a full charge. While we’d be fine overnight, we required fast chargers during the days. ChargePoint Holdings Inc., which manufactures and maintains many fast-charging stations, promises an 80% charge in 20 to 30 minutes. Longer than stopping for gas—but good for a bite or bathroom break. This is how the "idiots" "didn't do any research". It's not going to help your cause if you get angry at people who do significantly more research than normal to do a road trip, but who are not experienced enough with the intricacies of owning an EV to know just how detailed those plans need to be.
  - lelag 4y ago
    Well then the story should be that KIA should improve their routing software and maybe license ABRP algorithm... I don't ever do any planning when leaving for a road trip in my Tesla: I just let the car tell me where I have to stop... Nothing complicated there.
Clent 4y ago
This reads more like poor planning than the woes of electric driving. The drive started without the vehicle being fully charged. They drove two different paths even though it was round trip. They did not book stays in hotels that offer onsite charging. The clickbait title is only possible because they averaged only 4 hours of sleep a night and averaged 4.5 hours charging. Interestingly they managed to make time to interview people along the way, which gives me the impression they scheduled the charging around interview opportunities rather than efficiency.
burnished 4y ago
Sorry, I didnt get past the paywall so I can only comment on the line I did read. >Our writer drove from New Orleans to Chicago and back to test the feasibility of taking a road trip in an EV. She wouldn’t soon do it again. I drove from Seattle to Texas over the course of a couple days in an EV and the times we stopped to charge were perfect. Very low hassle, the sort of extended (30-40 minute) break you tell yourself you'll take to stretch your legs but never do. Think we averaged two stops to recharge each day? Oh and it was built into our route. We didn't really have to think about it.
turtlebits 4y ago
It's true - EV (L3/fast charging) charging infra is not reliable at all. Electrify America has the most coverage (at least in the Seattle area), but their stations are unreliable. IME, >50% of the time, I'll have to replug multiple times or try another station. (or have to find another location) Be prepared to have a backup location or two in case you need to charge during your trip. Also, allocate extra time for charging as your EV may not charge at the full power it's rated for. (In winter my Bolt takes 2x the time to fast charge it does in the summer).
bcrl 4y ago
This is what makes an electric can untenable for my use-case. I can end up having to drive 400-500 km in a day to go for site visits and other tasks. I'm rather baffled that there don't seem to be any easy battery swap options for the mainstream EVs. Hell, I'd be happy if I could throw a spare battery in the trunk for those times when I need the extra range.
flurie 4y ago
The route from New Orleans to Chicago is surprisingly short on fast chargers. Had she picked destinations within a similar distance in any other direction, such as El Paso to the west or Miami to the (south)east, she would have had a very different experience. I think it's possible that she chose her destination knowing the state of infrastructure along the route.
taylodl 4y ago
WSJ is now in the business of selling FUD? This guy...isn't bright. Sorry - it's past time to call out this crap. This is the pathological use case for electric cars. Seriously - you're going on a loooooooooooooooong road trip? Rent a gas car. Your electric car is great for your daily commute and running errands. Also, if you're living in an urban environment, that does the most to reduce pollution and improve air quality. I'm tired of hearing everybody acting like they drive 500 miles daily and there's just no way an electric car would ever work for them. I'm sure that's true for some folks, but not the majority. Just like there are some folks who need to routinely tow heavy loads. An electric truck may not be good for you either. There are most definitely pathological use cases where with today's technology and charging infrastructure an electric vehicle is not a good idea. What's frustrating is it seems those pathological use cases are the only ones anybody talks about. What about commuters? Soccer moms? Urban people running their daily errands? Those are the primary use cases and people need to know how they hold up in these cases. How often do you have to charge? What if you don't have a garage to charge overnight? How does the car handle in snow and ice? These are the things we need to be discussing. I don't really care about the pathological cases.
- kalleboo 4y ago
  Sorry, reasonable arguments don't drive clicks and engagement
  - melling 4y ago
    FOX NEWS ALERT. THE Murdoch's own the Wall Street Journal
- gfdgfdgfsdafds 4y ago
  >you're going on a loooooooooooooooong road trip? Rent a gas car. May as well fly. Modern jets get better mpg per seat than most cars on the roads in the US (caveat: assuming the plane is mostly full, and the car is single-occupancy). I take it you have a similarly dim view of electric planes.
  - 4y ago
bediger4000 4y ago
2 dupes in the past 2 days: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630737 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630737 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31627168 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31627168 This strikes me as more corporate propaganda spamming campaign, like the 4 reposts of the "tires cause more pollution than car exhaust" The Guardian article over the last few days.
jiveturkey42 4y ago
They could have towed a diesel generator and used it for charging.

34 points by georgecmu 4y ago

gvb 4y ago

https://archive.ph/vH2Px https://archive.ph/vH2Px

Another perspective in the form of a video: https://youtu.be/1Vm_ASm2zfs https://youtu.be/1Vm_ASm2zfs Spoiler: this person had a very different experience. They spent 2h20m charging going from Illinois to Florida (at least I'm pretty sure it was Florida)

yaomtc 4y ago
Here is the companion Technology Connections video from the other person on the trip: https://youtu.be/sZOuz_laH9I https://youtu.be/sZOuz_laH9I

joshstrange 4y ago

Wow, what drivel. Almost zero planning/research and they are surprised they had a bad experience? I honestly don't know what to call this other than FUD.

throwaway0a5e 4y ago
>Almost zero planning/research and they are surprised they had a bad experience? B) The author did much planning, as described in TFA, other commenters have noted this. The author just didn't have the requisite experience to know their plan was unrealistic. B) Having to to planning/research in that level of detail the kind of stuff you expect when you're like "Imma tow my big-ass boat over the mountains with my old minivan", not when you're renting a modern car for a trip with no special requirements.
- joshstrange 4y ago
  Hard disagree. An EV at home/around town should be something you don't have to even think about (let it charge overnight at your house) but I would never consider going on a trip longer than 1 full charge worth of range without mapping out the route. There appear to be apps that specifically do this for you instead of just searching for stations along your route as you go and no excuse as to why they didn't do that (other than trying on purpose to make EVs sound bad or being woefully bad at planning).
  - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
    What did I say that you are disagreeing with? >but I would never consider going on a trip longer than 1 full charge worth of range without mapping out the route. This represents a level of planning that is far greater than what has been the status quo since the advent of consumer GPS, arguably longer. > without mapping out the route. There appear to be apps that specifically do this for you instead of just searching for stations along your route as you go and no excuse as to why they didn't do that (other than trying on purpose to make EVs sound bad or being woefully bad at planning). Having to search for services in advance is a regression to the days of paper maps, road atlas's and printed tourist guides (though in those days people were searching for food/lodging, not fuel, but it's mostly the same IMO). I think the author was naive to just wing it but anyone pretending the current state of EVs is not a regression is either being dishonest or naively projecting their specific use case (traveling with family, lots of stops, etc) onto everyone.
    - joshstrange 4y ago
      I never said that EVs don't have some regressions but anyone who gets behind the wheel of one and doesn't take that into account is not someone I would trust with almost anything requiring problem solving skills. I'm not aware of anyone saying "You can jump in an EV and go anywhere with reckless abandon", I know you can more or less do this with ICEs but no one is saying they are completely equivalent. If you want to save money on the medium your car uses (gas vs electric) there are currently some downsides that you may or may not find acceptable. Jumping into an EV and expecting it to work just like an ICE or to be able to do a cross-country trip with little planning or knowledge of the car you are using is just silly. There are countless videos/articles about people successfully doing this, but that's not as interesting as this clickbait BS.
TrevorJ 4y ago
Counterpoint: consumers can embark on a long road trip with a gasoline powered car with zero planning or research with respect to refueling. If electrics want wider adoption in the free market, that is something that will need to be addressed.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  You don't need to do the planning ahead of time, your passenger does it on the road on the giant touchscreen. And it's really simple, you're just choosing restaurants and hotels based on availability of charging.
  - TrevorJ 4y ago
    A fair point, and many early adopters are perfectly willing modify their behavior in these small ways to make an electric workable. There's another segment of the market that will likely only open up once fast electric charging networks are ubiquitous enough to exist off of (nearly) every major highway exit.
- notacoward 4y ago
  It's too simplistic to say that the charging situation needs to be addressed before the cars become viable. It's a real chicken and egg problem. The charging infrastructure and the variety of use cases that EVs cover need to be addressed together. Right now, EVs are fantastic as second cars, or for people who never drive more than an hour or so at a time, or for specific longer trips where you know and are comfortable with the charging options. That's enough to get more EVs on the road, which will provide economic incentive for a higher density of chargers, which will be enough to enable even longer trips without burdensome planning, and so the cycle continues. That's how free markets actually work. Demanding a one-sided "big bang" approach is tantamount to demanding deliberate distortion of the market (whoever goes first needs to be supported by some external means), which itself a good way to ensure that EV adoption remains slow. It doesn't seem like a particularly good-faith argument.
  - TrevorJ 4y ago
aldebran 4y ago
I watched the video and they did plan. The journalist showed notes she had prepared.
- joshstrange 4y ago
  She wrote down a handful of stops in a paper notebook. I cannot take someone like that seriously. In life you have to roll with the punches and adapt, even more so when using new technology. To rely on a static list and then act surprised that you needed to use an app as weather conditions change is disingenuous.
  - nathanaldensr 4y ago
    Imagine blaming the driver for steps that are completely unnecessary in an ICE vehicle.
parkingrift 4y ago
What? She planned her entire route around charging. Meticulously picked L3 for in-day top-up and L2 for overnight stay. Planned the entire route around the charging network using the PlugShare app. What happened was that the charging stations were sometimes broken, sort of broken, or outright not as claimed such as L2 instead of L3. And it should be stated that none of this planning would be required with a combustion engine. This comment is FUD.
gfdgfdgfsdafds 4y ago
You could re-phrase that as "doing a long-distance trip in an EV requires meticulous planning with little margin for error and no concessions for novices, which may add hours to your total journey time". Or maybe "if you buy an EV, you will need to re-calibrate your definition of a distant destination".
- alar44 4y ago
  - gfdgfdgfsdafds 4y ago
    What? I've seen loads of commenters defending their EV's ability to do huge long road trips.
  - cbmuser 4y ago
    No, it’s not. On the contrary, it proves that BEVs cannot replaces cars with combustion engines.
- sliken 4y ago
  Or just get a Tesla. I literally just said "navigate to <destination>" and did a 1100 mile road trip that crossed the two tallest mountain ranges in the USA. Charging added an hour or so to the trip, but it was 18 hours or so of driving and people needed to stretch, eat, hit the bathroom etc so much of that hour was used for other things anyways.
cbmuser 4y ago
And? The point is: I don’t need any sophisticated planning with an ICE car. New technologies are supposed to be better, not worse. BEVs are clearly a huge step backwards in usability.

outside1234 4y ago

People need to slow down on car trips. You will enjoy it a lot more if you are driving less than 300 miles a day, which puts it into the range of most electric cars. If you can't do that, just fly.

mwint 4y ago
Flying is often slower than speed-optimized road trips for medium drives, once you factor in all the extra time spent not in the air: Logistics to & from airport, security, buffer time so you don't miss flights, possibly renting a car at the destination.
- gpapilion 4y ago
  Around 500 miles; basically Sf to la. That trip is 2.5-3 hours by plane in the best case, and can tick up to 5-6 easily. You also have to figure in rental car etc. That said I’ve spent 10+ hours going from sf to la in a car.
marssaxman 4y ago
Different people like different things. I would almost always rather drive than fly. 300 miles is just getting started! My limit for a day is more like 750... I have frequently chosen to drive from Seattle to Sacramento, when visiting family in CA, rather than going through all the rigmarole and discomfort of a plane trip. Flying is worse for the environment, anyway, since there will be no electric jets in the foreseeable future.

obnauticus 4y ago

There are a lot of weird almost anti-EV articles like this hitting headlines recently. I wonder if someone is sponsoring these?

bryanlarsen 4y ago

We drove 3000km in an EV and spent a grand total of 15 minutes waiting for charging. Every other time the car was charging we were either bathrooming, eating or sleeping.

pjerem 4y ago

I'm not from the US and I know that road trips are part of the US culture but I'm not sure that they are the first use case of a car. Electric cars are designed and are suitable for everyday trips. If you are buying an EV mainly to do road trips, you are probably stupid. You are using the wrong tool for the job. If you really want to do road trips, well... you'd still better buy an EV... and use the money you spared by not buying oil all year long to rent a nice road car.

guardiangod 4y ago

So the conclusion I got from this article is "If You want to do road trips in an EV, get a Tesla."

lelag 4y ago
There is some truth to that statement but the article does not even do any justice about what that trip should have been. Charging at Walmart / Electrify America would have make the trip just as easy as using Superchargers. They didn't because it was not an interesting story if everything went smoothly.

lelag 4y ago

So infuriating to read. I guess "We took a car to go from point A to point B and everything went fine" does not make for a good article. Those idiots goes on a thousand miles journey and don't bother doing the slightest research. 2 minutes with ABRP (abetterrouteplanner.com) would have showed them where the fast charging station were, allowing to take advantage of the great charging speed of their KIA. Had they done so, they would have been able to do the 1000 miles with less than 2 hours charge total (ABRP claim 1 h 34 min), very little in comparison of the 17h drive... I wonder who pays for having such crap published...

lelag 4y ago
Also, they do state that charging at Electrify America in Walmart was a good experience. Well, had they planned properly they could have had this good experience at 6 different Walmart along their route over the 7 stop they needed. But again, that would not have make an interesting read...
gfdgfdgfsdafds 4y ago
>Given our battery range of up to 310 miles, I plotted a meticulous route, splitting our days into four chunks of roughly 7½-hours each. We’d need to charge once or twice each day and plug in near our hotel overnight. The PlugShare app—a user-generated map of public chargers—showed thousands of charging options between New Orleans and Chicago. But most were classified as Level 2, requiring around 8 hours for a full charge. While we’d be fine overnight, we required fast chargers during the days. ChargePoint Holdings Inc., which manufactures and maintains many fast-charging stations, promises an 80% charge in 20 to 30 minutes. Longer than stopping for gas—but good for a bite or bathroom break. This is how the "idiots" "didn't do any research". It's not going to help your cause if you get angry at people who do significantly more research than normal to do a road trip, but who are not experienced enough with the intricacies of owning an EV to know just how detailed those plans need to be.
- lelag 4y ago
  Well then the story should be that KIA should improve their routing software and maybe license ABRP algorithm... I don't ever do any planning when leaving for a road trip in my Tesla: I just let the car tell me where I have to stop... Nothing complicated there.

Clent 4y ago

This reads more like poor planning than the woes of electric driving. The drive started without the vehicle being fully charged. They drove two different paths even though it was round trip. They did not book stays in hotels that offer onsite charging. The clickbait title is only possible because they averaged only 4 hours of sleep a night and averaged 4.5 hours charging. Interestingly they managed to make time to interview people along the way, which gives me the impression they scheduled the charging around interview opportunities rather than efficiency.

burnished 4y ago

Sorry, I didnt get past the paywall so I can only comment on the line I did read. >Our writer drove from New Orleans to Chicago and back to test the feasibility of taking a road trip in an EV. She wouldn’t soon do it again. I drove from Seattle to Texas over the course of a couple days in an EV and the times we stopped to charge were perfect. Very low hassle, the sort of extended (30-40 minute) break you tell yourself you'll take to stretch your legs but never do. Think we averaged two stops to recharge each day? Oh and it was built into our route. We didn't really have to think about it.

turtlebits 4y ago

It's true - EV (L3/fast charging) charging infra is not reliable at all. Electrify America has the most coverage (at least in the Seattle area), but their stations are unreliable. IME, >50% of the time, I'll have to replug multiple times or try another station. (or have to find another location) Be prepared to have a backup location or two in case you need to charge during your trip. Also, allocate extra time for charging as your EV may not charge at the full power it's rated for. (In winter my Bolt takes 2x the time to fast charge it does in the summer).

bcrl 4y ago

This is what makes an electric can untenable for my use-case. I can end up having to drive 400-500 km in a day to go for site visits and other tasks. I'm rather baffled that there don't seem to be any easy battery swap options for the mainstream EVs. Hell, I'd be happy if I could throw a spare battery in the trunk for those times when I need the extra range.

flurie 4y ago

The route from New Orleans to Chicago is surprisingly short on fast chargers. Had she picked destinations within a similar distance in any other direction, such as El Paso to the west or Miami to the (south)east, she would have had a very different experience. I think it's possible that she chose her destination knowing the state of infrastructure along the route.

taylodl 4y ago

WSJ is now in the business of selling FUD? This guy...isn't bright. Sorry - it's past time to call out this crap. This is the pathological use case for electric cars. Seriously - you're going on a loooooooooooooooong road trip? Rent a gas car. Your electric car is great for your daily commute and running errands. Also, if you're living in an urban environment, that does the most to reduce pollution and improve air quality. I'm tired of hearing everybody acting like they drive 500 miles daily and there's just no way an electric car would ever work for them. I'm sure that's true for some folks, but not the majority. Just like there are some folks who need to routinely tow heavy loads. An electric truck may not be good for you either. There are most definitely pathological use cases where with today's technology and charging infrastructure an electric vehicle is not a good idea. What's frustrating is it seems those pathological use cases are the only ones anybody talks about. What about commuters? Soccer moms? Urban people running their daily errands? Those are the primary use cases and people need to know how they hold up in these cases. How often do you have to charge? What if you don't have a garage to charge overnight? How does the car handle in snow and ice? These are the things we need to be discussing. I don't really care about the pathological cases.

kalleboo 4y ago
Sorry, reasonable arguments don't drive clicks and engagement
- melling 4y ago
  FOX NEWS ALERT. THE Murdoch's own the Wall Street Journal
gfdgfdgfsdafds 4y ago
>you're going on a loooooooooooooooong road trip? Rent a gas car. May as well fly. Modern jets get better mpg per seat than most cars on the roads in the US (caveat: assuming the plane is mostly full, and the car is single-occupancy). I take it you have a similarly dim view of electric planes.
- 4y ago

bediger4000 4y ago

2 dupes in the past 2 days: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630737 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630737 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31627168 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31627168 This strikes me as more corporate propaganda spamming campaign, like the 4 reposts of the "tires cause more pollution than car exhaust" The Guardian article over the last few days.

jiveturkey42 4y ago

They could have towed a diesel generator and used it for charging.