3 ms·

Current Teslas will get you 50% charge in half an hour. Is adding 25 mins to your 5 hour journey really that big a deal?

DrBazza 4y ago
In the UK, in 2023, yes. I drive a part motorway, part countryside route that has very, very, few EV charging points, and on many occasions they've been full or broken, or both. EV cars are good for cities and city to city along motorways. Anywhere else, not so much.
- Reason077 4y ago
  The UK charging experience has improved rapidly in the the past few years and will continue to do so. That is, buy an EV today and it's only going to improve tomorrow as more and better charging infrastructure is rolled out.
kgwgk 4y ago
Isn’t "adding 25 mins" conditional on having a charging point right on your way waiting for you?
- DrBazza 4y ago
  Exactly my point. Based on time to charge vs time to pump gas, let's be charitable and say you need 30 minutes to charge an EV fully, vs. 5 minutes on a pump, so you'd need 6x the number of publicly available EV chargers to replace an existing gas station. On my regular UK route, the motorway services have petrol garages that can fill 20 cars at once https://goo.gl/maps/wF7dxup3jBMAGqjg9 https://goo.gl/maps/wF7dxup3jBMAGqjg9, and only 6 EV points: https://goo.gl/maps/GXm2xoPNvXGZiMxU9 https://goo.gl/maps/GXm2xoPNvXGZiMxU9 and they're always occupied when I pass through. I'm sure every car park will eventually get more EV points, never one per space though, but we're not there yet. We're not even at 6x the gas station pump count yet. I'm sure I'll be in the last group of people to buy an EV.
Gareth321 4y ago
This is not real world. Here is one (https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=550e4ca1-4a68-4ef2-807b-ac812839d506 https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=550e4ca1-4a68-4ef...) My family regularly travels from Denmark to Austria for skiing. This route is 10:36:00 of driving, and 2:26:00 of charging. And that's assuming the chargers are free. They're often not. In reality - and I have tested this with a rental - charging occupies 30%+ of total driving time. This is absurd on a road trip. I think EVs are great - for short trips. They're clearly terrible for longer trips. We all hope they get better.

DrBazza 4y ago

In the UK, in 2023, yes. I drive a part motorway, part countryside route that has very, very, few EV charging points, and on many occasions they've been full or broken, or both. EV cars are good for cities and city to city along motorways. Anywhere else, not so much.

Reason077 4y ago
The UK charging experience has improved rapidly in the the past few years and will continue to do so. That is, buy an EV today and it's only going to improve tomorrow as more and better charging infrastructure is rolled out.

kgwgk 4y ago

Isn’t "adding 25 mins" conditional on having a charging point right on your way waiting for you?

DrBazza 4y ago
Exactly my point. Based on time to charge vs time to pump gas, let's be charitable and say you need 30 minutes to charge an EV fully, vs. 5 minutes on a pump, so you'd need 6x the number of publicly available EV chargers to replace an existing gas station. On my regular UK route, the motorway services have petrol garages that can fill 20 cars at once https://goo.gl/maps/wF7dxup3jBMAGqjg9 https://goo.gl/maps/wF7dxup3jBMAGqjg9, and only 6 EV points: https://goo.gl/maps/GXm2xoPNvXGZiMxU9 https://goo.gl/maps/GXm2xoPNvXGZiMxU9 and they're always occupied when I pass through. I'm sure every car park will eventually get more EV points, never one per space though, but we're not there yet. We're not even at 6x the gas station pump count yet. I'm sure I'll be in the last group of people to buy an EV.

Gareth321 4y ago

This is not real world. Here is one (https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=550e4ca1-4a68-4ef2-807b-ac812839d506 https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=550e4ca1-4a68-4ef...) My family regularly travels from Denmark to Austria for skiing. This route is 10:36:00 of driving, and 2:26:00 of charging. And that's assuming the chargers are free. They're often not. In reality - and I have tested this with a rental - charging occupies 30%+ of total driving time. This is absurd on a road trip. I think EVs are great - for short trips. They're clearly terrible for longer trips. We all hope they get better.