4 ms·

What percentage of overall miles driven are accounted for by cross-country (or lets just say multi-day trips) out of the total number of miles driven? The stat

What percentage of overall miles driven are accounted for by cross-country (or lets just say multi-day trips) out of the total number of miles driven? The stat I can find states that for single-trip journeys 98% are under 50 miles, with those over 70 miles being 1%. Obviously "single-trip" is doing plenty of work there, but you can go surprisingly far in a day of driving and those are still pretty small numbers. Maybe at the end of the day the car is just not the best way to go across a country as large as the US.

lockhouse 3y ago
It doesn’t matter what percent of trips that represents, a lot of Americans won’t buy EVs that aren’t capable of making these trips when they want to make them. Nobody wants to take a Greyhound bus to see their parents that live 4 hours away in the next state over.
- EA-3167 3y ago
  The thing is we know already that single-trips like that are less than 1% of all miles driven, and 4 hours is definitely a single-trip. I'd add that even with an EV and needing to stop for a charge, that's still very much a single trip affair. I'm sure that some people won't buy a car on that basis, but I suspect the vast majority will. The more people buy them, the more the infrastructure caters to it, the more the technology is funded and advances, and the remaining holdouts will eventually be sufficiently incentivized.
  - lockhouse 3y ago
    I’m not arguing against EVs at all, just making the case that 350 miles of range isn’t excessive by any means, especially once you account for battery degradation over time. Personally the absolute minimum range I would consider for an EV is 250 miles with 300 or more being ideal.
supertrope 3y ago
The existence of right off highway gas stations, rest stops, motels, and fast food restaurants caters to road trippers. As much as I wish we had a robust inter-city train network people expect to be able to drive 400 miles in a day, stopping only every 1-2 hours for 10 min. As opposed to waiting for one of four charging spots to become available and taking 30 min to get another 100 mi of range.

lockhouse 3y ago

It doesn’t matter what percent of trips that represents, a lot of Americans won’t buy EVs that aren’t capable of making these trips when they want to make them. Nobody wants to take a Greyhound bus to see their parents that live 4 hours away in the next state over.

EA-3167 3y ago
The thing is we know already that single-trips like that are less than 1% of all miles driven, and 4 hours is definitely a single-trip. I'd add that even with an EV and needing to stop for a charge, that's still very much a single trip affair. I'm sure that some people won't buy a car on that basis, but I suspect the vast majority will. The more people buy them, the more the infrastructure caters to it, the more the technology is funded and advances, and the remaining holdouts will eventually be sufficiently incentivized.
- lockhouse 3y ago
  I’m not arguing against EVs at all, just making the case that 350 miles of range isn’t excessive by any means, especially once you account for battery degradation over time. Personally the absolute minimum range I would consider for an EV is 250 miles with 300 or more being ideal.

supertrope 3y ago

The existence of right off highway gas stations, rest stops, motels, and fast food restaurants caters to road trippers. As much as I wish we had a robust inter-city train network people expect to be able to drive 400 miles in a day, stopping only every 1-2 hours for 10 min. As opposed to waiting for one of four charging spots to become available and taking 30 min to get another 100 mi of range.