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Inversely I leased a Fiat 500e for a year in Detroit Michigan and had no issues with range ~130 miles. I would plug it in nightly as I had a level 2 charger ins

Inversely I leased a Fiat 500e for a year in Detroit Michigan and had no issues with range ~130 miles. I would plug it in nightly as I had a level 2 charger installed at my house. The experiment was quite successful. I just didn’t like front wheel drive on somedays with heavy snow. I used it for commuting to work, buying groceries and visiting friends nearby. It met my needs and I feel a slightly bigger car with 4 doors and 200-250 mile range should be sufficient for most of the people (assuming it is affordable)

M0r13n 6mo ago
Sadly, I don't own a wall box. So I'm dependent on public infrastructure. If I could charge at home I'd be even happier with my car.
- foobarian 6mo ago
  Sadly I think it's kind of accepted by this point that overnight charging is a prerequisite to a good experience with an EV.
  - overfeed 6mo ago
    It's not a prerequisite: I see lots of people plugging their cars at public chargers in my residential area; I assume they charge once a week while doing groceries or dining out.
    - beAbU 6mo ago
      Public charging can easily be 2x or 3x as expensive.
      - masklinn 6mo ago
        And being in your car doing nothing waiting for the charge for 25mn is frustrating. Even more so when it’s the height of summer (and that was in a car where the AC didn’t block charging). If you can time it with some errands it’s less of a hassle, but that was one of the main non-car annoyances with my EV rental (the other was the flakiness / unreliability of getting a charging session to start).
        beAbU 6mo ago
        I only use public fast charging when on a long road trip. So the 30 min charge always coïncides with me emptying my bladder, so it's never been a hassle.
        masklinn 6mo ago
        As I wrote, this was a rental, there was no charger where I was and no mains adapter provided with the car, so my options were fast charger or pushing the thing. And even during long legs I don’t need to piss for 30mn every two hours.
- beAbU 6mo ago
  I charge my car with the granny charger dangling out the window next to where I park. Been doing so for 2 years now. I have some high density foam packed in the window crack to keep the cold out. Im in Ireland.
Marsymars 6mo ago
I like the form factor of the 500e, but boy do I not trust Fiat.
- olyjohn 6mo ago
  My friend has had one for about 6 years and put about 40,000 miles on his. Then one day some battery control module died. Now the car is a brick, and isn't worth fixing. The whole battery has to come out to get to the module, and it's possible that the battery itself is still bad. But we won't know until the module is replaced... which means putting the battery back into the car before knowing it's condition.
  - pink_eye 6mo ago
    How is all this Battery waste good for the environment? #ElectrifiedEnvironmentalDestruction
    - JuniperMesos 6mo ago
      Mostly by replacing the use of a gasoline-burning internal combination engine car.
      - TheScaryOne 6mo ago
        And instead moving to a component made of critical raw materials with recycling rates of <5%.
        dcferreira 6mo ago
        I'm curious where you got those numbers from. I did a quick search and find wildly different numbers (depending on method and source, from ~60% to >98%). However I don't find anywhere claiming anywhere near <5%. Can you back that up? Example source of manufacturers claiming >95% [0]. 0: https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-well-can-electric-vehicle-batteries-be-recycled https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-well-can-electric-vehicl...

M0r13n 6mo ago

Sadly, I don't own a wall box. So I'm dependent on public infrastructure. If I could charge at home I'd be even happier with my car.

foobarian 6mo ago
Sadly I think it's kind of accepted by this point that overnight charging is a prerequisite to a good experience with an EV.
- overfeed 6mo ago
  It's not a prerequisite: I see lots of people plugging their cars at public chargers in my residential area; I assume they charge once a week while doing groceries or dining out.
  - beAbU 6mo ago
    Public charging can easily be 2x or 3x as expensive.
    - masklinn 6mo ago
      And being in your car doing nothing waiting for the charge for 25mn is frustrating. Even more so when it’s the height of summer (and that was in a car where the AC didn’t block charging). If you can time it with some errands it’s less of a hassle, but that was one of the main non-car annoyances with my EV rental (the other was the flakiness / unreliability of getting a charging session to start).
      - beAbU 6mo ago
        I only use public fast charging when on a long road trip. So the 30 min charge always coïncides with me emptying my bladder, so it's never been a hassle.
        masklinn 6mo ago
        As I wrote, this was a rental, there was no charger where I was and no mains adapter provided with the car, so my options were fast charger or pushing the thing. And even during long legs I don’t need to piss for 30mn every two hours.
beAbU 6mo ago
I charge my car with the granny charger dangling out the window next to where I park. Been doing so for 2 years now. I have some high density foam packed in the window crack to keep the cold out. Im in Ireland.

Marsymars 6mo ago

I like the form factor of the 500e, but boy do I not trust Fiat.

olyjohn 6mo ago
My friend has had one for about 6 years and put about 40,000 miles on his. Then one day some battery control module died. Now the car is a brick, and isn't worth fixing. The whole battery has to come out to get to the module, and it's possible that the battery itself is still bad. But we won't know until the module is replaced... which means putting the battery back into the car before knowing it's condition.
- pink_eye 6mo ago
  How is all this Battery waste good for the environment? #ElectrifiedEnvironmentalDestruction
  - JuniperMesos 6mo ago
    Mostly by replacing the use of a gasoline-burning internal combination engine car.
    - TheScaryOne 6mo ago
      And instead moving to a component made of critical raw materials with recycling rates of <5%.
      - dcferreira 6mo ago
        I'm curious where you got those numbers from. I did a quick search and find wildly different numbers (depending on method and source, from ~60% to >98%). However I don't find anywhere claiming anywhere near <5%. Can you back that up? Example source of manufacturers claiming >95% [0]. 0: https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-well-can-electric-vehicle-batteries-be-recycled https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-well-can-electric-vehicl...