Comment on xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles

SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• AA5B@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  While the current state of our charging infrastructure is dismal, for sure ……

  There are high speed charging trucks for just this purpose, or presumably a tow to a charger

  In an emergency, you should be able to charge at any electrical outlet. It will cost you time, but if the goal is just enough charge to get you to a supercharger, then it may not be too bad

  There is one aspect of charging that is much better in rural areas: the opportunity to charge from home. I never use a local high speed charger, those are only for trips. Charging at home is much more convenient than going to the gas station for local driving, but many urban people won’t be able to do that

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• OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Imagine having a gas station at home in your garage (assuming you own a house). Every time you’re home and your car is sitting in the garage (which is most of the time for most people), the “gas station” is slowly feeding “gas” into your car. You never even have to go to a real gas station, except on long trips (200+ miles).

  I plug my EV in at home on the weekends. It charges overnight. Monday, I drive it to work (30 miles) and if there’s a charger available there, I charge it up for free. Over the 8 hours I work, the car charges up enough to refill both the trip to work plus enough for the trip home. If all I’m doing is to/from work, I don’t even have to plug in at home on weekdays.

  I barely pay for fuel at all. I never have to stand at a gas pump in the freezing cold.

  If I’m ever running low on charge (rare) I can find a charging station OR use the emergency plug-in charger & extension cord I keep in my frunk at any available outlet anywhere in the country. I’ve never had to use it, but I have it.

  For me, an EV was the best option. I’ll never go back to an IC car.

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  • Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Agree. And torque. You want torque? OK. It’ll give you torque. It doesn’t care what speed it’s doing, it’s got torque.

    That and regen braking, which is the ducks nuts.

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• Nalivai@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Bringing trucks of volatile explosive substance into every corner of the vast empty space, storing it somehow, maintaining the infrastructure for safe distribution: normal, cool, easy, makes sense.
  Having a working outlet attached to a cable that already transmits electricity: unrealistic magical technology that just cannot possibly exist.

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  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Gasoline is not a “volatile explosive”. Movies make people think that shooting a gas tank will make it detonate.

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    • Nalivai@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Gasoline is not a “volatile explosive”. However, it is a volatile, explosive substance. That’s like the main reason it is in use. People forget how volatile and how explosive it is, because they handle it often, and because they know that you can shoot a gas tank and it wouldn’t immediately detonate most of the times, only some time.

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• Bytemeister@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Typically, you just get a tow to an EV charger (or even a residential outlet) and charge there.

  I keep a spare charger and extension cord in the frunk when traveling a long distance. I can literally pull up to any place with an outlet and charge in an emergency. By the time a tow truck would show up, or by the time it would take to walk to the nearest gas station and walk back, the car would probably get enough charge to make it to a fast charger.

  A word of caution to anyone charging an EV on and extension cord… You need to fucking watch it the whole time, and check the temp of your outlet and cord. Mine got uncomfortably warm, but not hot enough to burn. If the cord gets too hot to hold, then you need to stop, and get a better (usually thicker) extension cord.

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