Comment on Fear Mongering About Range Anxiety Has To Stop — CT Governor Calls Out EV Opponents
sarge@lemmy.world 8 months ago
There’s no fear mongering about it! I’m anxious about the range of an electric car and not having a quick and convenient way to refuel if I near empty.
Even when you plan ahead on a road trip there’s a pretty high chance half the chargers are down and there’s a queue of cars waiting. Made it to the next stop on my last trip with 4 miles to spare. That was a nerve-wracking drive.
Now I gotta check plug share to see recent reviews on stations and decide whether or not to take my ev.
I’ve owned an electric since 2013, never run into a down charging station. Early on, I’d run into single chargers that were occupied, but that’s it.
Not saying it’s not possible to have a broken station, just never hit it. But I, like most people, charge at home, 95% of the time.
Where are you located where there is perfect charging station maintenance for the previous 10 years?
I’m not saying it isn’t possible that you’ve never encountered a broken station, but I’ve had an EV for only a few months now and encounter malfunctioning stations on nearly every trip to a DC fast charger. It usually isn’t that every single station is broken, but if there are 4 stations, 1-2 of them will be out of service.
Sounds like you are fear mongering
So 41% of EV drivers worry about it? That’s an issue! I’m guessing only 5-10% of ice drivers every worry about running out of gas.
What you’re not addressing is that current EV drivers change how they drive, i.e. don’t go on the same sort of trips the same way (if the various articles on that site are to be believed). This isn’t addressing range anxiety, it’s saying plan your trips around charging your car so we work around the problem. And the problem isn’t “range” now - it’s where are the fast chargers? It’s getting better, but it’s still hard enough to pull off that there are regular youtube and news articles about the hassles and issues doing a road trip in an EV. No one does the same sort of reporting on ICE because you can find gas stations just about everywhere every 5-10 miles just about anywhere you go, and where it isn’t there is some reporting of the signs saying “last gas for 100 miles” or whatever. People know they can find a gas station, even if they’re going into a rural area.
So you’re saying 41% of EV owners have range anxiety? That’s a pretty significant portion…
I’m still new to EVs but with the convenience of charging from home, my battery is just never low. Think of it like charging your phone: start every morning with a full charge and you just don’t have to worry about it
(Actually have mine set to stop charging at 80% and I don’t drive much at the moment so don’t plug-in every night)
It’s really the time to refuel. I can plan out spots to charge on a long drive, but if I have to wait that long, I can’t just refuel quickly if I forgot to plug it in last night.
QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Honestly, track how far you normally drive and you’ll see you don’t go that far. My PHEV has a paltry 26 mile range and we use electric only 90% of the time. An EV with 200+ miles wouldn’t be an issue unless you travel for work.
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world 8 months ago
People really like to overestimate how much range they actually need on a daily basis.
I drive maybe 200 miles a week. Almost all EVs could easily get that range in spring/fall. And even in the worst of winter as long as I have 120 volts to keep the battery warm I’ll make it through the week no problem.
Honestly big fast charger networks aren’t the biggest hurdle. We need basic 120v or 240v outlets ran to every apartment/town homes parking spot. With essentially a trickle from 120v you’ll be fine for 90% of your driving needs.
jmp242@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
I don’t think the issue is the daily basis. It’s the few long trips people take yearly that would blast that 200 mile range out. People don’t want to buy a very expensive new car that they know won’t work for them several times a year. It’s the same reason people who tow something several times a year make sure their vehicle can tow that.
Because renting a vehicle for a trip or to tow is actually a PITA and expensive.
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It’s a hell of a lot cheaper to buy an EV with a range/capacity lower than what you need 5% of the time, and spending $40 to rent a truck/$100 to rent a car for a trip than it is to buy some ridiculously oversized battery. Sure 5% of the time it’s useful, but getting a rental isn’t that bad.
Plus with a rental you can pick the exact type of car suits the trip well. I took a V6 camaro on a road trip for thanksgiving and that thing gets almost 30 mpg doing 80+ on the highway. Vs if I had my one size fits all Outback for that trip I’d be getting 25 doing only 70, and in the low 20s at 80 if I’m lucky.
kaboom36@ani.social 8 months ago
Boy have I got a video for you! youtube.com/watch?v=1Vm_ASm2zfs
ch00f@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I will wait in line for cheap gas at Costco a hundred times before I have to stop and charge for 30 minutes on my annual road trip.
/s
thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I know some folks that just made a cross country trip in a Tesla model Y. They don’t do huge distances every day so it took a couple of weeks but they made it just fine. They did note that the South was really bad for chargers. Something about some state legislatures or municipalities actually passing laws against public charging or something like that. It sounded pretty southern and believable though.
Whom@midwest.social 8 months ago
Yeah, I’ve been looking into possibly getting an EV and apart from renting in a place without anywhere to charge making it a nonstarter, another problem is that a routine trip like to my parents’ and back is like 250 miles with nowhere to charge. Giving a bit of wiggle room for degrading batteries, doing anything other than making a straight line for their house that day, and random other inefficiencies, only the 300+ mile models are doable. And we have very modest needs for our region, most of my family makes trips that long or more at least once or twice a week.
I understand that it’s probably frustrating for people who get by well enough with an EV to see people who live similar lifestyles to them overestimate what they need, but in much of America at least there’s a lot of people who have to drive hours and hours to get anywhere. Our needs are very real, not the result of fear mongering.
For my part, I’m currently thinking we’ll just get ourselves some used shit from the late 90s to avoid the privacy hellscape of new cars and do our part environmentally by just using it as little as possible.
helenslunch@feddit.nl 8 months ago
People like to reframe the discussion to be about daily use when it’s almost completely meaningless in the context of maximum range.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
This is only accurate if you are being as stubborn as possible. There are many third party, and even some first party solutions to this problem. With the right adapter, literally any EV can charge at a Tesla station.
wewbull@feddit.uk 8 months ago
If you have 120V to keep the battery warm, you have 120V to charge from.
rambaroo@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I live it when ev drivers act like the rest of us are just fucking stupid.