Comment on Fear Mongering About Range Anxiety Has To Stop — CT Governor Calls Out EV Opponents
jmp242@sopuli.xyz 8 months agoI have no idea what this has to do with towing or long road trips, but my personal experience is it’s usually pull up to gas station, pull up to pump, start pumping. I very rarely have waited in line anywhere. Even when I have, it’s like 5 minutes maybe. Do you claim there aren’t ever lines at charging stations, and there won’t be lines in the future as more people want to use them?
ch00f@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I charge at home. I never need to go out of my way or really even think about fuel/charge level. Every day I wake up with a full tank.
I know not everyone can charge at home, but at least half of America can, and it’s a convenience that is seldom mentioned in discussions of “range anxiety.”
jmp242@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
I’ll just repost the parent post to show how irrelevant this is to this specific thread:
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.
ch00f@lemmy.world 8 months ago
If you go the Tesla route, they have fast charging stations roughly every 100 miles everywhere in the US. Other brands are working on it.
So you’re talking a 30 mins break every 2.5 hours of driving. And if you can charge at your destination, it’s even better. Trade that for never need to stop for gas outside of road trips and it really, really isn’t that bad.
If you have 20 minutes, watch this: youtu.be/vXzuFprlyrw?si=deU4W2fAQ5KsBmsM
The end result is that over 18 hours of driving, the Tesla only added 1.5 hours compared to a gas vehicle.
jmp242@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
I mean, it’s not how I travel, we usually take about 10 minutes every 2.5 hours if I’m with others, by myself I usually do 4 hours without stopping. The main thing is not that EVs will never be there, it’s that right now the infrastructure still isn’t there. I’m literally just starting to see chargers at WaWas and that’s not guaranteed, and I have no idea what they work with TBH. The great thing about gas is I know every gas station works with every gas car. We finally just agreed on a charger, but I still will wait a few years to see if it actually pans out to be the USB-C of cars.
And we just haven’t yet gotten the chargers where anyone wants to stop. They’re in strip malls as far away from the stores as possible. They’re in downtown parking garages. This in some ways is great, but also TBH backwards - they’re where locals, you know, the people who really ought to be charging at home - would make the most use of them. (at least around me in rural southern NY and northern PA) It’s the places you avoid like the plague on a road trip because you want on and off the highway fast, not to investigate the local downtown. They’re also not by the convenience stores or food places where you might realistically spend 15-40 minutes.
The other thing that I hadn’t thought of till seeing some other road trips (though they were in the UK) was - plan your trip is great, but what if something goes wrong? An unexpected detour? A traffic jam? Until the chargers are in way more places, you could really feel unsafe if you go below 50% charge. I don’t like going below 1/2 a tank of gas to have a buffer. And that’s going to change things also. Because worst case with a gas car on a trip, I can call AAA and get 2 gallons delivered to me on any county road forget about state roads etc. I have no idea - am I getting a tow or something with an EV?
I’ll also say, if I’m driving 18 hours, the last thing I want to hear is I’m going to intentionally make it 19.5 hours.