OT: Electric Vehicles--anyone driving them or seriously looked at them?

[Louis]

Here you go - emergency back up plan. (will it work while moving???)

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

I appreciate the honest, real world account here. It's honestly less daunting than I anticipated. When I was a young man, I would drive for hours and hours nonstop, and looking back that was stupid and reckless. I recall multiple times during the college and beyond years doing jumping jacks and pushups on the side of the road to get my blood moving and fight off sleep in the middle of the night. Turns out stopping for 20-40 minutes every now and then is not a bad idea and certainly safer!

Anyway, curious what your charging philosophy is? I assume it's not stop and charge back up to 100% and ride it down to 30%? Something else you calculated?

I’ve done all the same things, including driving with the windows open at 4 AM with the music blasting. Just to stay awake. No more. It’s not remotely safe.

As to honesty, I have no agenda. I’m here to report my experiences. EVs aren’t for everyone and my Tesla has shortcomings I didn’t necessarily anticipate. But today was a good day.

Charging philosophy? I follow their recommendations and software. Their navigation system plans your stops for you, with details on time stopped, what you’ll arrive with, etc. In a pinch you can locate the nearest charger, which is likely closer than you think.

I’ve never charged my car to 100%. This is generally not recommended. But this morning I think I left at 95%. I never got below 20% but I’m not really afraid to do so. But it’s not like a gas car. As of today, there are fewer options. So I’m not going to pull into a charger “running on fumes”. It’s bad for the battery and just unwise…. As mentioned, I erred on the very conservative side of energy management. In the future I may get more comfortable letting it get lower but only if I know there are more options. Following the onboard route planning means you’ll almost certainly never run out of charge. That’s what Tesla, or any other manufacturer, absolutely doesn’t want to happen.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Louis

Here you go - emergency back up plan. (will it work while moving???)

Car wont go in drive while charging system active..

[robt57]

Nice, thanks..

Originally Posted by saab2000

I’m roughly estimating the stops to have been about 35, 35, 25 and 20 minutes, respectively. The first two could have been reduced but I enjoyed a great breakfast burrito indoors instead of dirtying up the car eating while driving.

The second stop I chatted with another multiple EV owner and first-time Tesla owner.

The third stop was at a 250 KW (the other 3 stops were at the older 150 kw stations) charger, which really is fast. I couldn’t eat fast enough and it said I’m good to the next stop.

Finally, the fourth stop was probably 20-25 minutes. I went for a short walk and visited a restroom and made a quick phone call and it was time to go. Overall downtime was more than with the ICE car but also somewhat refreshing because I actually got to get some fresh air and sit down for food. Less fatiguing possibly.

Again, not the best way to really devour huge mileage, but a reasonable experience.

[Spaghetti Legs]

The Tesla software is definitely conservative and it’s a little unnerving when it tells you to drive below the speed limit to make your destination. In my old Model S, in which I learned the energy consumption very well, I arrived home with single digit miles on 3-4 occasions. Haven’t pushed my Model Y that hard yet (and haven’t needed too).

The Tesla Superchargers charge at the fastest rate when the battery is at lower levels of depletion so if you really want to spend the least amount of time at the charger, then you hit every one along your route with a goal of low range on the battery on arrival at the charger, maybe 30-50 miles. Of course it adds time pulling off the freeway, etc. I don’t usually mind the longer stops though, so I try to run it down to about 10-15% then charge to 90% or whatever I need to get to my destination with some cushion.

[PSC]

We have the "cheap" Model 3 Tesla and we drove from Tacoma WA to Denver this past summer. Our real world range on a good day is 200 miles, we learned to stop quite often. Get down to 20% of battery and charge up to 70% or so and drive to the next charger. To go above 70%-80%, the charging slows down significantly. Generally we would stop for 10-20 minutes to charge. We look at our charging time as a time to eat, relax or just walk around. Car is pretty amazing, it has everything mapped out.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by robt57

Car wont go in drive while charging system active..

Hmmmm, I wonder why?

[merckxman]

Interesting article today in NYT about the bigger SUV/pickup EVs, "Just How Good for the Planet Is That Big Electric Pickup Truck?"
https://nyti.ms/3lMnHQ0

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by saab2000

I’ve done all the same things, including driving with the windows open at 4 AM with the music blasting. Just to stay awake. No more. It’s not remotely safe.

As to honesty, I have no agenda. I’m here to report my experiences. EVs aren’t for everyone and my Tesla has shortcomings I didn’t necessarily anticipate. But today was a good day.

Charging philosophy? I follow their recommendations and software. Their navigation system plans your stops for you, with details on time stopped, what you’ll arrive with, etc. In a pinch you can locate the nearest charger, which is likely closer than you think.

I’ve never charged my car to 100%. This is generally not recommended. But this morning I think I left at 95%. I never got below 20% but I’m not really afraid to do so. But it’s not like a gas car. As of today, there are fewer options. So I’m not going to pull into a charger “running on fumes”. It’s bad for the battery and just unwise…. As mentioned, I erred on the very conservative side of energy management. In the future I may get more comfortable letting it get lower but only if I know there are more options. Following the onboard route planning means you’ll almost certainly never run out of charge. That’s what Tesla, or any other manufacturer, absolutely doesn’t want to happen.

Well, in my ICE, I don't do that either. I very seldom let the gas gauge get below about 30%..I used to. I remember coming back late driving from San Antonio back to Beeville...and yikes, almost ran outta gas looking for a gas station open at 10 o'clock at night(1974 or so)..Mazda RX-2..remember those? Not great mileage but gas was about $.50 per gallon.

I also don't let it get very low just in case the SHTF, for whatever reason..strange times.

[Gsinill]

Related question.
Why are businesses not putting up more charging stations, in particular fast DC chargers?
Not talking about car dealers or gas stations but grocery stores, home improvement stores, restaurants, actually ANY kind of business?
I can't imagine this is a huge expense if they partner up with the ChargePoints, EVGos etc.

Went to run some errands yesterday in my Mini EV and the only DC Fast Charger I could find within a 40 mile radius was at a VW dealer (and that one happened to be out of order).
Even Level 2 charging stations are kind of scarce.
What better way to attract a rapidly growing number of kind of captive customers, or am I missing something?

[kppolich]

Give it time and more places will as more EV's get out there in the next 2-3 years. However the cost to install a Level 2 or higher charger at a commercial space I'm sure is not trivial for most small businesses.

Tongue in cheek - most of the middle to higher class places around here have EV charging including nicer grocery stores, hotels, and restaurants. Nicer office buildings as well, but the thing is -- you have to have the type of business/clientele attract the type of person who owns an EV in the first place or use the charging station as a way to get more of those type of customers in your place of business if you are going to put them there in place of other parking, cart corals, etc. The cost to dig up a parking lot isn't cheap either if the infrastructure isn' tere.

Air BnB's are coming along with EV charging to grab that market of people who 1.) have enough money to have an EV early in the game and 2.) want the convenience of charging it at the place they are also shelling out money for to stay in.

[robt57]

That is probably [maybe?] the plug worn out and the signal of state not accurately getting conveyed. If you open the hoods on ours while charging, they goes to non charge state. The PHEV if you open hood while ready to drive goes to ICE mode and the engine starts, battery full or not. I assume to put the HV system into not HV state beyond storage...

Also seen pics of folk having to use bolt cutter to leave charge station after pug welded to the car 's port. Driving off with the plug and short section of wire sticking from car's port.

Not that we can't ignore about anything, but both our cars ports are in front of drivers door, FWIW.

Originally Posted by Louis

Hmmmm, I wonder why?

[robt57]

Tongue in cheek or or not, the Bolt cost twice as much as the Honda Fit it replaced, really same function vehicle.

Air/b&b wise, what is the main targeted benefit I wonder...

Originally Posted by kppolich

Tongue in cheek - most of the middle to higher class places around here have EV charging including nicer grocery stores, hotels, and restaurants. Nicer office buildings as well, but the thing is -- you have to have the type of business/clientele attract the type of person who owns an EV in the first place or use the charging station as a way to get more of those type of customers in your place of business if you are going to put them there in place of other parking, cart corals, etc. The cost to dig up a parking lot isn't cheap either if the infrastructure isn' tere.

Air BnB's are coming along with EV charging to grab that market of people who 1.) have enough money to have an EV early in the game and 2.) want the convenience of charging it at the place they are also shelling out money for to stay in.

[Kirk007]

Re charging locations - I did chuckle when I learned that most Walmart Supercenters have multiple fast chargers. I wouldn’t consider early EV adapters as typical Walmart customers, I don’t think I’d been in one for a decade or two. Now, if a long road trip I get familiar with the aisle to aisle inventory in a hurry


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[Davist]

Originally Posted by Kirk007

Re charging locations - I did chuckle when I learned that most Walmart Supercenters have multiple fast chargers. I wouldn’t consider early EV adapters as typical Walmart customers, I don’t think I’d been in one for a decade or two. Now, if a long road trip I get familiar with the aisle to aisle inventory in a hurry


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Walmart also is (pretty sure still is) the largest Bloom energy fuel cell user in the country. Electrify America and Walmart partnered a few years ago Walmart / Electrify America partnershipWalmart has a huge sustainability focus and has for well over a decade. Makes perfect sense to build a cross country network with relatively easy access, and probably no real estate cost for the charger company...