this sounds really horrible for road trips. I like the idea of the electric cars, but it’s still a way off for me I’m frayed.

A lot of $$$$ is being spent to find a better battery.
Hope a better battery is available soon.

Geesh, bring your knitting or Kindle to use while you wait for charging!

Maybe a better alternative would have been taking Amtrak from NYC to Washington and back. If we're driving EVs for convenient travel around our suburbs, we may need to rethink how we make longer trips.

In the larger picture, we may rethink how we structure metropolitan areas to make alternative or public transportation more accessible to more of us.

The effects of the vast majority of adults in this country having access to a personal internal combustion powered vehicle for nearly a century will not be instantly changed.

Big Al

That crazy SUV has a 270 mile range. Wouldn’t be my choice for a cross country trip.

They rate it for towing of all things. I can’t even imagine what that does to the range. 50 miles?

It sounds like they built that car to be primarily a city commuter, not a road car. As they mention in the article, there are different battery types and different charging rates, and they optimized range over charging.

We routinely drive our Tesla from Portland to Vancouver BC on one charge. The Tesla batteries are designed for fast charging, and there are multiple charging stations along the way. They (Teslas) also have a great app that plans your trip, including when you'll need to charge, and at which charging stations along the way. I think it's a great blueprint for the Biden administration to use if they're serious about migrating to electric cars

Oh, the Tesla charge takes about 20 minutes to load around 240 miles, which is enough time to stretch your legs, take a bio break and grab a snack. Most chargers are placed near some sort of commerce, usually like a strip mall sort of thing.

Seriously considered an EV, but my main road trip includes several miles in southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico where habitation is scarce.
Alamosa, Colorado to Espanola, New Mexico is a 114 miles. There is not much between them.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
Seriously considered an EV, but my main road trip includes several miles in southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico where habitation is scarce.
Alamosa, Colorado to Espanola, New Mexico is a 114 miles. There is not much between them.

Yeah, an EV and driving in the distances we deal with in West doesn't seem to be reasonable yet to me. Staying in or near town? Sure.

To me, hybrids make more sense. A hybrid with a 200+ mile range, and a gas or diesel backup engine would be extremely tempting when it's time to replace my current ride. Seems like current hybrids only have like a 30 mile range and all they do is "help" with the gas mileage.

I hear you. Our other car is a RAV4 Prime, which I've been getting about 50 miles of EV. Then it switches to a regular hybrid engine. It's maiden voyage was driving from PDX to Breckenridge. There is a whole lotta nothing between Boise and SLC....

It's my primary car, and the only time I use gas is on long road trips. Committing, running errands, etc. are will within its EV range.

Plus I also get AWD and room for a road trip with more than two people and luggage. For me and my driving, it's been a great option.

YMMV, which is literally true in this case.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
It sounds like they built that car to be primarily a city commuter, not a road car. As they mention in the article, there are different battery types and different charging rates, and they optimized range over charging.

We routinely drive our Tesla from Portland to Vancouver BC on one charge. The Tesla batteries are designed for fast charging, and there are multiple charging stations along the way. They (Teslas) also have a great app that plans your trip, including when you'll need to charge, and at which charging stations along the way. I think it's a great blueprint for the Biden administration to use if they're serious about migrating to electric cars

Oh, the Tesla charge takes about 20 minutes to load around 240 miles, which is enough time to stretch your legs, take a bio break and grab a snack. Most chargers are placed near some sort of commerce, usually like a strip mall sort of thing.

Seems silly that they designed that SUV to be a run around town vehicle; road conditions should be pretty tame. Whatever!

Also, bio break!

Not only can it take hours to recharge an eV car’s battery, but you may have to wait hours for a public charging station to free up because someone else is using it.


If only charging up an eV car could be as fast as refueling a gas car. . . It appears eV cars will go over in a big way but it’s going to take years, decades, before the infrastructure to support them will catch up. It takes time to turn a big ship around.


I suspect most eV car owners don’t drive their car more than 50 miles between charge-ups. And they have a garage with a charger so they don’t have to use public chargers.



I don’t see very many public car charging stations where I live. I see them mostly in places such as municipally owned parking lots and some Walgreen’s drug store lots. I don’t see any in gas stations.


And you’d think gas stations would be the first to install them. Within a five mile radius of where I live, three or four gas stations are either brand newly built or have undergone extensive remodeling. These new gas stations have a car wash, gas pumps, and a convenience store all in one. But none of them have electric charging stations.



I think I know why. It takes minutes to refuel a gasoline car but it can take up to an hour or so to recharge an eV car. Gas station owners don’t like it that eV cars can take so long and sit on their lot and take up space. They want the higher turnover and profit of gasoline cars.

If you run out of charge in an EV, can AAA come and help you out? No? Who would be able to do that, or do you get towed to a charging station?

According to their website, they have mobile EV charging in a handful of cities. Two of those cities? Portland and Bend, Oregon!

When I bought my Kia Niro hybrid a few years ago, the plug-in option was just becoming available. I might have jumped in, but where we rent didn’t have places to plug in.

I’ve been pleased to regularly get 55-60mpg during the warmer months. 45-50 the rest of the year on my tuning rounds.