And we are going to look back in ten years and realize that a ton of it was big oil misinformation about EV utility.
Right now, an EV will add around 10 minutes of travel time per 300 miles over an average gas vehicle, and that’s if you are really working hard to minimize stopping time on the ICEV. For most people who can charge at home, this means they will save far more time by not visiting a gas station every two weeks than they will lose on occasional road trips.
Yet if you go to any discussion on the internet, you will see tons of the same shit where people have this mistaken idea that their one 5+ hour trip per year somehow prevents them from having an EV.
I have a PHEV, a 2021 Seat Leon PHEV FR, it’s brilliant!
I can go 60km on a fully charged battery on smaller, more interesting roads, on motorways it gets me about 35-40km on a fully charged battery.
This is with the AC going during summer.
If I stick it into hybrid mode it uses about 3.9L/100km, or if you want MPG I get about 60.3 of those.
PHEVs are brilliant and often overlooked.
I’m interested in knowing your usage or driving needs, and if you have a second car?
I can see some specific cases where it makes sense, and with my wife’s ICE car being next up exchange, I’m wondering if we should get a PHEV or a second EV.
I live alone in Sweden, I take public transport to the office, I managed fine without a car for almost 8 years before I got the car.
I use it mainly to get to interesting places to take photos, stuff like old industry, planespotting, castles, and similar stuff. I also use it for doing errands, shopping, running trash to the recycler, and similar stuff.
90% of my usecase could be done on battery alone, but it is nice to know that I am not limited by the battery itself.
I feel like they are missing a bit. Most people don’t buy brand new cars. You have to be solidly “middle class” to have that on the table. I am the target consumer and they are completely missing me. I have a family. My wife and I both work. I have a small gas truck that is our all-in-one family vehicle. She has an eco box for commuting. Most potential customers already have a big gas truck or SUV. An EV would be their second car for work commuting. They are not selling that. They are trying to sell EVs as all-in-one replacements for gas cars when really they should be designed and marketed as supplements to the car you already have. What ends up happening is customers “settle” for hybrids. The focus on charging difficulty is misplaced. In general, people who live in apartments don’t buy brand new vehicles. At least that’s what I think.
They tried that with the leaf and fiat EVs, perfect little daily commuters. Everyone worried about the range. The only way to improve range is to use more battery which requires a bigger platform, so they upsize them to where they are today. The real truth is that people want different things and have different needs, but to save money, car companies want the one thing that suits everyone. All new cars look the same to me. Hatchback crossover hell. ICE or EV or hybrid, minor variations between brands, indistinguishable from more than 10ft away unless you recognize the shape of the lights. Every brand is trying to eat the market of the other brands instead of trying to fill markets that aren’t covered yet. Hell, look at the EV trucks. All full size, no small trucks. Telo is the only one chasing that market and who knows if they’ll ever make it to production.
When my wife and I looked at a Leaf, it was priced $8500 over MSRP, which is exactly what our tax credit would have been. That completely turned us off Nissan forever. Fiats are POS’s.
The article touches on many topics.
I agree that the people living in apartments have a difficult charging situation which is the main hurdle for the transition to EVs. However, IMO this is only a small part of a much larger problem that has little to do with EVs: The idea of using public parking as a permanent solution. Adding more public chargers will not solve it.
I do find it strange that cities allow unrestricted public parking. I can’t think of any other private object that you can simply place in public space and then expect it to be safe and charged when you return. Of course there should be public parking, but it ought be time restricted, so that people who buy a car also need to figure out where they’re going to store it themselves. It’s really not an issue for the city to solve.
It does appear to me that more and more new apartments and condos have private parking, or that car owners in cities rent a parking lot to avoid circling the block for a vacant spot or to keep their vehicle safe. It will solve the charging issue for a lot of the people in apartments when those parking lots get chargers. This will take time because renters or owners need to agree on getting chargers or allow for individuals to set them up and parking garages need to have a business case in doing it.
With working places and schools etc. also installing chargers, it also reduces the number of people who are entirely dependent on public chargers. The issue might not be as bad as it is often presented.
Public chargers really ought only be for long distance travelling or quick on-the-go charging, not a permanent solution for people who don’t their own parking spot. I don’t mind people using public chargers like that, but it just isn’t a good solution for them either to drive somewhere to charge every time. That really makes life more difficult than it has to be and IMO the very idea is a remainder of ICE cars.
Anyway, Tesla losing shares of the market may be a good thing in this, because their solution of having all Teslas drive to Tesla’s chargers is just keeping people dependent on “going to the gas station”. It’s a waste of time and milage in comparison to setting up chargers where people already park.
their solution of having all Teslas drive to Tesla’s chargers is just keeping people dependent on “going to the gas station”
Don’t most people charge at home already? I feel like Supercharger stations are mostly used for road trips, or the small subset of people who cannot charge where they park.
I agree that going to a charging station to “fill up” is the wrong mentality, but I thought we had mostly moved away from that already.
Yeah anyone who can have already moved past that, but it’s still an issue for for people who don’t have the option of home charging. I’m just saying they should consider where they park and put a charger there instead of complaining about missing chargers being the reason not to go electric.
Nah, we have been in a situation now for a solid 5-6 years where if you can charge at home it is both cheaper and more convenient to commute with an EV, yet the internet is still filled with people convinced it isn’t viable because they make a single 400 miles trip every year
It’s all talking points by now.
I have relatives who drove from Lapland to Italy and back in an EV without any planning but also without any delays in comparison to the same trip in an ICE vehicle. Gotta stop to eat and sleep on those long trips regardless of the car. 99% of people only need a car to commute anyway.
It’s really more of an issue of having people even bothered to try an EV instead of them clinging to Facebook talking points. They come along as soon as they actually need a new car, so I’m not really concerned about it.