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Fear Mongering About Range Anxiety Has To Stop — CT Governor Calls Out EV Opponents
(cleantechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
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Diesel, premium, E85, etc.
There are already adapters. They aren't that expensive. My Tesla works with every charger in the US at the moment. Tesla's adapter for other vehicles should be out in the next year. In fact, when I purchased it, my vehicle didn't have the functionality to communicate using the CCS adapter, but a $140 part and an afternoon gave it that capability. I assume the same will be true for any future changes.
Tesla's superchargers are specifically built right off major highway exits by design. Take a look Most larger multi-car stations are also built off highway exists. Urban charging stations are mostly intended for apartment dwellers as a stopgap before curbside charging is more prevalent.
Yes they are. The car even tells you what amenities are available in each location. If you're still not convinced, just take a look at https://www.plugshare.com/ and play with the filters. I do agree that they tend to be at the end of the parking lot, but any closer and ICE drivers would hog them for convenience. So that's a 3-5 minute walk both ways I guess.
Cars get better mileage when they're driven slower. Same for EVs.
One thing people tend to ignore is that you start every day and every trip with a full tank. My vehicle starts every day with 250 miles of range and rarely dips below 200. When I drove an ICE, I'd sometimes leave for work with less than 30 miles in the tank. Statistically speaking, you're more likely to have more range at any given moment in an EV than an ICE provided you can charge at home.
Yes, and what kind of vehicle does the AAA person drive? They tow you to somewhere you can charge. I mean it feels a bit silly to purchase a vehicle to make it slightly more convenient only after you already fucked up and have to wait two hours for AAA to show up. Your day is ruined either way. If you're that concerned, you can replace your jumper cables and jerry can with a few adapters and plug into at a lot of remote locations. A 1 hour stop at an RV site will get you 40 miles of range. I personally like the idea that the worst case scenario for me (no cell service) is finding an exposed 120V outlet, running an extension cord, and camping out for the night. 10 hours gets you about 30-40 miles of range.
The infrastructure is good enough as is, and it's only getting better. If you really drive long distance more than you drive locally and/or you can't charge at home, I can see the trepidation, but the benefits of charging at home are tremendous and for some reason, vehicle manufacturers and consumers are ignoring it. The current ads are trying to convince you that EVs are just as convenient as gasoline vehicles which presupposes that gasoline was convenient for everyone in the first place.
I have to admit, it's been decades since I've driven a car that takes anything but 87 octane. I forgot there are other needs, and if that's the case you do need to plan I guess. But I have yet to get to a gas station that's working that doesn't have 87 octane.
Yea, I'd ignored Tesla's network because I was never going to buy a Tesla, and till like a month ago, no one else could use those so they were out of mind for me. Honestly, the main thing I want to see is all charge points taking a credit card standard like gas pumps do. I don't want apps or sign ups or saving anything. I'm driving by one time in my life, or maybe twice - I don't want an account. I fear it's likely I'll lose this unless the government mandates taking normal payment options like cash (which honestly they should).
Honestly, I looked at plugshare, and there's more than I expected, though I'd go by at least 2-3 gas stations in each direction before I'd get to one. The issue seems to be they're for some reason not on the road noticeable like gas stations, so you wouldn't know about them without driving into random apartment parking lots or car dealerships. TBH, I had no idea car dealerships would have charging stations. I'd still feel a little uncomfortable going into a hospital parking lot or apartment lot I don't live in or college campus I don't go to or town hall of a town I don't live in to use the charger, but maybe that's just a cultural shift we have to endure. I will say that's still not necessarily where I want to spend 45 minutes or more but fair enough. I also live in a rural area and often am going to rural areas, so the middle part is on a highway, but not necessarily significant start or end parts.
Yes, I've regularly said for a daily commute of any normal length even around here (100 miles or so being the longest I'm aware of), if you have faster than 110 charging you're golden for that use. I've never suggested in this thread that EVs haven't met that need for like 8 years or so now. It's just that few people have a "daily commute" car and "all other needs car", they buy one car or truck. On trips I wouldn't assume there's a charger available for me at the hotel or resort for instance.
If you didn't plan enough to have reasonable amounts of gas in your tank, I really fail to see how you're planning enough to take road trips in an EV. What if you forget to plug in your EV? These are kind of stupid arguments - People can run out of gas, just like they can run out of charge. No one is (actually if they think about it) concerned about that, which is why I have said in this thread it's a concern about finding refill locations, not a concern about range. And I think the problem is actually that no one (outside Tesla) is building "EV Charge stations" but that's what the masses are looking for. I'm finally starting to see some WaWa's put in charging stations, but we need to start seeing either better education of the masses (marketing changes) or people getting the local small gas stations to put in some charging stations too.
If I still drove somewhere not for a long trip regularly, I would be interested. I had been interested for a while. Now that I go to doctors appointments maybe 2 times a month and long trips otherwise, the gas isn't that inconvenient. I just make it part of my trip to town once a month or so. This change in my life made me realize that the real win was pandemic style WFH for anyone who can. EVs can work for some people, I'm just saying they're far from ready for everyone. I'm sure they'll be ready eventually, but I've pushed out my expectation of when it'd make sense for me to get one.
Fair response and thank you for having an open mind.
Funny story about fuel types. On a vacation, the car rental company upgraded me to a Camaro after not driving an ICE for like 5 years. First stop to fuel it up and I saw "no E85" under the gas cap. Had to sit for 5 minutes to Google what that meant.
I think the point maybe you missed about running out of gas is that deciding to purchase gas is an active decision that has to be planned out. Some people shop gas by price and put off fueling until they find it cheaper or schedule time to wait in line at Costco. If you're in a hurry, you might put off buying gas until the next day, or maybe your kid is lazy and tries to get away with not filling up when he brings dad's car home from his date.
Sure you can forget to charge your car just like you can forget your wallet at home, but it's much easier to build a routine out of a task that involves things being at the same place at the same time every day. In fact, some home chargers have wifi connectivity and a setting to ping your phone if you forget to plug in by a certain time of night. In the best scenario, fueling up might be a 5 minute detour, but plugging in takes more like 5 seconds.