Comment by blondie9x
15 hours ago
It's better for the body to keep driving sessions to 3-4 hours max before you get up walk around and charge a bit. 330 mile range is more than enough. If you only use 60% of the battery to maximize its lifespan you can drive for 3.5 hours roughly before you deplete a battery from 80% -> 20%.
There are a number of plausible rural drives in north america which do not have fast chargers for over 400 miles. EV infrastructure in the US is primarily concentrated on high-volume highways.
Can you actually name some? Last time I looked the highest I could find was like 100 miles.
Sioux City IA to Lusk WY -- 471 miles between chargers
Kalispell MT to Minot ND -- 688 miles between chargers
Anything in Alaska that isn't along the route from Anchorage to Fairbanks
Much of Ontario 11
All of Newfoundland
Of course, they're not high traffic routes, but these are places you can still easily find gasoline.
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There are stretches of highway in the continental US that are >100 miles between exits, never mind chargers. That is almost a defining feature of the American West.
More importantly, these highways can be closed at unpredictable times for an unpredictable duration. It is not guaranteed that the route you planned is the route will take.
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Aside from the routes the sibling comments mention, you also need to factor in the very real possibility that the chargers won't be functioning. It has gotten better but breakdowns still happen.
I'll give you a scenario.
It's not necessarily 'normal', but it did happen to me last year.
Vacation in St Ignace Michigan. Stayed at an AirBnB rental.
No proper EV charger on-site at the rental, admittedly maybe the owner had an extension cord or something. Still, Then we'd be charging at a fairly low rate of mileage gain.
One day trip was 100 miles each way for optimum route. (Only charging stations known are near the AirBnB)
Another day trip was 76 miles each way for optimum route. (Only charging stations known are near the AirBnB)
The shortest day trip was 50-ish miles each way, but a whole thing happened where my wife left her phone at the restaurant so it was a total of 200 miles driven that day. (There are charging stations at both points for this one, but none in between.)
BTW, when I say 'optimum route' for the first two, I mean that for at least one of those the trip wound up being longer because of road construction.
I know one could say 'Well plan out charging in the morning'. But at the end of the day that just messes with the rest of the itinerary for a vacation where one could instead be exploring what you actually went on a trip for.
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Taking an EV on US Forest roads sounds like a creative way to get stranded and die.
> is more than enough
This attitude of dictating others' car needs for them is one of the biggest hindrances to EV adoption and is also why rolling back CAFE regulations is going to be more popular than you think it is.
The general public doesn't like being told what to do.
The real cause of people's frustration with the US car market isn't CAFE, but the fact that the car market in the US is bifurcated by class and heavily financially engineered. The reason you can't get a cheap car in the US is entirely because US manufacturers are dictating what people can buy -- why give the middle class affordable options when you can make more money by squeezing them for cash for 84 months? What are they going to do, ride the non-existent bus?
Well also as part of the 08 recovery we scrapped a lot of the used car market to create demand for new vehicles.
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I don’t think people understand how convenient it is to be able to go 1000+ KM without thinking about filling up or charging, even if it isn’t in one trip.
I could do it in a 2002 Jetta. Why can’t I do it in a vehicle 25 years newer?
That’s about 9 hours of driving. Don’t you need to stop at least once to take a leak?
That’s a normal run for long-distance driving in the US. You stop for only a few minutes when you run out of fuel to fill the tank, which may coincide with a concurrent bathroom break. I don’t know anyone that regularly makes 20-30 minute stops on these kinds of trips even once. That adds up to a lot of unnecessary lost time.
Human endurance is more about the end-to-end time. Breaks barely help at all.
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I've driven that long without an extended break beyond running to the bathroom and grabbing a snack. Even a fast charger won't get you much in 3 minutes or so.
I've also been on 24+ hour trips where we switched off drivers every 6 hours or so. Stopping too long for too many times on a trip like that adds up.
I can get about that on a tank of gas in my cmax. I wouldn't drive it non stop, but it means I can fill up before a long (for me) trip, drive a few hours, stop for food and restrooms, and drive on to my destination without stopping for gas. If it's not that long, I may be able to drive back too, without filling up.
If there's a charger close enough to a restaurant you'll eat at, that sounds convenient, and I've seen a lot more chargers on my long distance drives... but usually not at the restaurants I want to go to.
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I used to do a ~700KM trip fairly regularly without stopping.
Like I said though, the whole convenience isn’t just single trip range.
> Don’t you need to stop at least once to take a leak?
Not if you have the right plumbing and a bottle with you.
I don't think people understand how incredibly convenient it is to wake up to a vehicle with a full "tank" every single morning. I'll take that over a Jetta that can do 1000 miles on a tank without any hesitation.
The “gas station” being my driveway is an idea I have come around to.
For the average commuter and vehicle, it would be more convenient.
My family’s closest family is 750km away. Making that a longer trip sounds like torture, but range is getting better all the time.
I also rent, so I’m stuck at 120v charging at home. Does that limit the convenience?