earl pottinger

Question: Why would you do that? Plugging in your car takes seconds, I don't see people waiting to their phone battery is nearly dead before plugging in, I also don't see them do that for their laptops or batteries powered tools. So why treat your car that way? The same logic means you drive your gas cars until they are almost empty. And I know quite a number of places here in Ontario Canada where that would not work out either.

whiz944

I'm pretty lazy about that too. With 300-ish miles of range, I only bother to charge it once or twice a week. I always know when I'm going to take my next road trip - so it isn't a big deal to make sure I wake up with the desired 90-100% charge. Even if I didn't, there are several Supercharging sites within about five miles of my house (Bay Area...) that can give a decent charge in a few minutes while I go into the store for munchies. OTOH, our Volt only has a 50-ish mile EV range. My wife depletes that every commute day. So it is always plugged in when home. Your mileage may vary.

Archimedes

That’s great but it’s an incredibly unusual use of an EV, one that 99 percent of the market will even need or want to do. People who argue against the utility of EVs with the ‘I can’t fully charge as fast as a petrol car’ are either being disingenuous or are just plain dopey.

Archimedes

That's your argument against EVs? That you have to think about your fuel tank the night before vs the morning of? You’re right, that seems like an insurmountable problem…

That’s the Veruca Salt argument…’but I want it nowwww Daddy!’

jhenson29

I’m not arguing whether not people need to make those trips. I’m arguing that EVs are significantly less convenient and more time consuming than ICE for road trips. To even debate those points is ridiculous.

Now, whether or not that is important is up to the individual.

My wife has had exactly one road trip in the last 5 years. To say she shouldn’t get an electric vehicle because it would have made that one trip slower or more difficult would be absurd.

I already gave my mileage credentials. I travel all of the time. An EV would be a terrible option for me.

And many people will fall somewhere in between.

jhenson29

That’s not what is being said at all.

What’s being said is they don’t have to plan, in direct response to someone saying EV trips requires planning.

And I agree 100%.

Here’s a fun experiment. Count the gas stations you see casually driving around or otherwise advertised. Then do the same for charging stations.

Gas stations are everywhere. They’re advertised on the highways as “gas next exit” signs. And they’re quick.

There’s no debate here.

Archimedes

But the level of inconvenience is minimal for 99 percent of the buyer pool. Fifteen minutes topping off at a charging station versus 10 minutes filling up at a gas station is nothing. Particularly when an EV owner rarely ever needs to even do that if they have charging at home. While you have to go to the gas station every week. And get routine oil changes. And brake pads. And…

Archimedes

You do know there are apps that will plan it all for you, right? And if you have a home charging station you can be fully charged pretty much all the time.

You're not a problem solver, are y’all?

jhenson29

you’re underestimating charge time and overestimating gas refuel time. Period.

OMG, I’m not taking about charging at home. Seriously…

jhenson29

But why would I add this problem to solve to my trip?

Drifting

I disagree with the refueling times posted. This is what I experience.

5 min for my ICE car
25 min for my Tesla M3P.

that extra charging time really adds up over a long trip.

I never use my Tesla for any drive that requires more than one charge/day for that reason.

Once I drove across a couple western states in my Tesla. Had to charge 4-5x a day. Never again.

Lost 2 hrs each of those two days compared to 10 min total for two fuel ups.

A BEV is a great daily but I plan to always have an ICE option for longer trips.

Whoopsy

My phone last me pretty much the whole day, takes it off the charger at 6am, put it back on around bed time. If I use it more and is dow not say 30% charge by early afternoon, I plug it in for a top up. Pleas don't tell me you the ones who keep topping off your phone at 90% charge?

My MacBook Pro's battery last 14hrs, why bother to keep it tethered to the wall? When it's down to an hour or 2 left I will plug it in. You keep topping up your laptop too?

My EVs have 3-400km of range, why bother to keep topping it off after some tens of km? If I only use it for school runs, even the e-Tron's shorter range will last 3 weeks of school runs. 3% charge fro a round trip in the morning, 3% charge for a round trip in the afternoon for pickup, 15 school days.

And yes, I do use my cars until the lights comes on before filling up. Unless I see a gas station having a sale and noticeably cheaper than others. I don't do daily 3 litres top up at gas stations. It's a complete waste of time.

The only car I literally plug in every day to charge is my Panamera turbo S. The small hybrid battery last perhaps 35km, I mostly used it up every day so I keep charging that one car.

One last thing, did you know lithium batteries does't like doing short cycles? You degrade the batteries faster that way. Lithium batteries are happiest when they are ~50% SoC. If you are keeping your car fully charged every night, you are just damaging the batteries.

Whoopsy

You mean you don't do spontaneous road trips?

I do. It's fun. You should try that sometimes.

Did I ever tell you that one time Porsche notify me at 9am my 918 will be going into production the next day? I immediately booked a flight to Stuttgart flying out that afternoon from Vancouver. Spontaneous again.

daveo4porsche

these days you can get in a Tesla and “just go” minimal planning the supercharger network is pretty good - can’t quite do the same with CCS vehicle - but only because of charger reliablity (not lack of location) if you could depend on the CCS network actually functioning it would only be slightly worse than Tesla…

Tesla these days is almost there as far as just get in and drive…

jhenson29

Here’s a drive I did twice in the last year. Fenton, MO to North Charleston, SC.

About 880 miles.

It takes me 12 hours total with one stop for 10 min. I’m not guessing. I’m telling you what I do.

With an EV I could start full and charge at the hotel (assuming I can find a spot…) so, I need to consider those fills to be fair.

I start with a full tank and have to fill when I get there, so add 5 min to each end of the trip (that’s really all it takes).

Here’s what ABRP says about that trip…

My Taycan 4S:


And for a 2021 Model S long range

[edit: I also just tried the planner on Tesla’s site and it suggested 8 stops totaling over 2 hours…]

Note that the paths aren’t even the same. The charger locations dictate your travel path.

That’s easily an extra hour or more each way just for the charging time. And that’s just one trip.

I’m not saying this has to matter to anyone. You can be fine with those extra stops and extra time. That’s your preference. But the difference is real and not insignificant.