Thread

1. gambiting · 1790547426 · focus · HN ↗

   I mean, I feel like even if petrol wasn't as expensive as it is, the sales would be booming anyway, maybe a sliver slower - for the simple reason that affordable EVs are now here and they are pretty damn good now. After years and years of lamenting "where are the EVs for your average Joe Smith" - they are now here. Funnily enough, they aren't made by Volkswagen or Peugeot, but they are here anyway. And Europe's cheapest new car - Dacia Spring - is an EV.

   1. vjsrinivas · 1790547590 · focus · HN ↗

      Im on the verge of switching from PHEV to full EV. I just need a reasonably affordable EV with 450+ mile of range.

      1. blondie9x · 1790548911 · focus · HN ↗

         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%.

         1. kube-system · 1790549638 · focus · HN ↗

            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.

            1. sanswork · 1790549832 · focus · HN ↗

               Can you actually name some? Last time I looked the highest I could find was like 100 miles.

               1. to11mtm · 1790558848 · focus · HN ↗

                  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.

                  1. sanswork · 1790560209 · focus · HN ↗

                     So in your worst case you were 100 miles from a charger? Not counting the fact you could have charged at the Airbnb if you'd made some prior arrangements? That doesn't sound bad and you were always well within range.

                     1. kube-system · 1790562019 · focus · HN ↗

                        Maybe not during a summer vacation, but in the winter, the only bridge connecting St Ignace to lower Michigan can often close in inclement weather, along with parts of i75. Having plenty of charge can be literally a life-or-death situation in the winter there. It's not uncommon for people to spend the night in a snow drift. And if not that, you need to plan for overnight contingencies and detours.

                        1. sanswork · 1790563332 · focus · HN ↗

                           I'd rather be in an EV in a snowbank where there is almost certainly more than enough power to run a heater for 24 hours. Bonus since I don't have to worry about snow accumulation blocking the exhaust and killing me.

                           1. kube-system · 1790565572 · focus · HN ↗

                              Most of the people in these regions would rather have a vehicle they can keep full of fuel because stations are plentiful and carry a shovel.

                              I'm not saying this because I don't like EVs -- I do -- but I'm saying it because we have to address these problems to get higher adoption.

                              1. sanswork · 1790567570 · focus · HN ↗

                                 If you are stuck in a snowbank your fuel doesn't matter. Staying warm until help arrives is the issue. Like above you are shifting goalposts.

                                 You are raising issues in this post that I would guess impact less than a hundredth of a percent of the driving population of North America. These are really not issues we need to be concerned about and they are very easily solved by installing more chargers. It's a solved problem without demand.

                                 So bluntly I don't understand the points of your comments at all. Is there places where it will take longer to drive an EV currently yes. Is there are two points in the mainland us where you cannot reach because of a lack of chargers no. Do 99.99% of people find themselves in these areas in a given lifetime? Also no.

                                 1. to11mtm · 1790734057 · focus · HN ↗

                                    > If you are stuck in a snowbank your fuel doesn't matter. Staying warm until help arrives is the issue. Like above you are shifting goalposts.

                                    They aren't shifting goalposts, they are being pragmatic and honest. The typical person who lives in the UP is going to be ready for the worst case scenarios (or, otherwise, just stay home.)

                                    > It's a solved problem without demand.

                                    There's not enough demand to make solving the problem economical for these niche cases. And enough people in the US still have to deal with these niche cases that we are where we are.

                                    1. sanswork · 1790735525 · focus · HN ↗

                                       What exactly is your argument here? That there are a few cases where an EV currently isn't the best case? The original argument was that there were vast parts of the US where the distance between chargers was far enough to make trips impossible with an EV and now we're discussing an imagined situation where you get stuck in a snowbank overnight and somehow running a generator to power your heater is the preferred solution?

                                       No it isn't being pragmatic and honest it's trying to find some weird edge cases to argue that his original claim(which was false) is actually technically true because under conditions X, Y, Z which impacts basically no one ever an ICE is required. It's silly. 350 million people in the country and you're coming up with situations that impact a few thousand of them a year as if thats a legitimate concern with EVs. Nothing honest about that.

                                       Coming up with a situation where you make the worst possible travel plans, make the worst possible choices and still it's workable with an EV is not the argument you seem to think it is.

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