Recall this came up yesterday(?) when I said that I have one. And when my reservation for an AWD Model 3 comes up soon, I will have two; unless another manufacturer pulls a rabbit out of their hat and beats Tesla to the punch. Will there be edge cases where it's more convenient to use an ICE? Of course. Are there individual cases where ICE will be far more practical? Of course. But that rarely seems to be your angle. Somebody said up thread - choose the right tool for the job - maybe
@Joe F. This seems so right on to me. Drive EV as much as possible. If we're all on the same page, this should be what we're pulling for. This should be common ground always.
I guess my point is, from what I gather from our conversations, you have your cases for ICE and I have mine. I have simply been explaining them to others who have asked and debated my choices. I don't see very much difference there. I am not making a case for ICE, I'm simply explaining why it is hard for me to go all BEV yet.
The world is very different when it is all a theory on a forum. But when I have a business meeting 100-200 km from home, sometimes with a business guest with me that I'm schlepping there and back intra-day/round-trip on a schedule, I'm looking at making it a smooth experience for all. I can't stop at a plug-share, that is not a realistic option at all. Even a Supercharger stop is pushing it if I'm on a schedule dictated by others on ICEs. I respect the time of others too much to impose my car choices on them. And I live in an area where there is winter and winter kills range, so this problem rears its head much sooner than perhaps in some other locales, range-wise.
It is very different when I'm taking a leisurely drive just by myself. I've sat for hours on slow trickle chargers on occasion, without complaint. I am an early adopter by nature, and when it is just me, I often like that. I've enjoyed my BEV adventures, I like exploring different charger models etc. I just can't make that happen all the time - and my family does not like them, so that limits things further to the times when I'm driving alone and not dictated by business schedules (which often means return trips from business, if it is just me and the "day is over"). Hence for roadtrips I often choose an ICE... and so my BEV long-range capabilities are less important, which all this conversation started from.
Which brings me back to the I-Pace: All this is both a blessing and a curse for the I-Pace personally. It is a blessing in the sense that I don't need for it to have a Supercharger network or even fast CCS for the I-Pace personally, because obviously it would be a locally driven car, just like my Tesla is much of the time (and I'd still have the Tesla as I'm not looking to replace it). I think this is actually true for a lot of folks, who can get a lot of utility out of a large-battery BEV, even if they never take it long-range. Curse in the sense that if the I-Pace replaces an ICE I'm often taking road-tripping, then it can be a problem, because I still need an ICE for those occasional road-trips - neither the Tesla or the I-Pace would solve that for me yet.
And because of the last point, I find it likely it will still be some time before I will replace an additional ICE with a BEV. Ironically Tesla can help there, though not in the sense that I'd buy a Model 3 instead of an I-Pace. But if the Supercharger network around me mushrooms to the point where the Model X can actually handle my business trips etc., it would make the secondary I-Pace plausible quicker. I don't need two long-range BEVs, one is enough, but I do want all BEVs to have large batteries for local use, because that is just excellent.
