Range Anxiety....Just saying

[roblab]

....Nobody can drive out with 5 gallons of electrons to pour into the battery so you can get to a fill-up point.

I've seen AAA come out with a generator on the back of the truck and plug the owner's (NOT mine) charge cord in, to fill the car with enough to get to a nearby charger.

But I've also seen AAA just load the car on the flatbed and haul it over to the charger. Either way, it's expensive. Hopefully people learn how to read the little numbers and find the chargers on the large map in the center of the dash. I have a friend who has quit driving his Tesla because he can't do that. So the car just sits and gets dustier and dustier....

 

[dmurphy]

More range is helpful for edge cases, but I think charging infrastructure is the big deal. Replace all gas stations with charging stations and it wouldn't be such a big deal. Dense infrastructure make travel more natural.

1000% right. We did a 7000 mile road trip this summer and it was pretty glorious. Did it take a little planning? Sure. But really not a big deal, and to be honest -- the stops every 2 1/2 hours were great. Really broke the trip up into palatable chunks. Still did 7000 miles in 16 days; don't think that's too shabby, if I do say so myself.

 

[JCtx]

I am covered by superchargers, but north it’s 233 miles to the closest SC.

We have a similar situation with our older daughter. If we use the usual route, we just couldn't make it (420 miles). The next closest route would force us to travel 240 miles, so almost like you. If we were to go now, we'd have to charge to 100%, and not exceed 55 mph, in order to barely make it. And if you catch a headwind, which is very common near Amarillo, TX, we wouldn't make it. So no thanks. If we ever take the Tesla there, we'd have to take the long way, meaning 115 extra miles (535 total), but at least we'd be able to travel as fast as we can, and only arriving 40 minutes later. Hopefully Tesla will install a supercharger in either Roswell or Ruidoso, which would solve our problem.

By the way, we're leaving for Austin to see both of our daughters on Thursday. We'll see how the car does; it's 602 miles. We'll have to stop 4 times, so range won't be an issue; just charging time. But according to ABRP, it'd be only like 1/2-hr more than we usually stop, so not a big deal. Unfortunately, our 2021 doesn't have Wi-Fi anymore, so we won't be able to watch Netflix while charging (can only watch it when connected to my home Wi-Fi, as well as all other 'streaming' options). Oh well. Tried using our phones as HotSpots, but no dice; takes too much bandwidth, I guess. Needless to say, I won't be renewing (the useless for us) premium connectivity when it expires at the end of the year.

 

[Rocky_H]

Some people just have irrational and totally un-meetable demands of range. And I tend to think it's just a method of moving the goalposts to always have an excuse of electric cars being insufficient.

My example from this week. A friend of ours from college is ready for a new(er) car. Her car now is a 2003 Prius. It replaced...another 2003 Prius. She is insanely beyond dedicated to that exact kind of car and hates everything else. She doesn't want anything other than a 2002-2003 Prius. She has test driven many other kinds of cars and doesn't like them. She kind of likes the idea of Teslas, and her husband is encouraging her to get one, and she test drove a Model 3, and liked that, but she has The Fears (TM). It won't do well in the winter and doesn't have enough range. We talked about this a year ago, and I thought addressed it, but she brought it up again last week, because the hybrid battery on her Prius is going out.

She said the range she needs is to be able to make her drive from Columbus, OH to Ann Arbor, MI AND BACK on one single charge! Non-negotiable. That's about 200 miles each way--a 400 mile round trip.

I asked her WHY? What is so intolerable about having just one stop for charging, either on the way there, or the way back? Ann Arbor has a Supercharger. And she would drive through Toledo, which has two. You would have to be doing things in Ann Arbor anyway, so what is wrong with a charging stop somewhere in that round trip?

And she just responded that her husband can't understand why she needs that either.

Done. WTF?! When someone has easy access to the easiest and fastest charging network in the world, but is just completely unwilling to use it, and considers that a deficiency of the car, I don't know how there can ever be any answer to that.

In her case, I don't think it's dislike. It's just severe attachment to what she has and fear of change. So she has to scrounge for any kind of explanation to justify avoiding change.

 

[JCtx]

I hear you. A friend said he wouldn't consider an electric car until it gives 500 miles of range. It's rare for a gas car to have that range, so it's pretty stupid indeed to have those expectations of an electric car. Having said that, I would have NEVER consider an EV with less range than our M3 LR, since the EPA rated range is an ideal range and from 100 to 0% charge, so you'd never achieve that. So we're dealing with a realistic range of about 220 to 260 highway miles, depending on climate and conditions. It's doable. Anything less than that would be just a city car, period.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I hear you. A friend said he wouldn't consider an electric car until it gives 500 miles of range. It's rare for a gas car to have that range, so it's pretty stupid indeed to have those expectations of an electric car. Having said that, I would have NEVER consider an EV with less range than our M3 LR, since the EPA rated range is an ideal range and from 100 to 0% charge, so you'd never achieve that. So we're dealing with a realistic range of about 220 to 260 highway miles, depending on climate and conditions. It's doable. Anything less than that would be just a city car, period.

My longest regular drive is 105 miles round trip, 97 of that Interstate.

We'd had our Kona EV for 2 days and did a 150 mile round trip, almost entirely Interstate, in cold and heavy rain. 2.6 miles/kWh so not too much range left. There were charging options along the route, which meant I could have stopped if I needed to, and I had options to divert off the Interstate. I took one with 18 miles left and made it back with about 20 miles (badly) estimated, so Interstate would be been fine but closer.

Is that just city driving?

And even then is it "just" a city car, when that's the vast majority of driving covered.

By miles driven the Kona's now clearly our primary car, displacing the Volt.

 

[KenC]

Some people just have irrational and totally un-meetable demands of range. And I tend to think it's just a method of moving the goalposts to always have an excuse of electric cars being insufficient.

My example from this week. A friend of ours from college is ready for a new(er) car. Her car now is a 2003 Prius. It replaced...another 2003 Prius. She is insanely beyond dedicated to that exact kind of car and hates everything else. She doesn't want anything other than a 2002-2003 Prius. She has test driven many other kinds of cars and doesn't like them. She kind of likes the idea of Teslas, and her husband is encouraging her to get one, and she test drove a Model 3, and liked that, but she has The Fears (TM). It won't do well in the winter and doesn't have enough range. We talked about this a year ago, and I thought addressed it, but she brought it up again last week, because the hybrid battery on her Prius is going out.

She said the range she needs is to be able to make her drive from Columbus, OH to Ann Arbor, MI AND BACK on one single charge! Non-negotiable. That's about 200 miles each way--a 400 mile round trip.

I asked her WHY? What is so intolerable about having just one stop for charging, either on the way there, or the way back? Ann Arbor has a Supercharger. And she would drive through Toledo, which has two. You would have to be doing things in Ann Arbor anyway, so what is wrong with a charging stop somewhere in that round trip?

And she just responded that her husband can't understand why she needs that either.

Done. WTF?! When someone has easy access to the easiest and fastest charging network in the world, but is just completely unwilling to use it, and considers that a deficiency of the car, I don't know how there can ever be any answer to that.

In her case, I don't think it's dislike. It's just severe attachment to what she has and fear of change. So she has to scrounge for any kind of explanation to justify avoiding change.

While you often hear people liking change when it comes to elections; the truth is, most people fear change, and will go out of their way to avoid it.

Tell your friend that a Prius was meant to be a gateway car to a full BEV. Even Toyota made Plug-in Priuses. Take her to a SC, and show how easy it is to plug in. Show her pics of the one in Ann Arbor, and how close it is to her route. Tell her she'll never have to go to a smelly gas station again.

 

[Rocky_H]

Tell your friend that a Prius was meant to be a gateway car to a full BEV. Even Toyota made Plug-in Priuses. Take her to a SC, and show how easy it is to plug in. Show her pics of the one in Ann Arbor, and how close it is to her route. Tell her she'll never have to go to a smelly gas station again.

I'm in Idaho, so I can't show her anything in person in Ohio. But I'm sure it's not lack of information. We've been over it that there are Superchargers in Toledo and Ann Arbor, but not stopping at all is her requirement. There's no getting around that by showing how stopping is easy or convenient.

 

[Rocky_H]

My example from this week. A friend of ours from college is ready for a new(er) car. Her car now is a 2003 Prius. It replaced...another 2003 Prius. She is insanely beyond dedicated to that exact kind of car and hates everything else. She doesn't want anything other than a 2002-2003 Prius.

Update from my friend. Turns out that the hybrid battery actually is not failing. In replacing the 12V battery in the car recently outside, there was some water that dripped/leaked onto something, causing a sensor to get messed up and throw false warnings. They got that diagnosed, and fixed, and it's fine now, so...there is now no need for her to consider giving up her Prius. Oh well.