this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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I have driven one and despised it. It ran out of battery way too fast, so a 4 hour car ride turned into an 8 hour one because I needed to charge so often
When was this?
We did a trip with my friends' Tesla earlier this year. Normally would have taken us 8 hours, now it took 10 (or maybe it was even 12h instead of 10).
The car also wasn't properly charged the night before for some reason, so we left with half a "tank". That added an extra stop. I also think there were a lot of traffic problems which contributed in the extra time.
I also don't mind to stop every 2 hours or so to charge. Perfect time for a bathroom/coffee/food break. But I'm not used to driving long distances. I know some people like to drive for 4 or 5 hours straight.
I'll typically drive 12 hours without a stop. I hate having to stop, better take your piss before we get going because you'll be doing it out the window.
Do you drive a truck that has a tank to go the 12 hours without stopping? Also #1 and #2, how?
Really? My wife did a 5 hour drive (Toronto to Ottawa) and the car's only recharge took less time than her lunch. This is with a bolt EUV which is a cheaper car with slower charging and range than a lot of the competition.
Were you using a very old/cheap EV, or were you forced to use a slow charger?
I used quick chargers wherever possible, but also had problems getting those to work and was told I needed to hold up the charger by customer support when I finally got through to them. It was a BMW i3 which is indeed a model that is no longer being produced.
I'm not saying EVs are a bad thing, I just don't think the tech is quite there yet compared to "normal" cars
It's better in some way, it's worse with others. My 400km range EV is good enough for most of the road trips I consider, but it doesn't quite stand up to some more hardcore road trippers, and it's winter range is markedly worse (your experience is quite the outlier in my experience though).
As you drive more electric you start to get a feel for the good and bad charging providers, (just like we all have preferences for gas stations I may add) some have pretty near instant customer service, others are basically build and forget. Where I live there are government owned truck stops that all have the same fast chargers that in my experience are well maintained, so the anxiety around finding a working charger isn't a big deal during road trips. There was a brief period where I couldn't use at home charging and my nearest fast charger broke down, that was a huge PITA.
But road trips are kinda a rare occurrence for most people, I at least might do one trip a year that's greater than my range. it's really nice to never have to go to a gas station, I genuinely don't really think about how much fuel I have ever, and that fuel costs me pennies where I am (about $5 for 400km of range at my home electricity rates). It's nice that it has essentially no maintenance. It's nice that I can start preheating my car in winter while it's in the garage.
If an environmental miracle happened today and gas cars were something we all could use forever, I personally would still drive electric.
That said I also just moved to a more walk-able city and god dammit cars have ruined society, I find myself in a car way less than I used to, but still far more than I would like.
Oh yeah I basically never drive a car, it was a rental. It's just that my personal experience want all that great because I rented it specifically for a road trip