The Electric Car Thread

Running your tire warmers with you EV… awesome. I test drove a Genesis GV60 which I think is the same basic platform as the EV6 and it was too powerful for normal street usage for me. I pushed the boost button to get 10 seconds of ~480hp and I only needed about 1.5 seconds before I was going too fast for the street.

With the used i3 we just got, I immediately prefer to use that for a short local trips rather than driving an ICE that’s not warmed up. Hop in, push the button and go with zero thought about cold engine wear.

 

I rented a PoleStar 2 (not bad, I really liked it) from Hertz in CA a few weeks ago. Nobody had any clue.

When I returned it the short version was: bring it back with 80%+ charge or we'll ding you $35.

The crap of it is that mine was capped to charge only to 80% (this is easily altered in the software) and even then after 80%-85% the charge rate becomes glacially slow. I was only able to get it to 93% and even that took 1 hours 32 minutes from 40% charge. It estimated another 30+ minutes for the last 7% (as it was only charging at 13KWh at that point) so I bailed.

 

Most people are focusing too much on range when charging speed is more important. A Tesla charges at 400v, my Kia uses 800v which nets about 240kw/hr. The Porsche Taycan is using 1000v wiring, but Hyundai/Kia expect to introduce 1200v charging by next year for their larger vehicles. That could net a :12 charge from 10-80% on a 100kw battery. Game changing!

 

How many charging stations are capable of charging at that 1200v rate?

Assuming your 12 min charge for 70% of 100kwh, how long will I spend charging on a 1100 mile round trip towing a 6,000+ pound enclosed trailer with the current range/ kWh capacity of an ev truck?

 

There's an app for that, buddy. https://abetterrouteplanner.com/

You do a lot of 1100 mile road trips towing 6000lbs on a daily basis without stopping for meals or the bathroom? Perhaps an EV isn't the best for you then.

 

Just curious how far 70% battery gets you in an EV towing said 6000lb trailer? 100 miles? Yeah I like to stop less often than that.

 

An EV sized similarily to your current tow vehicle will get much better range than my small crossover.
But we both know you're using an extreme example as a rhetorical question just to be a jerk, not for an informed answer.

 

Have you done any research into real world range of a full size electric truck while towing? I have seen tests done by multiple different people, and it seems 100 miles towing a 6,000 LB trailer is in the realistic to slightly optimistic range depending on conditions.

 

Yeah for sure towing a 6k trailer with a pickup truck is "extreme". LOL
That's about the most conservative real world example I could give. And yes it was rhetorical because I already know the answer to the question.

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/ford-f150-lightning-electric-truck-towing-test/

 

If you already knew the answer, why ask a question?

 

Ya'all keep sending your money to Saudi Arabia. I'll keep buying good 'ol energy from 'Merica for my EV.

 

I don't know why all you guys keep harping on the short comings of EVs when it comes to towing significant weights. Clearly that's not the best use case for them! But they're very well suited for daily driver/local-ish use, which for a lot of people is the primary use of a car. Lots of families have more than one car, so an electric can fit well into their use case. If you only have one vehicle and need to do towing or lots of long distance runs, then don't get an EV! Simple.

 

How is it simple when ICE passenger trucks will be no longer for sale in the near future because of government regulations? And if they are, the price will likely be prohibitive. That is why I am asking about where the technology is going; sitting at a charger every 90 miles isn’t a solution. If there is no solution in the works, that needs to be made known as wide as possible so the one sided narrative of EVs being a viable replacement for ICE vehicles doesn’t take root anymore than it already has.

 

More families will have an EV in their "fleet" when the price comes way down.

 

The only EV that makes sense in my life is an inexpensive, close-use NEV.

 

A Chevy Bolt with 252 mikes range was $23k last year after state and federal incentives.

 

Charging speed and availability of chargers is definitely more important than range. The problem as I see it is if/when EVs become more commonplace building the infrastructure to charge at those kinds of rates will not be cheap or quick. They aren't going to be as ubiquitous as gas stations for a long time, and the more EVs that are out there the longer the lines are going to be waiting for your turn at a charging station. 12 minutes to charge still means if there are 3 people in front of you in line you're going to be there for an hour or so.

And as has already been pointed out, for those folks living in high rise apartment buildings the ability to provide enough charging stations for even half of those folks is going to be exceedingly difficult. And there are LOTS of folks living in places like that.

I really like our Tesla, but I don't see it as being practical for long trips, at least not in my lifetime. On the other hand since we bought it I hardly ever drive my poor old Silverado. I've had to get in the habit of remembering to start the pickup every couple of weeks so it doesn't just sit around and drain the battery.

The Tesla works well for us since we have our own home and could mount a charging port right there in our carport. The percentage of people who can do that is getting smaller every day.

We've only used a supercharger once. We were down to about 25% and had purposefully routed a trip that would require one. I set the max to 95% and let it charge while we grabbed lunch. It was done charging right on time for us, about 35 minutes. I discovered that it costs about 4x as much to charge it on a supercharger vs at home. Still considerably cheaper than equivalent mileage using gasoline.

 

Cool.

So I would have had to stop 7 times on my last trip to jerk off while waiting for the Wattage Wagon to “refuel”, and added how many hours onto my 26 hour drive?

 

there wont be as much need for charging stations as most people will charge at home, the only reason to charge at an expensive charge station will be long trips. The average driver drive 40 miles a day, easily replaced at home on regular power. EVs make sense for normal driving, not so much for towing, horses for courses.