Optimal Range for Electric Vehicle?

Optimal docking unit: 38-21-33
Optimal income: twenty billion
Optimal environment: Fiji,aspen winters
Optimal mileage 200+

 

I checked 200+, but in fact, my idea of the optimal EV would be one that could drive all day on a charge, and then recharge overnight. As for your estimated prices, I paid more than that, but I got more performance than a family EV would need.

 

sorry, i voted before reading your post. thought the whole car cost $250. / mile without the 20K. i voted 100, but 40 miles for 30K would be fine.

 

At $250 per mile I wouldn't buy one. Minus the $20k, my LEAF costs $45 per mile.

 

LOL nice come back.

I've gotta admit I don't like the idea of paying too much more than half the cost of the car for the battery, particularly considering it will probably depreciate very quickly (newer better cheaper batteries are no doubt part of our future). So I voted for only a 45 to 50 mile range at that price.

For me this puts EV still firmly in the realm of a second car city run about, which also makes the micro or subcompact format the right niche for EV at this point in time. Hopefully battery technology and price will soon evolve to the point where EV is an option for a wider market but I don't see it as being there yet, not at $250 per mile range.

 

BTW. 200+ is still leading the poll but I'm not entirely certain that everyone is reading the $250 per mile range thing correctly. If so the people voting for 200+ are prepared to pay $50,000+ for just the battery, over two and a half times the cost of the rest of the car, for something that could very well depreciate like crazy. Not for me.

 

ya, this isn't going right. but i think everyone is perplexed over an electric car being their only car. until you can charge up like filling up ata gas station, many of us can only use it as a first car, albeit a large percent of the time.

 

????That stopped me cold for a minute. I'm usually pretty relaxed on long range trips, but I can see how it could get to you.

Then I figured out you probably meant renting???

 

If you have a $50K battery, the odds are you will upgrade the quality of the rest of the car. A Lexus GS with a $50K battery is a whole different animal than a yaris with the same battery. For me none of the choices seem good right now but that may change, based on range and content.

I doubt we will ever get there, but many people don't need that kind of flexibility. Most of the savings can be done with a PHEV. So say an ICE, emissions, and gas tank for extending the range cost $8K. Then would a 40 mile range with extneded range for $18K more satisfy, especially if you could hit a power button to get high acceleration from both. How about 60 mile range PHEV for $23K more. At some point you will do PHEV instead of 200 mile range unless you are a purist. Now the ICE may run on biodiesel, or e85 of something else.

 

Anyway, my choice was easy since our commutes are 35-45 miles and then the next
round-trip length is 75 miles. I think we'd need 70-80 AER to commute, covering winter, the hilly terrain, degradation and allow some flexibility.

 

I find it odd that only one person has selected 90 - 100 miles, even though we have several Leaf owners here, at least, and that's basically what the Leaf gets in real-world diving. Maybe their ideal car would need less than that, or they'd like to have more. I'd have been happy with 100 real world freeway miles, but having over 200 is very liberating: Never having to worry about range regardless of A/C or heater use or driving as fast as the flow of traffic in the fast lane of the freeway. But I'm aware that the cost of that big a battery pack is outside most people's budget. I justify the expense because it's helping to push the technology forward, and ultimately reducing cost. The battery pack in my Xebra is already much cheaper than when I bought mine.