Featured Toyota MAY consider making EV cars (and presumably Lexus too)

With ChargePoint the app let's you find chargers. You can even see if they are in use or not.
But I charge at home and at work...when my car would be sitting idle for hours anyway.

Yes, if I was planning on driving all day this wouldn't work. That's when I use gas in the PIP.
I get gas 4 or 5 times a year now between the two cars. I'm pretty sure I'm saving lots of time.
The worst issue is that I have to find time to clean the windshield since I normally would do that while filling up at the gas station.

Mike (PIP and Leaf)

 

that's one concern of a 200 mile bev for me. is it worth it when i only need it once or twice a week, 6 months a year?

 

If one lived in CA like you do or primarily commuted, EV would work for many I'll grant you. But I plot each trip I do take against charging locations and it doesn't work here in the southeast. Our perceptions are colored by geography

 

When I planned our trip between Huntsville AL and Stillwater OK, the rapid, DC chargers were very limited:

• 2 - incompatible Tesla Superchargers but too many gaps for the 700 mile trip (even in a Tesla!)
• 4 - incompatible CHAdeMO but too many gaps for the 700 mile trip
• 0 - SAE-combo along the 700 mile trip route (the nearest in Nashville is beyond EV range)

The BMW i3-REx pulled into any truck stop and briefly stopped by the side of the road when one truck stop was closed. I could have made the next one on battery but choose to add 1 gallon from a spare can to preserve the battery charge, ~50 miles. There were two other 'out of gas' cases that happened at exits with open gas stations. I still had the spare gallon can in the 'frunk'.

There are a lot of Level 3, 208-240V @31A, chargers BUT with significant gaps and a +3 hour charging delay at each. As for Level 1, 120V @12A, they are common BUT we're talking about +8 hours at a time.

I can not afford a 'city-only' car and have no interest in waiting on others to create a compatible, continental, charging network. But our range extended car makes a lot of sense for long distance travel. Then I can use Level 1 everywhere at the destinations and Level 2 if available.

Bob Wilson

 

Depends on factors beyond how many long trips you make. Like the difference in initial prices between the different range BEVs, whether a second car is available, and how long you plan to keep the car.

If you keep cars a long time, the higher price for a 200 mile BEV vs a 100 mile one might be worth it to have a larger buffer in the pack to not have to worry about capacity loss rendering the car unusable for your needs during the period of ownership.

Then a PHEV can be a better option. When most of your daily trips are on electric, using an ICE occasionally for longer trips shouldn't cause guilt. Plus it can be used for longer trips where charging might not be available at this time.

Are you talking about daily commute and errand trips, or longer ones?

At this point in time, BEVs are still in the early adopter stage as a car that can replace the ICE one. Only the truly dedicated have taken a real long trip in a Leaf. Tesla is the only company selling a BEV now that could meet the needs of a majority of families in the US, and their charging network is still lacking in some areas. Longer range BEVs are coming from others, along with a more affordable Model 3, but it will still take time for the infrastructure to grow. So we won't all be able to ditch the ICE for a BEV in the next 5 years.

A large number of American households have multiple cars, and can have home charging. These households could replace one of those ICE cars with a BEV that can cover a resident's most common use without the need for charging beyond overnight at home, and not need a Tesla to do so now.

Then this isn't a ICE or BEV choice. PHEVs are available for those that want to plug in, but a BEV isn't going to work for whatever reason.