Featured Green Car Reports article

yeah, it is true for many people. but also untrue for many who think it is.

the good thing is, ev take up rate is fairly slow, and charging infrastructure is about the same build rate.
a sudden increase might be too much for the grid, and that could stall things. but as it is, the grid can also be slowly improved as needed, and switched over from fossil fuels to renewables.

slow and steady wins the race.

fear mongering by the author is unnecessary. might as well write an article that said the 12v in his subie died, and he had to wait for triple a while his son was in the back freezing in 15 degree weather and suffering from insususception

 

This is why I bought a Prime instead of an EV. I get the EV usage around town, and no range anxiety on the road. At least 500 miles on a tank (and usually closer to 600), and I can buy gasoline pretty much everywhere.

 

you can report this thread and ask them to merge it. otherwise, they may never notice

 

fear mongering is unnecessary. ev's work for some and not for others, and that's how it should be.

i suppose when a similar situation happened a hundred years ago when somebody's model t wouldn't start, someone wrote a similar article about never giving up their horse.

 

I remember having severe range anxiety many years ago in a Dakota pickup on vacation out west when the exit sign said "no services next 225 miles". The gas station at that exit was closed, it was 50 miles back to the last gas station, and I estimated my gas supply at about 230 miles. I went the 225 miles with a very light foot, on fumes and a prayer.

A readily available gas supply is not always a given either.

 

One has to ask, how many times has he made that trip with his kid?

What is true is that many people own vehicles that aren’t reliable enough to go that distance in general, I’ve owned several myself that I could continue driving because I had a backup vehicle and folks nearby to help if it crapped out.

I had a friend that drove a garbage breakdown car for years and if he got stuck he just called a cab or took the bike out of the trunk until he could get a friend to push it back.

An EV is a forced commitment to limitations but I would argue folks who live 100 miles from the nearest gas station aren’t going to own an EV except as a 2nd car and further if they did THERE ARE ACTUALLY OTHER WAYS TO GET SOMEWHERE IN AN EMERGENCY THAT COST EXTRA.
One of my friends kids got choplifted to mayo in much less time for much more money than the op in the story.

The emotional my car accelerated out of trouble only because it’s a v8, I only get to work because of 4wd mudders, a smart car can’t travel out west 4000 miles,
my kid was sick so I drove 1000 miles , my wife gave birth in the back of my land rover
arguments all fall flat with me.
They are just hiding the real motivations.

If something is more convenient I fully agree with the op and leave it at that,
If the op was poor and drove an old gas car his trip may have ended with a flat or an overheated engine (it could have anyway)
my niece bought a rav4 with 50000 miles for her new job and 10,000 miles later the transmission went on the highway getting her fired, she now has a Corolla.

in my usage for the places I go it is infinitely more convenient to have gas so I own a Volt
but I would never lay the emotional BS on thick as to why I don’t try to drive my 1981 Comutacar EV along the Lake Superior coast during vacation.
Or try to convince someone it is possible to do everything with an BEV, leaving out the Uber, taxi, backup PHEV and other services that may be required in exceptional circumstances.

I see that as a pathetic emotional wah waaa fluff piece of someone that has never owned an EV and wouldn’t know what to do with one.

 

Yup, right now when shopping for a new car, the trick is predicting when the infrastructure will be "good enough for me".

 

Yup. I made that decision this spring and sprung (pun intended) for another PHEV (Clarity) instead of a BEV (Model 3 or Bolt) when it came to time to buy. Although I have had some outlier type personal events like the OP's scenario, including a couple last year, that would have made driving and charging a BEV a "nightmare" during those emergencies, it's the typical family and business long distance EV travel that's still a no-go for me in my part of the world.

Paying thousands more for the vehicle plus having to sit in truck stops or McDonalds while waiting on a charge just so I can say I'm 100% EV instead of (as few as) 2-3 tanks per year of gas usage? As the saying goes, I won't let perfect stand in the way of good enough.

 

Having done ~600 miles round trips (sometimes in a single day) many times in last few months, I appreciate the great range PRIME offers with a full tank of gas + full charge. At moment, there is no BEV that could have pulled off the feat.

 

BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) is pure electric. PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) is gas and battery with plug-in capability. Yes, PRIME is a PHEV.

 

The H in PHEV stands for Hybrid so yes Prime is a PHEV.

 

It's too bad that no one can have an EV AND an ICE vehicle........oh, they can? Solves any story that people want to worry about! When I get an EV (an Ioniq?), I'll hold onto our 3 Hyundai ICE cars, too..... may sell one.

 

Yeah, I was thinking of switching the boat with Clarity having 47 miles of EV range, but I am glad I didn't. The total range of Clarity is 340 miles. I could not have done the ~600 miles round trip in a single tank, like I have been doing last couple of months on my PRIME.