Featured Americans insist on 300 miles of EV range. They’re right

When it happened to a family member of mine (wasn't in a Tesla so wasn't in dog mode, but the weather was mild and the windows were cracked and the stop was really brief), the good Samaritans weren't the least bit concerned about being on camera, given that they next went straight to the police to report my family member.

 

if it was a child, they would have passed right on by

 

How about 600 miles? Like on a prius

 

Nope, much rather have 250 miles of gasoline free miles. I am not expecting my neices and nephews to pay for my trips.

 

I do fine with my Bolt EUV's roughly 250 miles. Planning another road trip up north in a couple weeks. Later this year, we'll take the Prius on the big trip to Montana, Arizona, and states in between.

 

At least today, with current tech, 600 miles is easily doable but not desirable at the cost.

On the performance side a battery pack of 600 miles will weigh more than twice as much as a battery pack good for 300 miles. That will pack an extra 400kg + onto the car, requiring a better suspension. Lucid has a model that will go over 500 miles but it costs over $100K. Volume is in the 200 mile - 400 mile range. Even if you put a 600 mile pack in, once you go beyond, it is not going to charge miles much faster, but yeah some will want it.

Tech is improving but it costs money. Nio should have their 150 kwh pack out later this year in china. It's going to be expensive but it could do 600 miles and not weigh much more than their 100 kwh pack. Even if we get down to half the weight there still is cost. Say we get up to 500 wh/kg at $50/kwh to the manufacturer selling for $100/kwh in the car. Do you choose the 250 kg pack that costs the car buyer $7500 and has a 300 mile range and weighs 250 kg, or $7500 more for 600 mile range at 500 kg. Most will choose the former, and right now the weight and cost is a lot more for the bigger pack. really I charge in my garage most of the time, the pack is plenty big.

 

As far as I'm concerned:

• EV range = Biology range

At age 73 whose late wife was 13 years older, 3 hours was about our maximum range before we needed to take a biology break. Females tend to take longer but older males take longer too:


I well remember the 1,200 mile, delivery home drive of our 2017 Prius Prime. The first leg, ~650 miles, involved multiple biology breaks:

• short visit with my brother Dave, ~120 mi
• late afternoon brunch, ~270 mi
• walk around, coffee and pee break, ~325 mi
• walk around, coffee and peek break, ~500 mi
• Roanoke first fill up, ~630 mi

Today my 2019 Tesla Model 3 has ~215 miles range which means I combine my biology breaks with charging sessions. Sometimes, I take a cat nap but otherwise, about a 20 minute break. This allows me to easily cover 700 miles in about 14 hours or push it to 1,000 miles in 24 hours. My longest was 30 hours to cover 1,300 miles with cat naps as needed and a couple of L2 charging sessions to 'bridge the gap.'

Bob Wilson

 

But is that in winter or summer, HVAC on or off, fair weather or foul? Don't you have to factor those in which is why I'd want to start at 300 or more to allow for both aging and weather.

And at my age in any car it is the bio range that matters. And her stop length that determines the start again time.

 

It is what the battery management system reports at 100% SOC. It is as close to a Standard Day as I can achieve.

Bob Wilson

 

Bob's car started at 240 miles EPA.
What lab testing predicts, and field reports are supporting, for capacity loss would have an EV owner expect a 10% loss in the first 3 years, with that tapering off to near flat on the degradation curve. That's worse case. Greater loss is possible with models and conditions, but Tesla's, which have the most user reported data, mostly tend to have less.

 

I've lost 9% in 4.5 years on a tesla model 3 dual motor. If you are going on a long trip you fill the battery up and pre heat or cool the cabin. That reduces the hit given for cold or hot conditions. Still its good to have a safety margin. I believe the standard range model 3 charges slower, but people charge up to 100% because the Lithium iron phosphate chemistry is more heat and charge resistant. Still this charges slower than bob's car.

For me 230 mile highway range new would be fine. For most people the sweet spot is between 200 miles and 400 miles. I bought my car before they had the shorter range version. On long trips I fly, but I may drive it to Atlanta to visit New Orleans on the way, instead of my normal flights. I'd like to bring things back on the trip and see how the car does on the super chargers. The only question is how will the puppy do on such a long trip.

My worst case drain was during what we call snopacalypse, where the texas grid almost went down because many old power plants are not winterized. 4 days in the cold without power, ended up using the tesla for heat to sleep at night for 2 of those days. It could drive to where there was power to recharge, but heat takes a lot of energy. My vehicle is before they put in the heat pump. My guess is very cold will drop range about 25% on long highway trips, more if you are going slow.

 

The old plants? Somehow, I had the impression that it was the new plants that were least winterized.

 

There are no new coal plants. There are not enough new natural gas plants. In 2011 during the much smaller blackouts, weatherization was blamed. The plants are now 12 years older. ERCOT and the PUC could have regulated to have enough weatherized plants but only recommended because these entities had ties to the utilities that did not want to weatherize the old plants or build enough new ones. The newer wind turbines are not weatherized, but really that makes economic sense if the there are adequate fossil back ups. All the ERCOT board members were fired or quit.

Now there are finally bills running through the legislature to build new natural gas capacity. This will be weatherized and older plants can be mothballed. The new capacity will also work better with wind and solar than some of the old power plants.

I didn't want to go into my states specific problems but power outages are one reason to have extra range.

 

We stop every couple hours for ten minutes at a time. Then 12 hours overnight

 

http://www.stadiumpal.com works wonders.

 

But then I’d have no excuse to charge

 

wow, that's amazing! i didn't realize charging speeds had come that far

 

amazing, is that better than tesla?