Oh the teething problems in EV world ... from plugincars.com Electric Car Driver Left Stranded by Charging Company Incompetence | PluginCars.com "So we call the tow truck, which took more than an hour to arrive. We froze our butts off. Jared took photos and made critical (but admittedly funny) comments about EVs on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, vowing to never rely on one again. This is what kills EVs. That, and the neighbors coming outside when we arrived home with the LEAF being lowered off the tow truck." Ouch!
I've long wondered if this would be a "business." One could set up a web site with a name such as "EVrescue.org (.com is taken-I just checked). Set up your Prius to work as a 230V charger for pure-electric cars using a charger that works off the traction battery, which could provide 3kW. The Prius could then come to the aid of a stranded EV. If it's already close to home, it would only take a few minutes to give the EV a mile or so of extra range. If farther from home, the Prius could charge it for long enough to get to the nearest working public charger. Of course, this doesn't make sense for one person. But once the web site is set up, it could direct EV owners to as many Prius entrepreneurs as care to sign up as rescue stations. There are enough Prii on the road now that the country could be covered with only a small percentage of owners willing to do this. In fact, if there were a fleet of rescue Prii, perhaps even some owned by Toyota or other car dealers, it would promote the sale of pure EVs. Did someone say "monetization"? The web site owner could charge a commission, and of course the owner of the rescue Prius could charge for the charge. The EV owner would probably be pretty happy not to have to tell the spouse that it was necessary to rent a flatbed or get towed and be content to pay for the privilege. Big bux? Probably not. But if you already have a Prius, you've probably considered using it as a generator for your house. And if you've done that, turning it into an EV charger is only a tiny step. Any takers? Richard
Until EV's have greater than 200 miles range like Teslas, trips like this should not be handled by a Leaf or any other mainstream EV. I mean if I knew I had a few monthly 45 mile distance trips, I wouldn't have purchased an EV unless I had a ICE backup. You're just asking for trouble. I read an article about a reviewer in NYC not getting his EV test car plugged in by the valet and it wasn't done no matter how many times he called and the valet assured him it will be charged.
