Why did you buy a plug in and not an electric car.

Not sure who you are asking since you didn't quote, but mine was in New Mexico primarily along 25 and 285.

 

A couple years ago, we attended the spouse's high school reunion on the opposite coast. This was turned into a five week journey, visiting many sights along the Northern Tier path that had been on wish lists for years but missed on previous shorter trips. And minimizing use of Interstates for all but the last half of the return leg. This is typical of our off-the-beaten-path style, though also our longest ever.

For a sample, try the scenic route of Highway US20 across Washington State, then continue on US2 to Duluth MN. Starting from Burlington WA, that is a mere 1725 miles for those who don't take side trips, though we get more than 2000 miles out of it. The map I'm looking at shows just a single charger along that whole route, an L2 facility near Kalispell MT.

What is your preferred charger map? Perhaps I'm just looking at the wrong one?

 

He is talking about SE New Mexico. There are certainly areas of the country that are rural and have less than convenient EV charging infrastructure. Yet I know one fellow who lives near Hobbs, NM and happily owns a Tesla as a single car, so this is often a matter of personal preference as it is actual charging realities.

 

He can charge at home. A visitor to the area cannot.

 

You are correct. I was saying that you'd need to charge overnight to fully replenish a depleted battery of that size. Overnight is not "fast charging" -- although you'd really only need to "top off" the battery to whatever level you might need.

You also need to keep in mind that you cannot dedicate 100% of your household electricity to the car while it is charging. You probably want to continue using your lights, microwave, TV, etc. and not tell your significant other that he/she cannot use the clothes dryer until the car is recharged.

My point was that Tesla "fast charging" needs more current than a typical household electric service can practically provide. The "PowerWall" solves this problem by slow-charging and then dumping its charge into the Tesla in a big hurry. This is a great strategy -- but without this kind of approach, you're looking at overnight.

One of the PriusChat participants noted that a friend came to her home for dinner after a long trip and had to stay overnight to bring the Tesla back up to full charge on her L2 EVSE for the return journey.

This is not in any way to denigrate the Tesla, just to recognize the limitations of charging technology.

 

Many of us (and I include myself) can't imaging a world where we would be willing to sit around and wait for our batteries to charge before driving further. The thought of stopping every hour and waiting 10-15 minutes to gather the joules necessary to make it another hour on the road is laughable...Who would do that, even if there was a charger on every street corner.

But, just try to imaging a world where people would be willing to spend 90 minutes commuting 15 miles. What the hell, who would tolerate such a terrible world. I would rather wait for the damn battery to charge....Oh wait, I think some of our urban dwellers have that commute already...Never mind...

Hard to imagine what life might be like in the future...And I used to work for that Ken Olson visionary mentioned in another recent thread...

 

When I first worked with DEC systems, everything was open from source codes to electrical diagrams at least for interfaces. But with VAX clusters, everything an engineer needed became impossible.

Bob Wilson

 

That is one reason bicycle commuting has exploded here. Though it certainly helped to have dedicated bike trails for the great majority of my commute route this century, until retirement six years ago.

(I didn't have the endurance to bike 17-18 miles each way every day, but aimed for twice a week in summer, with time shifted car commutes the other days. And slacked off in winter to pedaling just the dry days.)

 

So, what is your daily vehicle usage routine?


iPhone X ?

 

This is why when I bought the PiP, I put in a L2 charger, so I was able to keep the battery up and use as much EV mode as possible.

 

My point is, you don't need fast charging at home if you have a long-range electric vehicle. No one leaves home, drives 300 miles, arrives at home and then expects to drive another 300 miles an hour later.

You need fast charging when driving cross-country. And then, you only need it because of today's relatively short-range Ev's. I did a study and found that 300 mile Ev's need 350kW charging rates, 350 mile Ev's need 120kW charging rates and 450 mile Ev's only need 50kW charging rates, all to make a breakfast-to-bedtime 700 mile daily drive.

 

My commute is about 20 miles each way, a quarter highway. the rest two lane lazy New-England scenic back roads. On many days, the four traffic lights I pass are green. The closest charging station from where I live is about 10 miles but if I look west I see very few, mostly near the highways and larger cities.

We take day trips throughout New-England as family is scattered around the various states. Usually in the 100-200 mile range although hitting the ski mountains in VT or beaches on the cape would push that higher.

 

Okay, so realistically, if you had a long range capable 300+ EV that you always leave your home topped off or 80-90% SOC. You wouldn’t really have a significant charging burden so long as when could destination charge, it was while the vehicle would normally be parked anyway. A parallel time period to whatever ever you are doing. Btw, many resorts are beginning to add destination charging stations. Those numbers will only increase as customers inquire about them. A day on the slopes is a lot of time to charge.


iPhone X ?

 

Like the others, range. Not enough charging infrastructure where I live and frequently travel. Also needed 110v charging capability many places. Had signed up for a Tesla model 3 but delivery uncertainties and price creep made me change to the Prime. It replaced a 2008 Prius. I recently did a one day 850 mile trip. That would be very difficult in an all electric.

 

Yes, with 300+ miles of range, the need for charging away from home would be significantly reduced.
Not zero. In some cases I still would not want to venture out without gas options but those cases are much less frequent.

 

A Nissan Leaf would have easily covered my entire working career commute needs. But it wasn't introduced until I was winding down that career and easing towards retirement.

My annual driving distance hasn't changed much, but the mix has significantly changed. Short EV-friendly trips of commuting & shopping distance are greatly reduced, replaced by increased long distance gas-required trips.

 

Hey, with a 3000 mile extension cord, no stops required, and probably beat the pants off the ICE!!

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I think that system has been around for a while in the form of the overhead catenaries used by electric streetcars, trains and "trackless trolleys":



Some engineers think it someday will become feasible to install inductive power in roadways so that vehicles can obtain power without a physical connection to an overhead wire or third rail:



And, of course, there is always the extension cord you mention -- which would be of the springy coiled-cord style to save time re-winding it every time you get home. Boing!

 

Nah, when you get to the other coast, you just give the cord a smart snap, and it will come recoiling back to you! Then you just plug back in and head home!

I've touted the inductive charging of cars for quite some time, to be powered by solar collectors. The whole system would be owned and operated by the oil companies who would need an alternative source of income. That's assuming of course, that they are smart enough to change their investment strategies. One note of optimism, look at what the Saudis are doing today with their divestment of oil assets! The Chinese appear to be a force for positive change too with their desperate push for electrics. The one abyss of ignorance is unfortunately located in Washington D (umb) C (humps),
where their only claim to fame is the creation of a Giant Speedbump to progress on the environmental crises facing the world!

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

ct89 and bwilson4web, I used to work for Ken too. I date back to the PDP-11. I have written WCS for the 11/780. This was before the term firmware was used to describe what we knew as Control Store. Adapt or die. I have adapted. Still in tech, and love driving the Prime to it's limits. With a 350 mile commute to/from work each week, the list of viable options was small. I wanted a BEV, but they are not yet up to the task I needed them for. Soon they will be. Very soon. I expect the Prime to last me long enough to be able to get a viable, affordable, reliable BEV as my next car.