What are your thoughts on EV vehicles & charging?
What are your thoughts on EV vehicles & charging?
I was watching this person's videos on the matter. And was wondering what your experience has been with EVs and your opinion on the different connectors?
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EV owner in the US with home charger. It's the best. The convenience of never having to go to a gas station is huge. I was so worried about range and charging speed before I got the car, but it's all bullshit. The reality is that I wake up in the morning and I'm ready to go wherever I want to go. I take a few longer trips a year, and I'm always able to find a charging station along the way. The apps make it pretty easy to know where to go. I have a CCS plug, and we're supposed to get the Tesla adapter sometime this year. But even without it, we just took an 800 mile road trip, and there's a CCS fast charging station at least every 80 miles, so it's not like we were ever in danger of not making it. The only thing I don't like about the CCS plug is that they're so damn heavy. The Tesla ones are supposed to be nicer, so there's that to look forward to.
So the road trip item you're talking about is incredibly subjective. I just had an ev for a few months, yes I was able to find CCS on the highway, but you're looking at ~1hr charging per 3 driving (give or take). That's a deal breaker for a lot of people.
But youre right, leaving every morning with "a full tank" was wild.
I actually don't think it is a deal breaker. How many 300+mi road trips does a person take? So what if it takes longer a few days out of the year?
And you can always prioritize fast charging when shopping EVs, if that's important. We knew full well we weren't getting the fastest charging EV when we bought ours. But, like I said, it was fine on our big trip, and really we didn't stop more often than we usually do, even if our stops were a bit linger, and it didn't have a negative impact.
You are right, it is incredibly use dependent. In a weird way, EVs kinda of outline a lot of the cultural divide in America right now. The majority of America is freaking BIG. If you live on the coast, and are road tripping on the coast, odds are 300 miles seems like a lot because it was settled by horses, but that just doesn't work for a lot of people. At least 3-4 times a year I do 400+ miles one way.
So EVs do make a ton of sense for a LOT of people, but it's definitely not all people. From what I can tell, most of the people that have that need for that range are also 2 car families, in which one EV and one ICE works perfectly. It is so close to almost there, and in many, mannnny use cases it already is. But adding 20% to my travel time was not acceptable when I was shopping for a new vehicle.