All-electric households?

[Sneezy]

My lawnmower is electric.
My 2018 Rad Rover fat tire bike is electric.
My son has my wife's old 2010 Prius (close to 160K)
My wife has a 2018 Prius
I have the Mach E
I have a 2000 Trans Am Firehawk.

I almost bought her a Model S but we decided for her job to stick with a Prius because she works with low income families and the Model S was a bit over the top. She also has a severe case of range anxiety. I don't know if she will switch in a few years or not. She's not really the trip planning type. Her parents also live in the middle of nowhere so I can't see her going EV for that reason alone.

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[jjhenry]

I looked at it - $20K more than the XC90

Only if you option up to the Black Label I think. Looking at each base PHEV model with zero options (Volvo Inscription vs Lincoln Grand Touring) the Lincoln is roughly $3500 more, and when I option them each the way I'd want them, the Lincoln is $1300 more. (I'm not a Lincoln shill, just a pedant.)

 

[Vulnox]

We are in SE Michigan and I am toying with the idea of going full electric. We currently have the F-150 Powerboost, like OP, and a Focus Electric which my wife just uses to get to work. We are replacing her FFE with the MME which is on order. I have a Lightning reservation, but like was mentioned, it's hard to know if pulling the trigger is the right move.

For one, the PowerBoost F-150 is just... outstanding. We went Lariat 502a, all the goodies, and I even timed it where I got some rebates on top of A-Plan. I think that even with A-Plan and tax incentives, that Lightning is not going to come out at as good a price.

For another, we also make trips to northern Michigan, frequent trips to Indianapolis, etc. And doing some rough estimates using ABRP, some routes are no problem (surprised to find a nice size EA installation in Bay City, which we pass on nearly every trip up north), but some are going to be at least a good deal slower, like going to Indianapolis. There are chargers, but they aren't on the route we prefer, or are 50kW.

I don't expect to sign for the Lightning for at least a year, I am remaining probably overly optimistic that the recent increase in attention from Ford and GM and others on EV infrastructure will see a large increase in EV installations, but Ford is doing what I knew they were going to do and claiming "LARGEST CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE!" despite an overwhelming majority of those chargers being so slow that you may as well just walk the rest of the way once the car dies. Sure it may just be marketing and they know the reality, but I always worry that the people making the decisions on this stuff are also buying it and don't understand that even 50kW DC fast chargers aren't acceptable any more.

 

[JamieGeek]

I used to camp or get a nearby hotel when going out to dark-sky areas. But I've also rented an RV -- originally for the Solar Eclipse back in 2017. But I liked it so much that I started renting them each year. Via websites like Outdoorsy.com you can can arrange to rent an RV or camper ... and even have the owners deliver them to your campground so you don't even have to tow it ... it's there waiting for you when you arrive (Outdoory is sort of like Airbnb ... but for campers & RV's instead of condos & houses.) You arrive with your own car ... but need a way to charge the car if it's electric.

I go up to Gladwin each year for the Great Lakes Star Gaze ... the campground there only has 110v service with 30 amp RV hookups ... but that would still only get you level 1 charging because they don't have any 240v service available. I could only find Level 2 charging in the area ... and that would mean driving to a charger and waiting hours and hours for the charge. No DC Fast Charging was nearby. With a PHEV ... we wouldn't need to worry about it (and level 1 charging is fine for a PHEV because the battery pack is usually pretty small ... you really only get about 25 miles of range anyway ... so an overnight at 120v/12amps is good enough.

Some campgrounds will have (often a limited number) "high amperage" sites that have a NEMA 14-50 plug. You have to check ... because many campground do not.

I'm not yet familiar enough to offer a guess as to what percentage of campgrounds have 240v NEMA 14-50 outlets... but it seems like a minority of them. Everyone seems to have the standard "RV hookup" which is a 30 amp outlet ... but only at 120v service.

Actually quite a few of the private campgrounds have 50 amp service. Many state parks also have 50 amp service (been RV'ing for over 20 years now).

I've even posted a "how to" topic on charging at campgrounds:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/campground-charging-as-a-last-resort.1403/

For the 2017 Eclipse we were down in Carbondale, IL with the Astronomy Cast folks--and I have some terrible pictures of it LOL.

 

[Nklem]

I looked at it - $20K more than the XC90

They also have the smaller one in a Plug In based on the escape….. volvo electrical reliability…..eeeek.

 

[generaltso]

Wait... you did a 350 mile road trip in a RAV4 Prime in 40 mile chunks so you never used gas?! Or you used the initial full tank from the dealer for that trip and now don't have much gas in the tank?

I'm still on the initial tank from the dealer. The first 50 miles in each direction were full EV and the rest of the trip was 43mpg on gas. I have about half that initial tank of gas still left in the car. The other 1700+ miles have been around town and all electric.

 

[timbop]

I only have an EV. I live 68 miles from the nearest public charger. I charge at home. I have solar going in next year to make sure I don't have power outages.

I don't miss dino fuel.

FYI - I thought the same thing but there is a "catch". For safety reasons the microinverters on solar panels automatically shut off if the sine wave from the grid isn't detected - this is to protect line workers who expect down lines to be dead. So, in order to have solar output during a power outage you need a battery backup to put a sine wave on the panel connections. Had I known that I would have sprung for a battery backup on the initial install.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

She's fine going EV and PHEV, but points out that in a long term power outage, you can't charge. My rebuttal was that you also can't get gas, because gas stations need electricity to pump gas.

I bought a really nice Dual Fuel Generator from Lowe’s last year as a portable backup generator for the house. It has a NEMA 14-50 outlet right on the side. I have it hooked to a 60# propane tank which should run it for 3 days before I need a refill or need to switch to gasoline. So I can easily disconnect it from the house for a few hours and plug one of the cars in to get some range as needed. And if I buy a lightening. I can plug the house generator connector into it and power the whole house that way. Being all electric would probably work better for power outages than my current ICEA f-150 does.

 

[Lathrop]

Ford has set up the Lightening as a battery backup for a house, any knowledge on why the Mache can't do the same thing? Seems like a natural setup to me.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Actually quite a few of the private campgrounds have 50 amp service. Many state parks also have 50 amp service (been RV'ing for over 20 years now).

I've even posted a "how to" topic on charging at campgrounds:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/campground-charging-as-a-last-resort.1403/

For the 2017 Eclipse we were down in Carbondale, IL with the Astronomy Cast folks--and I have some terrible pictures of it LOL.

I was in Casper Wyoming with several other members of my astronomy club. I was running two telescopes & cameras and some computer-controlled software that precisely times each eclipse phenomena down to the fraction of a second. It's pretty cool stuff.

But I was also collecting image data for UC Berkley's "Eclipse MegaMovie" project.

Here's one (this is a composite image to capture the full corona.)

 

[dtbaker61]

Oh... you HAD to mention Fort Wayne. I ranted about this in another post. There is literally NO public accessible DC Fast Charging anywhere near there.

As for towing... the F150 Lightning tows 10,000 lbs. It's 300 mile range is based on assumption of having 1000 lbs of payload.

In simple physics, it takes energy to overcome inertia and get the load moving. But once it is moving, it wants to maintain that velocity ... so it's no big deal to keep it in motion. Other forces (friction) create drag and MOSTLY that will be air resistance. So it really depends on (a) how aero are your trailers and (b) how fast are you moving through the air. The apparent density of the air increases relative to the square of the velocity. Driving a little slower will help a LOT.

don't forget elevation gain.... you have to lift that payload if you have a net gain on a one-way haul. Makes a significant difference that the GOM will not consider. some of the more advanced trip planners have parameters you can set combined with topo info in their mapping and range estimates.

 

[dtbaker61]

Ford has set up the Lightening as a battery backup for a house, any knowledge on why the Mache can't do the same thing? Seems like a natural setup to me.

It IS possible.... just limited by a smaller on-board dc/dc converter keeping the 12v connection powered up. At this point of my researching the specs it's looking like 2000watt MAX load, and much better if continuous load is less than 1000watts.

This means it certainly can power a house as an 'emergency generator'... but probably NOT suitable for big loads like 240v well pumps, A/C, or any other loads over 2000 watts total.

 

[Lathrop]

There would also need to be a switch to power out I would think. Sans that it is just a battery brick.

 

[waldo1949]

The other day, my wife mentioned that she was glad we bought a 2021 F-150 PowerBoost instead of trying to get a Lightning, because when we get our MME, having a Lightning would make us all-electric, which she considers risky. We are Midwest dwellers, in a rural area, with scarce charging available. Now we plan to charge exclusively at home, but not having an ICE vehicle would make her uneasy. Hmmm.

So are there any all-electric households out there in the rural midwest? Not counting you coastal people who have chargers on every corner. Personally, I would be OK with it, despite being a lifelong gearhead and mechanical engineer. Not worried about electrical service and rates, because ours is cheap and reliable. How about you?

We have a MME and a Chevy Volt. So we are able to take the PHEV on longer trips, which are rare for us.

 

[JamieGeek]

I was in Casper Wyoming with several other members of my astronomy club. I was running two telescopes & cameras and some computer-controlled software that precisely times each eclipse phenomena down to the fraction of a second. It's pretty cool stuff.

But I was also collecting image data for UC Berkley's "Eclipse MegaMovie" project.

Here's one (this is a composite image to capture the full corona.)

Yeah much nicer than mine:

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