The truth about Electrify America's progress and Traveling with the Mach E

[Billyk24]

Are there Superchargers that can be used with a trailer attached? Photos?

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[macchiaz-o]

Yeah we'll need more that support trailers. Although you haven't seen any, they do exist. This guy reviews charging sites:

 

[dbsb3233]

They are different animals.

When I drive an ICE when that low fuel light comes on I'm looking for gas--in the RV when I'm even close to 1/4 of a tank I'm looking for gas.

In the BEV's nope. Even though people call the range to empty the Guess-O-Meter because they fluctuate so much when the battery is full but as you get closer and closer to empty they get more and more accurate. You just get more comfortable...

I guess I could always chock this up, for me personally, as just having to live 3 years with a car that could only go 70 miles. I used to joke with people that on a full charge the Focus Electric has the same range as most cars when their low fuel light comes on. Thus I've had to live "on the edge" for 3 years (granted a good 90% of the travelling in the Focus Electric was <30 miles; even my commute was 1/2 a charge in summer--winter I would always come home under 10 miles to go).

Trusting that everything will go perfect down to a 5% arrival applies to both ICE and BEV IMO. But I agree that in many associated aspects they're different animals.

For instance, the "remaining fuel" gauge is surely more accurate on the BEV. That's a plus for the BEV. But conversely, there's FAR move coverage of gas stations than there are EV chargers. Meaning when I have "30 miles left", if I really wanted to cut it close on one vs the other, it would be the ICE, not the BEV. Much better chance of there being a refuel closer by. That's a plus for the ICE. I'd really be sweating bullets if the next charger were still 29 miles away.

As is the actual emergency refuel if I did run out. Much easier (and quicker) to get an emergency gallon of gas than an emergency recharge.

Then there's the well-known range and refueling time issues. It's easier to go ahead and refuel an ICE car at 25% because (1) you've already been able to go 275 miles (~4 hours) on that leg before reaching 25%, and (2) it only takes a couple of minutes to refuel gas. There's really no reason to push it down to 5-10%. But in a BEV, range at high speed is so much shorter and recharging time SOOO much longer that pushing it down near 10% is practically mandatory to make a lengthy road trip tolerable. (Plus it charges faster on the bottom end, so yet another need to "live on the edge").

Living on the edge just isn't for everyone though. In fact I think relatively few will tolerate it (and will remain an ongoing barrier to deeper BEV market penetration).

 

[timbop]

Just like with everything else, it's a personal choice based on what's important to you personally and what you feel comfortable with - I don't know that anything's going to be gained by continuing to argue the same points. I suggest that @JamieGeek's point of view is probably the most accurate: after each of us has driven a BEV for a while we will probably start to feel more comfortable, although some of us like @dbsb3233 may not.

That's OK. The important thing is that we are all on here because we recognize value in driving electric, be it pure BEV or mostly electric in a PHEV. If that requires an occasional trip burning gas that is also OK - because overall our carbon footprints are being significantly reduced.

 

[dbsb3233]

I'm retired with zero commute. But 80% of our miles are still within range of home, whether for shopping, visiting friends/family, going out to eat, doctor visits, etc etc. While we often lump around-home driving miles into the "commute" category, it's really way more than that.

For those that do commute daily to work, the US average is 15 miles each way. Your very short commute was far shorter than most.

 

[dbsb3233]

I didn't say (nor mean) proprietary. I don't think it makes any more sense for there to be Ford EV stations and Chevy EV stations any more than I think there need to be Ford gas stations or Chevy gas stations.

 

[dbsb3233]

There's only anxiety if one has some sort of unfounded phobia about using the gas engine that they knew was there when they chose to buy a PHEV.

Or if they leave the gas tank empty, I suppose.

 

[dbsb3233]

Just like with everything else, it's a personal choice based on what's important to you personally and what you feel comfortable with - I don't know that anything's going to be gained by continuing to argue the same points. I suggest that @JamieGeek's point of view is probably the most accurate: after each of us has driven a BEV for a while we will probably start to feel more comfortable, although some of us like @dbsb3233 may not.

Oh I wasn't disagreeing with him that we'd have more confidence in the range calculations after driving a BEV for a while, and with knowing what sacrifices can be made to squeeze a few more miles out. I totally agree with that being the case.

My point was simply about how much people will WANT to live on the edge and make sacrifices like that when forking over $60,000 for a fancy new car. (And thus how such road trip compromises will be a problem for deep BEV market penetration.) As you said, some people are OK with that, others won't be.

 

[timbop]

My point was simply about how much people will WANT to live on the edge and make sacrifices like that when forking over $60,000 for a fancy new car. (And thus how such road trip compromises will be a problem for deep BEV market penetration.) As you said, some people are OK with that, others won't be.

Totally agree here; I don't think we'll see true market acceptance until that 10-80% number gets to under 15 minutes, and that 70% lasts for more than 3 hours. In the meantime hopefully they can at least sell more than ICE mustangs (>100k per year) to keep the BEV ball rolling. Oh, and they'll also have to get the Select editions's price under $40k

 

[silverelan]

It's not really any different than a truck/trailer combination that pulls into a gas station, no?

Pull-thru charging isn't particularly common right now probably due to the real estate footprint. The photo above is from an NPR story last fall about the first gas station-> EV charging station conversion in the US (NPR link below). EVgo's station in Baker, CA can handle trailers too.