What Road Trip Charging Should Be

pt19713

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On the Tesla vs. MME thread, we went off on a tangent debating why a BEV is better than an ICE.

So I thought we might discuss it here, because it went into charging vs. gas pumps, like this.

Maybe, but just as the price of gasoline can vary in the same town, like $3.65 at a local Chevron here in Vegas, to $2.95 at my local Costco. Both are Top Tier stations. And the stations are within sight of each other, LOL.
My cousin was interested in a Model 3 and she lives in Brooklyn. The first question I asked her was if she had access to home charging or charging at work and the answer was no. I did the math based upon a 2021 Honda Civic EX versus a Tesla Model SR+ and 100% supercharging. The Tesla still came out on top and this was 2 months ago when the gas prices were lower. If the math was done today, supercharging-only would still be cheaper than gas, but it doesn't make up the cost of the two vehicles. I can't answer for non-Teslas but for Tesla owners, the typical charge per kWh hovers around $0.25-$0.35. Obviously the market and time of day cost may vary but it's not too bad.


I think a big issue in the US is we love to build things and then don't maintain them. I see it in all the charging station check-ins on PlugShare. Get to a bank of 4 stations and maybe one or two plugs work. Look at our roads and bridges. We let them get into such disrepair, it takes billions of dollars to get "some" of them fixed or replaced every 20 years.

When will the US see it is cheaper to maintain then replace? Drives me nuts how much money is wasted this way. Besides, you keep people employed consistently this way.
I'm not sure how it is with Electrify America, ChargePoint, etc but apparently the Tesla superchargers are maintenanced every ~ 2000 uses and the charge cord is replaced since people drop them and normal wear and tear.
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All Hat No Cattle

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Well, my apologies about removing your name from a quote, LOL. I cut and paste quotes because I don't want to be seen as calling out certain people. Excuse me for wanting to spare your feelings.:)

So, the post directly under this quote states that in real life road trip costs can be a wash compared to gas. And as the poster says:

" Charging at home 95% of the time and finding free charging if you are resourceful makes takes it from even to a win/win all the way around. "

Which states what I was trying to say, in a better way.

But let's get back to the hedging, LOL.

Note: An out of date article, from Jan. 25, 2020.

So let's reiterate something from the No Hedging Zone.

If you do most of your charging at home, as most people that work do, you will save so much money on annual fuel costs that what you pay for fuel on road trips will not matter.


Sigh...
 

buzznwood

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I sometimes wonder if this is one of the reasons behind VW giving the id.4 3 free years of EA charging, get people out and about stressing the system while also insulating them of the true cost of charging when not at home especially those people in states that are charged by the minute vs kw :(.

Then again is could also just simply be a carrot to offset the fact that the USA spec id.4 is pretty bean countered on the options front compared to the rest of the world models, no adaptive suspension no heat pump etc, cheaper to add in some free charging when the numbers of road trips people take a year is limited.
 

dbsb3233

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I've done the same cost comparison vs my Escape. Cost-wise, home charging is about 1/3rd the cost of gas per-mile, while EA Pass+ is about equal to gas.

Home charging is easier than gas, but road charging is much harder and limited. Often to the point of eliminating many routes.

How people choose to add all that up and weigh them comes down to personal preference for their situations.
 


dbsb3233

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Exactly. In fact I kind of want to see DCFC use discouraged by locals, and targeted at road-trippers. One way to do that is to keep the price somewhat high (and certainly not free).

DCFC is too precious to be pushing it as full-time, around-home use. It's also not good for the batteries. We need to push L2 for local use, and DCFC as traveler use.
 

sockmeister

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Late to the convo here, but it's worth mentioning that the fossil fuel industry is, and always has been, heavily subsidized by the government for decades.

So with EV charging, let's give it the same playing field.

"The United States provides a number of tax subsidies to the fossil fuel industry as a means of encouraging domestic energy production. These include both direct subsidies to corporations, as well as other tax benefits to the fossil fuel industry. Conservative estimates put U.S. direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at roughly $20 billion per year; with 20 percent currently allocated to coal and 80 percent to natural gas and crude oil."
https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fa...-closer-look-at-tax-breaks-and-societal-costs
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