WSJ Article: I Rented an Electric Car for a Four-Day Road Trip. I Spent More Time Charging It Than I Did Sleeping.

[Eric_C_Boston]

I attended my monthly ham radio breakfast and one of my friends mentioned this brilliant article.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-rent...e-charging-it-than-i-did-sleeping-11654268401

This was during a discussion about me driving my Mach-E out to Xenia, Ohio and back. I said I did not have any problems charging and there are resources to find chargers. I am wondering if ICE road trips seem easy" because we learned how to drive ICE vehicles around when we were young, plus there are gas stations on nearly every corner. Still, plenty of people run out of fuel.

It reminded me of an article I read about a writer renting a camper van during cold weather. They had a bad experience because they did not know how to turn on the heater and use the other systems in the camper van.

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[Eric_C_Boston]

Here is the article elsewhere:
https://vigourtimes.com/i-rented-an...ent-more-time-charging-it-than-i-did-sleeping

 

[JCHLi]

Interesting article, but the premise of driving from New Orleans to Chicago doesn't appeal to me regardless of vehicle type.

I guess people are nostalgic about the idea of a long road trip. I did enough of them as a child... My memories may be tainted by the fact we had to stop every few hours to let the car cool down....

 

[phil]

I am wondering if ICE road trips seem easy" because ... there are gas stations on nearly every corner.

Yes, that's the reason. Also, a fill up takes 5 minutes.

These are the reasons ICE road trips seem easy, and the reasons they are easy.

 

[TGIF]

The WSJ is owned by NewsCorp which is Rupert Murdoch’s company. Safe to say there is a conservative bias. The article pissed me off for several reasons. First, there was no context for the driver’s experience or expectations. Sounds like she was given the keys and a recommendation to an app and took off. This is a new technology. The more successful adopters will have educated themselves about the tools needed, limitations and advantages of a new technology. Second, there was no attempt to balance the reporting. I suspect the writer was set up for failure and sent on a “mission” that more knowledgeable would not recommend to a newbie. There was no balancing the road trip with driving around town on a daily 20 mile commute. Third, even EV fans recognize that road trips are not where EVs shine right now as infrastructure is in its infancy. While many drivers are successful at road trips, many others aren’t fans and have mentioned that they are likely to rent an ICE car for long road trips.

 

[TRP]

Not gonna bother reading this since I can get the jist of it from your comments.

There have been many hit pieces at EVs recently. Playing up to the fears of change a lot of folks have about basically anything new.

I'll continue to enjoy my EV and feel comfortable road tripping it and those luddites can stay in my rear view

 

[Gopher Adventure]

Lol, meanwhile demand soars and supply can’t keep up.

 

[TGIF]

There is an element of self selection to EV adoption. You aren’t going to spend the kind of money these cars cost if you don’t want it to succeed.

 

[RedStallion]

There isn't anything in this article we don't already know. The charging infrastructure is bad and range is still limited. If we ever get to the point where you can drive on interstate the whole day on a single charge then all those issues will disappear. As it is now, traveling in a gas vehicle is much easier, takes less time, and probably will cost you less as well.

They got some slow chargers on the way, on average 55.6 kW (assuming 2mi/kWh efficiency), so they spent 18h charging during the trip. They slept on average 5.3h per night, because of their overoptimistic scheduling. They probably should have slept in the car while charging to remedy that

What is surprising is that they have paid about 17c/kWh according the numbers they published. That's a lot cheaper than EA or other fast chargers charge. So had they planned their trip more carefully to use only good chargers, they would have cut their charging by half, though they would have paid 3 times more for electricity. At that point, the article would have said, traveling in a gas car is significantly cheaper than in EV.

 

[MachGT]

It's ironic that coal states have limited charging infrastructure, when in fact, "rolling coal" is only possible with an EV... or a steam locomotive. That author is clearly an id10t, or intentionally chose a route for It's lack of charging infrastructure to make a point.

 

[ardeliajozwiak]

My friends from work recently also rented an electric car for a week to travel around America. We were pleased with the tracking monitoring system, we easily monitored the indicators. Description justified itself.

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