I am a 'chump', I drive several diesels...
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I am a 'chump', I drive several diesels...
My biggest issue with EVs is the charging time. My vacation is typically 2100 miles round trip. The less time I have to spend sitting still, the better. I can get 400 miles of recharge in 10 minutes and be on my way.
I love the idea of EMP resistant but be real here, if we get EMP we'll all have MUCH larger issues than if our pick em up truck starts or not. I get the thinking but after years of worrying about an EMP I'm not going to continue living my life in fear of something that will never happen.
You kind of touched on something regarding your road trips.. bathroom needs. People often want an EV to do 1,000 miles on a single charge which isn't realistic (with today's technology anyway) because we as humans have biological needs. A couple of posts ago I mentioned driving our new (to us) Tesla Model S off of the lot in Seattle and then 2,500 miles over the next five days to see various spots down the coast before ending up back here in Colorado. At no point were we wishing we could just keep driving and disappointed we "had" to stop to charge. We stopped every 2hrs on average and each stop was scheduled for 20 minutes give or take 5min. Some longer, some shorter. This isn't too different from the road trips we took in ICE cars.
Each time we would get out, stretch, get some water and/or snacks, use the restroom and maybe check out a nearby shop or something and then return to find our car was ready to go. Occasionally we'd stop at a Supercharger and it would be around lunch or dinner time and there would be a decently rated restaurant nearby so we'd plug in and go eat. After an hour when we returned the car would be topped off which meant we'd need to stop less frequently, for shorter duration or both for the next leg. Keep in mind that we have a Model S 60 which is one of the shortest Range Teslas made. The newer and more expensive ones get much longer range and would allow you to drive further, stop less and charge quicker. My guess is that even with one of those you wouldn't really notice covering point A to point B any quicker across the country. I would venture a guess that you wouldn't even do it that much quicker in an ICE vehicle unless you were on some sort of cannonball run scenario where you're shitting your pants and pissing in bottles.
Oh yeah, did I mention that 2,500 miles didn't cost us a penny?
This is also road trips that we're talking about which make up well under 5% of use for most vehicle owners. Basing your vehicle purchase on the 1-2% of use is probably a bad idea for most. I hear stuff about "more range" a lot and I know that the way the technology is advancing we'll see "more range" next year, then the year after, etc. What we have no is perfectly adequate just most every driver out there if they're honest with themselves. These cars will do the 98-99% day in and day out w/o batting an eyelash and will give you a better experience.
To top it off, I can't really explain it but we were NOT tired from driving at all after 10-12hrs in the seat each day. This is something I never experienced in a regular ICE car. Something about the engine noise, exhaust note, droning, vibrations, etc. I would notice fatigue on anything but the shortest local drives. Scottsbluff, NE for us is about 2.5 hours one-way. Often times we would make the trip, enjoy a few hours with family and then drive back the same day. After only 5hrs in the saddle and a few hours of sitting around eating and talking we'd be beat. This (along with MANY things) are things that you don't really see as abnormal because that's just the way they've always been.
The Tesla Model S is the best car I've ever driven. Period.
Unless there is an emergency piss stop and our destinations, yes.
Did this recently. Left 12/7 for Haskell, TX. Stayed for a few days, left for Kilgore, TX. After a few days, visited Jacksonville TX. Another few to Bandera, TX. Returned on 12/16.
If you take a peek at those areas and the routes between, the EV charging infrastructure isn't really there, without further delays.
Would I like an EV for my 70 mile round trip commute? Sure, but all of our family is spread out in relatively rural areas that it doesn't work for us, as we visit multiple times a year.
I like the idea of off road vehicles, but how realistic would it be to camp for a week like when hunting? My early hunting trip I bring extra fuel and top up at the cabin. On days with lots of driving I've had to stop in a small town to refuel.
Let me start over. How about something like Jeep Easter Safari where you are camping at night and wheeling all day. The wheeling isn't mileage heavy, but you're still living out of your vehicle for days.
Of course those aren't normal driving conditions, but since we're talking about things you couldn't currently do with an EV. Even all those examples I gave don't really mean much because most people who have that hobby have a second vehicle for those kinds of trips anyway.
There are 3 types of Tesla haters.
1. Idiots who just think driving ev or hybrid as Faxgxxx or Queex.
2. People who doesn't like ev because of governerment tax credit for buyer and some kinda subsidies for manufacturers.
Hate the game, not the player.
3. People who bet agaist Tesla (TSLA Short Seller).
Nothing personal, it is all business to them. LONGs also call them "Shortards."
I can understand disliking the certain brand (preference) , BUT hating a car DRIVER for driving a Brand they don't like is just fuxking retarded.
Our longest trip is here to Southern California, sometimes we drive from here to Grand Junction, stay the night, and make the rest of the drive, sometimes we drive from here to St. George UT, and then finish the trip. I couldn't drive to St. George on a single charge with any of the common EV's out right now. I haven't researched the drive using an EV, and perhaps it is possible if you strategize, but with a 4 and 5 year old, we need a bit more flexibility than current EV's will allow.
At the risk of sounding argumentative I'm not buying that. You stopped for five times for 10 minutes TOTAL over 2,100 miles and didn't stop for a minute longer anywhere else along the way? I have a hard time believing that nobody has blood clots if that's the case.
For fun I plugged your location with your destinations into Tesla's trip planner using the smallest capacity (read: shortest range) vehicle they make and it plotted a route to all of your destinations using Superchargers. Not only could you make the trip but you could make it 100% free. This is especially true if you stayed at each destination a day or two as you stated as you can charge at each one overnight or for several days and require even less Supercharger stops between legs. You don't have to just rely on the Supercharger networks to make trips and if you branch out from there there's electricity at far more locations than gas stations. People just need to change their way of thinking of things. This one-ff exercise was also not your daily commute which any Tesla could handle w/o batting an eyelash.
So saying that the EV charging infrastructure isn't there isn't accurate. Not only is the EV infrastructure there for that crazy complex trip you laid out in the sticks but enough Tesla Superchargers exist to make it completely free. This seems like a great place to point out that Tesla announced recently that they will once again double the number of Superchargers across the US in 2019 and they will also increase the speed at which they charge "significantly" so while today's network is more than enough for that incredibly random trip you laid out but it's improving quite literally by the week.
ETA: I have a screen shot of the planned trip for your review but this site caps image uploads at 250kb and I guess this image is above that and I'm too lazy to resize it.