Open Discussion of all Things Electric Vehicle (aka EV) for Those Pro or Con, BE RESPECTFUL!

[Jer]

People complain about gas prices but for a product that has to get pulled out of the ground, go through multiple refinery processes and be delivered by a semi it is still a cheap product. People complain about gas prices because of the evil oil companies and their capitalistic ways but Starbucks coffee comes out to about $35 a gallon and nobody gripes about that.

Even at today?s prices I bet I spend less than $150 a month on average for gas for two vehicles.

Personally, I have horrible luck with anything rechargeable so the thought of having a mode of transportation with the spirit of a Makita drill kind of freaks me out.

Also, with specific regards to Tesla, would it have killed them to put some sort of a grille on the front of their cars? I get it isn?t needed from a functional standpoint but at least it would give it a little style.

I don't gripe about the price of Starbucks because I don't purchase it.

Our first full month of owning a Tesla our electricity bill went up $14. Total. For the month.

Makita? Shoulda bought a Dewalt. lol (No but seriously, Lithium ion tools really aren't the same)

Funny you mention a grill because the first 5 years of the Tesla Model S had a fake nose cone on them. This was because focus groups said people wouldn't accept the smooth front end. We had a few of those and I can't tell you how much more I like the look of our newer ones that ditched that fake nose cone for the original design. It's so much cleaner and you adjust. Now I see something like the new BMWs with those gigantic hideous kidney grills and have to fight back throwing up in my mouth. Style is in the eye of the beholder and I love the front clip of the Model S. The Model 3 and Y doesn't look as good to me but... that's just my opinion.

[Jer]

I wish we could order ICE car directoy from the manufacturer. But no, greedy dealers and thier paid off politicians have us paying over MSRP. $20k extra for anything decent.

I like this about Tesla. Order online at the price they advertise. No dealer markups, no dealer haggling.

Screw franchise laws. Repeal them for the good of the consumer.

There are negatives to this too that I can elaborate on once I have more time so it's not all a bowl full of cherries.

More later...

[00tec]

125mph sustained? No problem but.... why?

That's another advantage to these Teslas because you can hammer on them all day every day and they just keep going. It's just an giant electric motor after all. No transmission or the absurd amount of moving/spinning parts that can grenade at any moment like on an ICE vehicle.

I can't tell you how many parts and cars I broke at speeds much less than 25mph and with much less abuse. These things are engineered to take the abuse more so than any other vehicle I've ever owned. The simplistic nature of it's parts list (or nearly complete lack thereof) helps with this as well. A fraction of the parts and nearly zero moving parts increases reliability.

Just curious how long it would do it. It's going to see a heat issue running that hard, just was wondering how long it would take before that heat presents itself. I'm not talking about absolutely grenading, as I'm sure Elon has something to shut it down before it kills itself.

[Jer]

The biggest problem I see with new vehicles, and that includes EVs, is technology.

I ran into this with my 12-year old Hyundai. Mechanically, the car is excellent. The Infotainment/telematics in the system, however, is powered by 2G cellular technology. Navigation, Remote Assistance, Remote Locking/Unlocking, and Remote Start will be non-functional soon. If my vehicle received OTA updates, I'd be really screwed.

ICE vehicles can be viable for many decades. Unfortunately, the more technology that gets wrapped into the vehicles (all vehicles), they will not be viable for decades. The jury is out for how well these electro-techno wonders will endure over time. At some point, some will be left behind and will no longer be viable, as is technology in the rest of our lives.

Yes and no.

Tesla offers a 3G to 4G/LTE upgrade for it's legacy cars. It's like $250 installed in most cases. Maybe even less by now. Tesla also offers a complete MCU upgrade as well. They can take the MCU (the gigantic screen you see is the display attached to the main control unit) out of an older car and for like $1,500 you have the latest greatest whiz-bang hardware capable of nearly every new feature. No other manufacturer offers any of that let along regular and free OTAs that are constantly improving and bringing new features.

[Jer]

Legit question as I know nothing about the subject.

If you made a habit of charging the battery when it was still half full would this affect the battery in a negative way over an extended time?

Nope, not at all. Like I mentioned previously, most of the rules pertaining to charge cycles and things you're used to with a smart phone or rechargeable hand tool don't apply to these batteries. They did a disservice by calling them lithium ion because the chemistry on one of these is dramatically different and much of what they engineered is to combat things like what you're talking about.

[Jer]

I am currently charging my battery when I had 51% full, because I still only have Level 1 charger (show charger). Level 2 charger is coming tomorrow. It is like similar to cell phone. I think fast charger gets the battery to lose capacity faster long run than frequent level 1 or 2 charging. Also, charging 100% vs 80-90% makes it huge difference.

My salesperson drives an EV, and he put his max charge at 80% to prolong the battery. He told me that many ev users do. He did that setting for me. Of course, I can change it back to 100% charge capacity. Very reason I usually charge my phone upto 80-90%.

At 90%, I will have about 215 miles. Enough to have comfortable round trip from Thornton to Olympic Training facility in Colorado Springs (87mi from my house).

Sort of but not really. Many EV users do set the limit to 80% but the impact of 90% or 95% is negligible at best. I can go into more detail on this as I get more time but just know that you shouldn't lose any sleep at all on your state of charge or charge rate. These things are built to handle charge speeds over 10x what you will throw at it at home so the different speeds of a/c options really don't play a role. I wouldn't recommend charging to 100% and leaving it at max capacity for long periods but that's about the only thing you can do that _might_ have an effect. Just go about life, charge when you need it and don't waste any time thinking about it.

[Jer]

Can you see all of the capacity of the battery?

The reason I ask is that I recall a while back that Tesla was building cars with the same battery pack but you had to pay extra to get the extra range. During a hurricane, they allowed owners in the path to have the extra range 'for free' in order to get out of harms way. So...even if the indicator is saying "100%", is it possible there's some cushion placed there by the manufacturer to prevent charging right up to the edge of full capacity on a regular basis?

The way that was presented to you has a bit of a negative slant. For a period, Tesla made only one larger pack. To keep the production lines flowing they software locked the maximum capacity of these packs for cars that were sold for less. During periods of hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters Tesla not only unlocked all of these software locks w/o anyone asking but they often make Superchargers free too. Crazy how some media outlets spin this to a negative though. In the instance where packs are software locked they still offer the same range the customer paid for but they also get lots of performance benefits to charge rates, charge curves, acceleration, long term degradation and all sorts of things. In short, if you can choose it, you want a larger pack that is software locked. This is preferable in just about every metric. Tesla has made many different size packs over the years and some have been used in different cars for different reasons and many have different chemistry.

[MrPrena]

Can you see all of the capacity of the battery?

The reason I ask is that I recall a while back that Tesla was building cars with the same battery pack but you had to pay extra to get the extra range. During a hurricane, they allowed owners in the path to have the extra range 'for free' in order to get out of harms way. So...even if the indicator is saying "100%", is it possible there's some cushion placed there by the manufacturer to prevent charging right up to the edge of full capacity on a regular basis?

Capacity is usually in Miles, but I am not sure I can change it to KWh yet.
Full capacity is 239 miles or 64kwh. So, if it is on mileage as a capacity, I would use average miles to kwh. However, it does have instant power consumption as kW.

I am currently on a winter mode, so it loses few to several miles. When I turn on the heater, I lose about 3-5miles. When I turn it off immediately, I gain those back (updates instantly).

Kia Niro - EV information screen showing Instant Power



Kia Niro change in charge max capacity

[Jer]

Ubiquitous does not equal accessible. Were there accessible charging stations in the sticks with no gas stations present for miles?

As I've stated numerous times now, you don't need a "Charging station" to charge your car if you buy the right car. I've got a duffle bag full of adapters I made and I can charge just about anywhere in the country where there is electricity. Some take longer than others but planning ahead will alleviate any issues this could cause. There's still electricity in far more places than gas stations is the point.

[Jer]

Just curious how long it would do it. It's going to see a heat issue running that hard, just was wondering how long it would take before that heat presents itself. I'm not talking about absolutely grenading, as I'm sure Elon has something to shut it down before it kills itself.

Heat mitigation is a much larger concern with an ICE making lots of power. An ICE will put approximately 30% of it's potential energy into forward momentum with much of the balance being lost to heat as well as other factors. Teslas in particular put more like 90% or more of their energy into forward momentum. This means that next to zero is lost to heat so even if you double a number that is nearly zero... you probably get the point.