Keith Tanner said:Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) said:Interesting information. Thanks for sharing. It's pretty amazing how fast the tech has progressed over the last 10 years.
I think I'll stick to gas power for now though. If there is one thing I hate, it's planned trips. I have a start point, a end point and a rough timeline, usually +-12 hours but sometimes +-days. Everything in the middle is subject to change at a moments notice. I like to stop and smell the flowers or see what's at the top of that mountain over there. And a 2-3 hour detour to avoid a city is common. Long trips have been known to find me in the middle of nowhere with barely enough fuel to get back to civilization and gas is available just about everywhere.
Our last road trip it took us 4 days to make it from Maine to home in SC because we decided to stay in the mountains and off the interstates the entire way. We stayed in two hotels that still used actual keys to open the room door. The chances of a place like that having a charger is zero. Neither of them had cable and one didn't have internet. We were 2 days late getting home but it was worth every extra mile.
As it stands, I don't think the current electric infrastructure would work for my style of traveling. It's still too limiting. It may get there eventually, but I don't see it happening any time soon.
Counterpoint: if your hotel has electricity, it can charge an electric car. Cable and internet not necessary.
You don't need to plan obsessively. You let the nav system do that. Give it, oh, a start point and an end point and then do what you want. The car will adjust accordingly and help you. If you're really off the beaten path, you may have to resort to using an app to look for charging. But it's a lot more common than you think - see the example of the Adirondack end point of this trip. If you pride yourself on running low on fuel, well, that may continue to happen. In this case, Philipp did not plan any more excessively than his endurance racing engineer self would allow. He told the car where he was going and it told him the charging schedule. The only reason I know what it was is because he took a picture.
This particular trip is an example that one of the typical complaints about EVs - "but what if I need to drive from CA to NY in four days?" - is not really valid. The goal is to cover distance quickly, and that's working. If you've ever actually timed your stops, you'd know that the 10 minute fuel stop - especially if you're carrying enough fuel to cover 500 miles - is fantasy. 20 minutes is more realistic. I've driven with a log, I've seen the numbers. Stopping for roughly 2 hours over a 700 mile day is not out of line.
Pull off the road, fill your gas tank, ( you are required to be in attendance while filling ) go in and use the bathroom, buy some drinks and snacks/ food for the next tank full. 20 minutes is really pushing it. An EV on the other hand doesn't require you to be in attendance allowing a more leisurely bathroom break ( more in line with my wife's needs). And maybe time for a sit down meal. ( Which my wife would insist on )
