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Charging an EV on a Cross Country Road Trip
hoyt:
--- Quote from: DJLegba on December 07, 2022, 08:12:20 am ---Maybe in the future, but right now you're driving a car fueled 26% by coal (according to Minnesota's electricity sources). In China about a quarter of all new cars are EVs. That's a lot of coal cars.
--- End quote ---
I saw this article get published this week. Some really interesting things in here that directly address some of the FUD around EV power and environmental burden.
https://www.motortrend.com/features/truth-about-electric-cars-ad-why-you-are-being-lied-to/
I recently sold a 2014 Spark EV that was marketed as an 85 miles per charge EV. In 2022 it still got about 80 miles per charge. And that was with some fairly "old" battery tech by tech standards. The Nissan Leaf is often used to demonstrate the opposite (they lost a lot of range quickly), but their batteries weren't properly temperature controlled. Most EVs now pay attention to that. I replaced it with a newer EV that gets 250'ish miles of range. I'll likely never buy another ICE vehicle, there's very little reason to, and I think that's true for almost all families (especially as a second car).
I was in Europe over the summer and rented an EV for a roadtrip. The charging infrastructure was quite impressive. I never had an issue getting to a station when I needed to. On the highways, they had 350 kw chargers at the rest stops. You pulled over, plugged in, went to the restroom, and the car had added 100+miles of range. In the smaller older cities, there were slow chargers (L2) all over the place. So if you went in for dinner, you could plug in, enjoy dinner and have 20-30 miles of charge added while you eat. Almost every hotel I stayed at had chargers in their lot. It's a change of behavior, but once you're used to it, it's very convenient.
rec head:
I have only needed to charge outside of the house once on a trip. It turned out to be a fun time because one of the other EVs charging was also a pickup. We gave each other you show me yours and I'll show you mine tours. When we got the truck we did plug in briefly at chargers just to make sure the hardware and software were working on different networks.
Some clarification on charging on the road. Any EV can use use a Tesla Destination Charger if you have an adapter. They are slow but effective. I'm guessing they vary in their power output but they are like using a dedicated home charger. I used it in a state park while I was riding bikes and it was so easy.
One of the problems with road tripping is the lack of chargers. The higher the battery is charged the slower it charges. 80% to 90% takes longer than 10% to 20%. Ideally you'd make make more frequent but shorter stops and go from maybe 10% to 50%. But the lack of chargers on the open road means you often have to charge up to 90% to get to the next charger.
Because I have a charger in my garage I wonder how much time I'll actually save by not going to gas stations. Sure on road trips I'll be spending more time at a charger but that is the only time I'll ever have to spend more than the 30 seconds it takes to plug it in when I park. We don't even plug it in every time. Over the life of the vehicle I plan on saving time.
antenna:
--- Quote from: DJLegba ---Maybe in the future, but right now you're driving a car fueled 26% by coal (according to Minnesota's electricity sources). In China about a quarter of all new cars are EVs. That's a lot of coal cars.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, but that 26% depends upon where you are.
But to the point of your comment,, yes, there is work to do.
So, let's get on with it....
We are all in favor of progress, providing we can have it without change.
- Morrie Brickman
tzr916:
I swear, I'm not trying to be a Debbie downer. In fact, I have 8kW of solar panels on my roof, and considering an EV for my next grocery-getter, but...
Progress has some truly evil consequences
https://restofworld.org/2022/indonesia-china-ev-nickel/
--- Quote ---Tesla had signed a five-year contract with two Chinese nickel-processing companies operating out of Sulawesi. The nickel materials will be used in Tesla’s lithium batteries.
--- End quote ---
And currently generating the electricity to power/charge anything requires using 3x more fossil fuels than renewable sources
https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3
--- Quote ---Fossil fuels 61.0%
Nuclear 18.9%
Renewables 19.8%
--- End quote ---
Guess I should add more solar panels to charge my EV
JimH:
And then there is the population aspect of global warming.
The world's human population has more than tripled in my lifetime. 3X the number cars, 3X the fossil fuel.
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