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Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by tomohawk on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @04:56AM (#15959061)
Half the range is really a non-starter. And is that range a "best case" range with ideal weather and new batteries and all down hill, or is that a worst case when its 20 below and the batteries are 5 years old? What's the minimum guaranteed range?

Having to have the car tied up to a charging station for long periods of time just to do normal kinds of around-the-town kinds of trips - also a non-starter.

Can you imagine a hurricane evac with primarily electric cars? Well, kids, we only made it 50 miles because daddy didn't have hours to charge the car after he got back from work...

Currently gas powered cars have a common fuel and storage that does not "wear out" or become obsolete (a tank). Battery powered cars are not quite that way. Kind of in the same way that battery powered tools all have different, incompatible batteries. Those battery powered tools become obsolete all the time when you can no longer find the batteries, or if you can, its cheaper to buy a new tool. So, until they get interchangeable batteries with compatible interfaces, there's significant risk of premature obsolescence, which could significantly inflate the cost. What are you going to do with a 5 year old car in this situation? That same situation is highly unlikely with gas powered cars.

Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by kuro68k on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @05:09AM (#15959126)
I am on my second Nissan Leaf and can tell you that your concerns are largely unfounded. Most charging is opportunistic, and when you do need to do a big evacuation a Tesla sized battery can last longer than you can safely drive. In fact in the EU legal limits on commercial drivers are already exceeded by battery tech.

As for wearing out, taxi companies with leafs have over 200k on the packs and they are still good. Teslas have hit 500k miles and are still find. All that "new battery every five years" stuff turned out to be nonsense.

Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by ahartmetz on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @06:21AM (#15959368)
"When you do need to do a big evacuation a Tesla sized battery can last longer than you can safely drive"

This is plainly wrong. Let's say it's a Tesla Model S which has a real world range of about 400 km. That is about four hours of driving. I sometimes drive 600 km easily, with one longer break to eat and maybe a few shorters breaks to pee or just get out of the car and walk around a bit.

Your other statements are also somewhat exaggerated, see for example: https://insideevs.com/exclusive-interview-with-steve-marsh-a...

  > 150k miles
  > 50% capacity
  > not used in the cold anymore
Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by IanCal on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @09:28AM (#15960383)
The EU legal limit is

> a break or breaks totalling at least 45 minutes after no more than 4 hours 30 minutes driving

and

> 9 hours in a day - this can be extended to 10 hours twice a week

https://www.gov.uk/drivers-hours/eu-rules

The range of a 100KWh model S on the page for the UK ranges from 319 miles at 70mph (four and a half hours) to 514 miles at 45mph (eleven and a half hours). At 100KWh and 3+ miles per KWh (https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/real-world-range-new-o...) that's still 330 miles, plus.

Certainly seems like a reasonable claim that the battery can last longer than you can safely drive, particularly if you're not gunning it down a nice fast road.

Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by fjsolwmv on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @06:26PM (#15965474)
Yep, on evacuation day, when you are sitting in stop and go traffic, EVs are a big win because they get much better mileage at low speeds.
Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by tomohawk on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @07:51PM (#15966005)
Wow. A 6 or 7 year old car that is completely useless. A 3 hour charge time to go 65 miles. If it's highway driving - only 35 miles - unless there is a headwind.

Mind boggling.

Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by explainplease on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @06:41AM (#15959447)
That's not all:

  > No more regenerative braking
  > 35 mile range now
  > Using the QC (quick charger?) more than once a day voids battery warranty
Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by lostlogin on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @05:05AM (#15959103)
I’ve seen work electric vehicles advertised that let you plug your electric tools in. No battery powered tools required and no generator. However not all tools are better when attached by a cord - my lithium ion drill is incredible.
Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by tomohawk on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @05:31AM (#15959216)
I agree the new tools are incredible. Their planned obsolescence interval seems to be a lot shorter, though.
Re:What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the W... by Shivetya on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @06:24AM (#15959381)
worse, the range issue is exaggerated in winter. all these range numbers are for mild and warm weather. people need to understand how much range you lose in winter which only gets worse the more internal heat you use.

range > charge times > cost. of the first two I am not sure which is easier. besides the cost difference of the power trains there is a serious weight difference as well that was no addressed