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Re:Global electric vehicles sales grew 41% in 2020 by ericmay on Thursday April 29, 2021 @11:01AM (#26982041)
It really depends on the car.

If you're in a Tesla, check out the map: https://www.tesla.com/supercharger

So it's not perfect. The only time I've run into trouble was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We had to go charge at a slow rate in Marquette, Michigan (one of my favorite towns now) because there were no Super Chargers or overnight chargers available where we stayed "someone might trip over the cord".

So if you get, say, a Tesla Model Y you're looking at probably around 300 miles of range in the summer time (less in winter or cold conditions). So you just need to be able to charge somewhere. It takes more planning for now.

If you're with another car, I think it's not quite as good. Typically people will find a destination charger (i.e. stay at a hotel with an outlet to charge at).

So you're likely to be in the smaller minority where they don't quite yet fit all of your use cases. Often times I tell people to plan for most of your use cases most of the time. For example, we are in our house or around town 95% of our lives. So I'm not going to stress out or over-optimize for that 5% when an electric car might be inconvenient. That's us though. It's an individual decision. It's nice that we can charge our standard range Model 3 fully (220 miles~ of charge) for $2.65 total. Much, much cheaper than gas. On the other hand we spent 8 lovely hours in Marquette charging our car. YMMV

Charging times vary. We recently did about a 5 hour trip from Columbus to Michigan with a Tesla and spent 40 minutes charging (each way, a little more on the way up and less on the way back) - a couple of stops. One at a Meijer where we went in, walked around, got some snacks and used the restroom. Another at hotel lot where we just stood and stretched for a bit. That's with Tesla SuperCharging network though. We also were at a house and had a 110 outlet so just plugged in and when we went home we were at 97% so didn't have to charge as much on the way back home. Personally wouldn't do a long road trip with any other EV.

-edit-

It'll be gradual then sudden, but a lot of those convenient gas stations will be going away too as we shift toward electric vehicles. It won't be long before gas itself becomes inconvenient compared to electric as far as availability is concerned. For example, national parks can install electric chargers. They can't put in a gas station.

As someone else mentioned, you probably are saving more time overall with an EV since if you charge at home you don't ever need to go to the gas station. I have to imagine that more than makes up for the time you spend stopping and charging on road trips. Would be interesting to see studies on this.

Re:Global electric vehicles sales grew 41% in 2020 by dont__panic on Thursday April 29, 2021 @11:15AM (#26982236)
A problem I've noticed since moving out West is that distances are just so damn big here. I grew up on the East Coast and, even in the remote place I grew up in, it was rare to be more than 50 miles from a gas station. Out here, that's practically the norm. I suspect that the Tesla Supercharger network would work well if you stay along major highways like 60/70/80, but I keep thinking about my long weekend trips to national forests and just how impossible they would be in a Tesla.

Very curious, though, just what kind of timeframe we're looking at before gas fills become more inconvenient than electric charging... my hope is that by the time my current ICE vehicle has to be replaced (8 years or more, with luck), we'll have electric vehicles with 600 mile ranges and enough reliable fast-charging infrastructure that I can actually justify an electric vehicle.

Re:Global electric vehicles sales grew 41% in 2020 by cptskippy on Thursday April 29, 2021 @01:17PM (#26983860)
One thing to consider is RV camping spots which commonly have power hookups.

The the 2nd GEN Tesla charger has pigtail adapters for a lot of NEMA single and split phase receptacles. While it doesn't cover all (e.g. TT-30R), you can use passive adapters to convert to those specifically.

You can purchase the pigtails individually for under $50 each or $200 for a kit.

https://shop.tesla.com/product/nema-adapter-bundle

Re:Global electric vehicles sales grew 41% in 2020 by ericmay on Thursday April 29, 2021 @11:30AM (#26982448)
If we're talking about Tesla (which IMO is the only serious player in the space right now) I'd just say take a look at the SuperCharging network and see if things are covered based on what you might want to do. Right now it definitely requires some planning, but so far I haven't run into many issues except the UP.

Tesla-wise there is already a reliable fast-charging infrastructure. The question is what will happen with the rest of the industry. I would say in 8 years we will definitely have electric vehicles with 600+ mile ranges. I think the Plaid Model S is over 500 already, but I think there will be less emphasis on milage and more emphasis on fast and available charging. It's going to be more feasible to expand infrastructure (as far as I can tell) than to build the batteries. Likely both will happen simultaneously. For Tesla, I think if they thought larger batteries were the answer they'd probably slowly stop expanding the SuperCharger network - but doesn't appear that's happening. Could be wrong here and would welcome a more thoughtful discussion.

TBH I'd say gas on the whole is more inconvenient to me than electric charging. 95% of the time I charge at home, car is always just ready to go. 5% of the time I stop after 2 hours, charge for 15-25 minutes, take a quick break, and move on. But I don't have to go to a gas station once/week or more, stand outside my car in the cold, pump gas, w/e. Personal preference though. My back cramps up sitting in a car for 3+ hours between gas stations and would prefer more stops (and this gives me an excuse).