News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Toyota CEO talks about why he isn’t all-in on EVs by theshrike79 on Monday October 03, 2022 @03:47AM (#33064613)
I really need to see videos of people doing these mythical 90 second gasoline fills on long road trips.

Do you practice it like you're at NASCAR or F1? How do you manage bathroom breaks? Bottles or catheters for everyone?

Re:Toyota CEO talks about why he isn’t all-in on EVs by coderenegade on Monday October 03, 2022 @09:13AM (#33067027)
The point is more that if you want to drive like that, you can. My partner and I will typically stop for five to ten minutes to fill up, take a quick toilet break, and then get back on the road. We'll eat in the car, because we're trying to get somewhere. And that time adds up. In this video [1], Engineering Explained spends 8 hours charging, a bit over 20% of his total trip time. That's staggering; it's effectively a whole day, and could mean the difference between staying in a hotel overnight, and sleeping in your own bed.

BEVs are fine for many people, but I don't think Toyota is wrong in their assessment. Requirements typically aren't set at the mean, they're set at the extreme. I know people who had to make emergency trips during COVID that wouldn't have been possible in a BEV. Hell, I went on a work trip with some colleagues the other day and we had to use my car, because my coworker's BEV wouldn't have made the distance back.

The reality is that a BEV isn't a one-to-one replacement for an ICEV, and ICEVs are still superior for the "non-average" use case. I'll think about getting a BEV if they're ever able to compete at Le Mans.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UskzfQJt2Bc

Re:Toyota CEO talks about why he isn’t all-in on EVs by theshrike79 on Monday October 03, 2022 @05:19PM (#33073851)
And there are dozens of youtubers doing 1000km+ trips with maybe a hour extra compared to ICE - while saving hundreds compared to gas/diesel.

The US charging infrastructure is really bad outside of few major thoroughfares.

Re:Toyota CEO talks about why he isn’t all-in on EVs by coderenegade on Monday October 03, 2022 @09:26PM (#33075796)
Please share them, then. For example, here's another video of Engineering with Rosie [1]; 4 hours spent charging on an ordinarily 8 hour trip after a mishap. I've driven those roads, and her trips are consistently 1-2 hours longer than an equivalent ICEV. So no, I don't buy that the performance is anywhere close to ICEVs for longer trips, and reliable charging is absolutely an issue.

Secondly, You aren't saving hundreds when using fast charging; in many places you're doing roughly the same cost wise, for a worse experience [2]. Here's a reddit comparison from a year ago versus a hybrid, which came out to be more expensive [3]. It's fair to say that if you're just charging it at home and using it as a commuter, then yeah, you're coming out ahead on fuel costs, but as I mentioned above, you just can't do some things as well as a normal car, and sometimes that really matters.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0cK582iqnY [2] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Tesla-charging-costs-equal-fue... [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/jrwet6/road_tr...

Re:Toyota CEO talks about why he isn’t all-in on EVs by theshrike79 on Friday October 07, 2022 @06:03AM (#33119321)
Here's TeslaBjörn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_04rk3lIFcM&list=PLqKx2qnB8X...

He's done a 1000km trip on almost a hundred different EVs in Norway. Very few have any major issues.