Totally, I definitely intend for my next vehicle to be electric despite my naysaying.
I wish that EV vendors would let you "test drive" a vehicle over the course of a week. It's hard to imagine what your day to day charging experience would be by just driving around for an hour.
For most people, myself included, I bet the charging will actually be a non issue, probably even more convenient than gas, but it still feels like a big leap to take.
Compelling to me also, as a person who has shied away from EVs because of charging time annoyances. I'd gladly trade the mileage for charging speed every time. Getting excited for what's to come.
I'm pretty much with you. If and when the prophesied $30,000 200-mile EV happens, it'll really change the game.
I do see a lot of Leafs charging around here in various places, so it does seem like a reasonably practical alternative for many. I get nervous if I have to charge away from home, myself.
In a non-EV I have to go out of my way to find a gas station several times a month even if I'm always within range of home.
I'm not going to say that EVs are always perfect, but for many people, the charging experience can overall be a a point in favor, not against. It's not like traditional cars are perfect in this regard, we've just become used to them.
100% agree - I now have 2 EV's as our primary vehicles. They are amazing for normal trips, as I charge them in our garage. But every time I go on a road trip I get a bit of anxiety. I have to pre-plan charging locations on the route, many times I've had issues (all chargers full, multiple not working). It's not for the faint of heart, as filling up at plentiful gas stations doesn't require any thinking. I wouldn't recommend EV's for my older family members, especially if they plan on taking longer drives. If running errands, commuting to work, they are fantastic. While I think the criticism is fair, gas infrastructure has had a huge headstart, so I think we'll continue to see improvements in charging infrastructure and range, which should remediate most of these problems. I still think we're in a bit of the early adopter phase, unless your variables are controlled. Edit : After reading other comments, I think part of my issue was that my first EV was our Audi, Tesla seems to remediate some of these issues with their network. Looking forward to taking a roadtrip with my Tesla and comparing the experience, but I think the point still stands for many EV companies and the consumer experience.
I've owned a couple of EVs in my life, and I love them and would never go back to owning an ICE car.
At the same time, I don't think I would ever want to rent an EV. Do I know that wherever I'm staying I'll be able to charge? Sure they said they had a charger but what if it's busted? Also, these days if I'm renting a car (as opposed to just Ubering) I'm usually going to use it quite a bit - having to deal with range anxiety or planning out charging stops is the last thing I want to do.
EVs are great, but the broader infrastructure is still not as convenient as gas. When I've got a car at my house I know when and where I'll charge it, but when traveling it's just an extra hassle I don't want to deal with.
Most people don't drive more than the range of most EVs a day. Once we get chargers in homes, at parking garages, and on the street we'll have covered most use cases.
Trips will require fast chargers but people often stop for food or bathroom so there's an overlap in time
Will there be extra time for most people due to a few long trips a year? Yes, a bit but that's worth it.
Finally there is a percentage of people who this will not convenient for and they should continue to use gas or diesel.
I just bought an EV (Model Y) because I needed a new car (I would have waited longer if I could have), and I live in an apartment that doesn't have chargers. I work from home, so I don't have a commute, so it's not a deal breaker, but it's definitely not ideal. I live in Austin, which has a network of public chargers that you can use for only 4$ a month, so that helps, but still not ideal. With my ICE car, I can run it until the gas light goes on, and even then I know I can drive for 20 miles without worries, because there's invariably a gas station within < 5 miles away. With the EV right now, that's not the case. There are slow chargers nearby, but fast chargers are about 7 miles away.
In my situation, my worst case is that I have to go to a supercharger about once a week. I did this for the first time recently, another gripe I have is that the range I get out of the car (Model Y LR) is a lot lower than what I expected to get (~200 miles vs 330). At current gas prices, it's actually MORE expensive to charge the Tesla at a supercharger (0.38$/kWH @ 74KW capacity / 200 miles = 0.14$ a mile, than it was to fill up my Elantra at a gas station (3.50$ per gallon at 30MPG = 0.11$). If I lived in a house, obviously I would save a lot more money, since electricity prices are only like 0.11$/kWH I think.
It's an interesting problem. In dense urban environments, the infrastructure has a long way to go. However, I think this is probably the minority, since most people live in the suburbs or smaller cities in America. In those cases, they can simply charge at home, and they might have to visit a supercharger on road trips or odd cases. Therefore the demand for charging will be lower than it would be for gas cars.
My results are similar to yours. I don't know if you can put a price on silent, non-oil-based, clean-running driving experiences, but it does come with the charge-time pain point. I look forward to the five-minute refuel I left behind to get the other benefits of an EV...
Agree. I did an 6-hour/500km drive last week in my model 3, we had to charge once. Found a supercharger in the car park of the local golf course.
The anxious feeling about “will the charger work/will there be a space” is real, but the more EVs are out there, the less this is going to be a problem.
My petrol car could have done the trip without refuelling, but it would also have cost, literally, 5x the cost of charging in fuel.
EV charging is already more convenient than gas vehicles for most people. EV charging is done at home, unattended, and takes seconds. Trips to the supercharger are for special occasions, more akin to oil changes (another thing EVs don't have to do) than trips to the gas station.
Not everybody's home supports that, and a few people have driving patterns that require supercharging more frequently. But people who can support EVs find that they're more convenient than gas vehicles, not less. And that number grows larger every day, as apartment buildings and city streets find ways to make charging available.
That will scale roughly as EV production scales. It doesn't require any technological breakthrough. It would be fun if insta-charging happened, but EV owners find it's just not the problem that it's made out to be by people who are "worried". They go home, plug in their car, and never, ever have to go anywhere specifically for the purpose of fueling. In a few years, people are going to look at gas fueling as a waste of their time.
Unless EVs can charge faster, I really don't see them taking off. Sorry to be a luddite, but time is our number one good in the world and wasting more of people's time isn't scalable.
If I need gas and I have to pick up my kids after school or haul them to any appointment or other event it's not "okay" that I have to sit and wait for 30 mins. for my car to charge. Not. Going. To. Work.
Also, I live in a place that gets extremely cold, life threateningly cold. If my EV fails in that weather I could die.
Most EV owners with at-home or at-work charging appreciate the convenience of not having to go to "gas stations" other than during long trips.
This is an issue that the general public has yet to fully think out... every EV thread on HN has a few folks talking about how it's impossible to take a long trip in an EV because they'd have to spend time charging during it. And these same folks are usually not considering how much time they save during the rest of the year. Good thing EV sales are low enough that everyone doesn't need to be convinced of this immediately.
If you can't charge overnight, you really shouldn't have an electric vehicle. You end up MORE inconvenienced than a gasoline/diesel driver, instead of LESS inconvenienced.
Apartment landlords are coming around, quickly, though - it's a selling point and not all that expensive to install a few 240V outlets in the garage.
If you CAN charge overnight, waking up to a full 'tank' every morning is amazing! It's a surprising benefit that isn't immediately obvious to the new EV driver.
As someone who owns an EV I'm 100% okay with spending an extra 30 minutes eating lunch somewhere with a fast charger when I'm likely on vacation and don't really care about time when what I get in return is more convenience the other 95% of the time when I never have to stop at a petrol station during my work commute.
Seriously, it's great. The FUD around EVs is ridiculous and so many people seem to have swallowed it wholesale without really thinking very hard.
People will adapt. For most people, it's not an inconvenience to stop for 15-20 minutes every four hours on a road trip. They'd have stopped at those intervals anyway, unless they're running military discipline in their driving routine.
Market forces ensure that charging spots will be located in spots where people want to stop and spend money on food, drinks, bathroom breaks. This is what already happens with Tesla's charging network.
These habits will change once people organically get to experience the better driving experience that a properly engineered EV gives.
I feel that charging an electric vehicle will always be a sore point. Because it takes so darn long. No amount of range improvement makes it less painful to recharge. There will always be complaints.
Exactly. Did a couple of road trips this summer and while I don't have an electric car, I did notice that half the hotels I stayed at had charging stations in their parking lots that allowed overnight charging. So had I had an electric car it would have meant I started each morning with a full 'tank'. I can only see that number growing.
(Not the person you're replying to, but...) I don't yet have an EV, and I'll admit part of the reason is my expectation of charging anxiety.
For short-ish local trips, I agree that you just don't need to care, because you charge overnight, so pretty much any new day when you need the car, it's fully charged.
My concern has always been for longer trips. Part just the fear that I'd fail to plan properly and end up stranded somewhere without a charge (assuming the current world where charging is a lot harder to come by than gasoline refueling). But even in the case where I plan properly, the idea of having to sit for 45 minutes -- or even 20 -- while waiting for the car to charge seemed super annoying. But maybe it isn't so bad, considering that on a longer car trip it's often nice (and just a good idea in general) to take breaks every now and then. At a half-hour stop to charge, I could use the restroom, perhaps get a light snack to eat, or even just catch up on whatever dumb things had shown up on my phone while I'd been driving.
I really dislike this focus on charging networks. Long distance trips with current generation electrics is not comparable to current petrol powered cars. If anything we should use the roll out of electrics to take back land to service cars which includes "charging stations" other than those already used for parking cars.
with regards to my trip comment, the contorted thought processes people go through to justify one hour stops for full recharges plus what can be ten to fifteen minute side trips to charging stations should clue many in on how not ready it is. (and yes it is an hour if not more even for Tesla to fully charge and range dives in winter)
I wish that EV vendors would let you "test drive" a vehicle over the course of a week. It's hard to imagine what your day to day charging experience would be by just driving around for an hour.
For most people, myself included, I bet the charging will actually be a non issue, probably even more convenient than gas, but it still feels like a big leap to take.
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