Some electric cars have a road trip problem.

[Andrew Joiner]

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/11872...nifer-granholm

Sounds like Tesla's have the least problems getting a fast charge. However on weekends even the Tesla charging station is pretty packed here.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Recently local TV station did a story on driving to beach for the weekend, a distance of about 130 miles. After arriving and spending the weekend, car needed to recharge. Only charger available was a slow charger. Recharge took longer than drive back to Raleigh. BBQ place about halfway to beach (Exit 364 on I-40) has a bunch of Tesla chargers in parking lot. Eat lunch while your car charges.

[roger wiegand]

I'm at about 14,000 miles of electric car travel which includes three 1500-2000 mile road trips. Charging has been a complete non-issue. Quick and convenient. This contrasts sharply to traveling with my F350 diesel and 24 ft trailer, where virtually every trip has drama related to finding a diesel-selling station that I can get my rig into every 210-220 miles.

Methinks these "news" stories about the difficulty of recharging electrics are carefully placed by entities with a vested interest in discouraging the transition. They just don't square with reality-- just as my tales of woe in buying diesel fuel don't square with what most truckers experience. Of course I wouldn't have those range anxiety problems either if Ford had deigned to give me a fuel tank bigger than a teapot.

[Alex Zeller]

I'm at about 14,000 miles of electric car travel which includes three 1500-2000 mile road trips. Charging has been a complete non-issue. Quick and convenient. This contrasts sharply to traveling with my F350 diesel and 24 ft trailer, where virtually every trip has drama related to finding a diesel-selling station that I can get my rig into every 210-220 miles.......

I can only imagine what a nightmare it would be if towing with an electric truck. At least with diesel you can find stations set up for semi trucks that you can pull up to while towing an RV. Some of the charging stations around here were built with a small compact car in mind. A full size pickup without a trailer would be a challenge. With a trailer I would think you'd have to unhook the trailer, leave it in a parking lot sort of close to you, then drive to the charger. WHile it's charging you'd most likely walk back to your trailer to wait only to reverse the process.

[Bill Howatt]

You certainly wouldn't be doing it as laid out with the local Tesla charging station unless you wanted to block the whole row of chargers or blocking the access road.

[Alan Lightstone]

I'm going on 10 years driving Teslas. While it was a little more interesting driving at the beginning of that, getting a charging plug at home made it a non-issue. Then a Tesla supercharger was built on my way to/from work, and life got easier, and free electricity. No question many of the non-Tesla charging stations were often out of service. I used to try them all the time for kicks. The Tesla one worked all the time. Range anxiety (which was pretty silly at the time having 200+ mile range), vanished as my Plaid gets well over 300 miles on a charge (and can charge to about 350 miles before a pending hurricane, for example.)

The idea of mandating electric cars until apartment/condos have charging outlets for all the residents is folly. Why would any of those people buy an EV? That being said, I love having an EV, and haven't worried about charging in years.

[Doug Garson]

I'm going on 10 years driving Teslas. While it was a little more interesting driving at the beginning of that, getting a charging plug at home made it a non-issue. Then a Tesla supercharger was built on my way to/from work, and life got easier, and free electricity. No question many of the non-Tesla charging stations were often out of service. I used to try them all the time for kicks. The Tesla one worked all the time. Range anxiety (which was pretty silly at the time having 200+ mile range), vanished as my Plaid gets well over 300 miles on a charge (and can charge to about 350 miles before a pending hurricane, for example.)

The idea of mandating electric cars until apartment/condos have charging outlets for all the residents is folly. Why would any of those people buy an EV? That being said, I love having an EV, and haven't worried about charging in years.

Why would apartment/condos need to have charging outlets for all residents? If your range is say 200 miles and your daily commute is 25 miles you would be charging once a week and who says it has to be at home? Forget the last time I saw an apartment/condo complex with a gas pump.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Why would apartment/condos need to have charging outlets for all residents? If your range is say 200 miles and your daily commute is 25 miles you would be charging once a week and who says it has to be at home? Forget the last time I saw an apartment/condo complex with a gas pump.

If not for habitability code, there would be apartments without showers/tubs. The cost of adding an outlet is minor and serves a larger societal purpose.

[Doug Garson]

If not for habitability code, there would be apartments without showers/tubs. The cost of adding an outlet is minor and serves a larger societal purpose.

I would agree including a charging station in a new build is minor and would be a good selling feature and maybe should be in the building code for new builds, but retrofitting a condo complex with a few hundred units would be substantial and as I suggested, not necessary, since even if every resident had an EV it is unlikely more than 15 to 20% of them would be in use at any one time. My pushback on the earlier post was suggesting having charging stations for all residents was required.

[Alan Lightstone]

Why would apartment/condos need to have charging outlets for all residents? If your range is say 200 miles and your daily commute is 25 miles you would be charging once a week and who says it has to be at home? Forget the last time I saw an apartment/condo complex with a gas pump.

In your neck of the woods, the government feels otherwise and has passed this law effective 2021:

For new buildings, the city of Vancouver mandates:100% of new residential parking stalls must be EV-ready with Level 2 charging. Visitor parking is exempt.

Unless you have a charging outlet at home or at work, it's an inconvenience compared to an ICE car. And many people avoid buying them, or aren't happy because of that.

[Jerome Stanek]

In your neck of the woods, the government feels otherwise and has passed this law effective 2021:

For new buildings, the city of Vancouver mandates:100% of new residential parking stalls must be EV-ready with Level 2 charging. Visitor parking is exempt.

Unless you have a charging outlet at home or at work, it's an inconvenience compared to an ICE car. And many people avoid buying them, or aren't happy because of that.

Who pays for the electric

[Doug Garson]

Who pays for the electric

According to the bylaw "All costs associated with the infrastructure in the recommendations in this report are the responsibility of the property developer. Any revenues from fees to access the charging infrastructure would accrue to the building operator." so the end user could be required to pay to use the charger.

[Doug Garson]

In your neck of the woods, the government feels otherwise and has passed this law effective 2021:

For new buildings, the city of Vancouver mandates:100% of new residential parking stalls must be EV-ready with Level 2 charging. Visitor parking is exempt.

Unless you have a charging outlet at home or at work, it's an inconvenience compared to an ICE car. And many people avoid buying them, or aren't happy because of that.

This for new construction only and I think is consistent with what I was suggesting in post #20 ie no need to retrofit all existing buildings. Note I wasn't aware of this new bylaw when I posted.

[roger wiegand]

I was at the Lee Mills steam boat rally on Lake Winnipesaukee yesterday and thought you might find this photo relevant to the towing conversation and as an amusing contrast in technology. That's a Tesla model Y. Towing a 3300 lb boat trailer works for this guy, albeit with some trip planning as the range hit is substantial (about a 50% reduction). He has no problems hauling it around New England.

If you're towing with a Tesla you get used to unhooking your trailer to charge, though the number of sites with pull-through chargers is growing. Not that different from having to unhook your trailer to get into a regular gas station to buy diesel, which I've had to do frequently.


IMG_7345.jpg

[Alan Lightstone]

I was at the Lee Mills steam boat rally on Lake Winnipesaukee yesterday and thought you might find this photo relevant to the towing conversation and as an amusing contrast in technology. That's a Tesla model Y. Towing a 3300 lb boat trailer works for this guy, albeit with some trip planning as the range hit is substantial (about a 50% reduction). He has no problems hauling it around New England.

If you're towing with a Tesla you get used to unhooking your trailer to charge, though the number of sites with pull-through chargers is growing. Not that different from having to unhook your trailer to get into a regular gas station to buy diesel, which I've had to do frequently.


IMG_7345.jpg

Not that I need to tow anything, but it will be interesting to see how much a Tesla Cybertruck will tow. Of course, I'm about 300,000th on the waiting list, so gonna be quite some time till I'll know for myself.