Umm, there are no EVs you should be going 75mph for hours at a time in unless you want to trash your range.
Not sure if you have ever actually driven an EV, but typically in my 300mi range vehicle, I usually stop every 200 miles, roughly every 3 hours for charging, stop for 20 minutes and am back on my way. Sure, am I often a little slow than if I had gas? Yes, but that’s ok, I also always arrive in my EV refreshed, have eaten, and not wore out.
Why? Most places in the US even recommend no more than 65mph for highway driving. And most gas vehicles are most efficient for gas usage between 55-60mph. There is a reason highway speed limits back during the 70s were lowered to 55 by Nixon. It also dropped vehicle fatality rate by miles driven in half.
All the arguments are like this. You shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that. Well of course if you can avoid all the downsides EVs would be perfect, but we don’t live in that perfect world in your imagination where everything works and we always do what you think we should be doing. If EVs were as good as everybody says, you wouldn’t have any trouble convincing people to use them. Why can’t anybody just admit that there are real downsides which in some situations become a deal breaker?
It’s typically more about momentum and costs. Funny, when you look at places like Norway, almost 100% of new vehicles are EVs. California is 25% of all new car registrations are EVs. But when you look at fuel costs, it makes sense. Same reason big trucks have been popular in the US, fuel costs have been relatively low, and when costs go up, those purchases go down.
I think the downsides are going to be mitigated soon. There are cars that get 400-600 miles of range. There are also new battery materials that can be charged in 5-10 minutes. Once one of those solutions become widely available, adoption will pick up. Also, gas hitting European prices in the US of $10-$12/gallon would also make people switch damn quick.
I sure hope so. But I think the charging infrastructure is the most challenging. To deliver a (mostly) full charge in 5-10 min requires power in the megawatt range and the current electrical grid is not setup for that.
Umm, there are no EVs you should be going 75mph for hours at a time in unless you want to trash your range.
Not sure if you have ever actually driven an EV, but typically in my 300mi range vehicle, I usually stop every 200 miles, roughly every 3 hours for charging, stop for 20 minutes and am back on my way. Sure, am I often a little slow than if I had gas? Yes, but that’s ok, I also always arrive in my EV refreshed, have eaten, and not wore out.
This is effectively telling people in the US they shouldn’t own EVs.
Why? Most places in the US even recommend no more than 65mph for highway driving. And most gas vehicles are most efficient for gas usage between 55-60mph. There is a reason highway speed limits back during the 70s were lowered to 55 by Nixon. It also dropped vehicle fatality rate by miles driven in half.
All the arguments are like this. You shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that. Well of course if you can avoid all the downsides EVs would be perfect, but we don’t live in that perfect world in your imagination where everything works and we always do what you think we should be doing. If EVs were as good as everybody says, you wouldn’t have any trouble convincing people to use them. Why can’t anybody just admit that there are real downsides which in some situations become a deal breaker?
It’s typically more about momentum and costs. Funny, when you look at places like Norway, almost 100% of new vehicles are EVs. California is 25% of all new car registrations are EVs. But when you look at fuel costs, it makes sense. Same reason big trucks have been popular in the US, fuel costs have been relatively low, and when costs go up, those purchases go down.
I think the downsides are going to be mitigated soon. There are cars that get 400-600 miles of range. There are also new battery materials that can be charged in 5-10 minutes. Once one of those solutions become widely available, adoption will pick up. Also, gas hitting European prices in the US of $10-$12/gallon would also make people switch damn quick.
I sure hope so. But I think the charging infrastructure is the most challenging. To deliver a (mostly) full charge in 5-10 min requires power in the megawatt range and the current electrical grid is not setup for that.