Electric vehicles and longer trips

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think you have to ask an EV owner for this information. You can search for charging stations along your route on google maps and do a little simulation in your head of whether it's worth sitting around for 30 minutes or more on your specific trip. For me the answer is a clear no. For non-tesla electric vehicles (I refuse to buy a tesla) there are very few charging stations even between somewhere like DC and virginia beach. If I want to drive an EV spiritedly and/or get stuck in a bunch of traffic, I would have to constantly bite my nails about running out of charge on the way. And yeah, sitting around for 30 minutes anywhere SUCKS. A restaurant? Who wants to stop and eat fast food when they're trying to make time on a trip. It's bad enough pulling off and spending 7 minutes getting gas. Turning a 3 hour trip into a 3 hour 40 minute trip is just not acceptable for me

The "I refuse to buy a Tesla" crowd really confuse/amuse me - you are only hurting yourself! Not being able to afford it is one thing (own that) but i don't understand people still buying $50k+ ICE cars - are these the people who renovated their stables once the model T Ford came out? Also, buy American. Tesla is the most all-American car brand available.

But Musk is a prick, socially and politically. I'll never support him.

Tesla is publicly-traded. You're supporting shareholders more than him.

[Anonymous]

You can charge any EV with a standard wall outlet, it'll just take a while. There are a lot mroe electrical outlets around than gas stations, so you can use a standard outlet in a pinch. At least to charge enough to where you'll be able to get it to a high-speed charging station.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"We just took our ID4 for a long weekend in Shenandoah for our first trip. The charging situation was totally fine. We left with a full charge, topped up at the Walmart in Haymarket and then explored stanardsville and the Charlottesville area. There were fast chargers in Charlottesville and slower ones in the area. On the way home, we had plenty of charge left to make it to DC without stopping. Yes it required a bit of planning but the apps will tell you if the station is in use or if it’s offline. I was not totally sold on getting an EV (my husband pushed for it), but this trip was a piece of cake."

That sounds like a dawdling weekend, not a road trip where you're trying to cover ground to get to your destination. When I'm driving to Michigan, I'm not stopping in Haymarket unless I stupidly forgot to fuel up before leaving the my house in DC.

NP — Road trip involves stops / exploring things along your route. Otherwise you’re just your personal greyhound bus. (Your never call that a road trip.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"We just took our ID4 for a long weekend in Shenandoah for our first trip. The charging situation was totally fine. We left with a full charge, topped up at the Walmart in Haymarket and then explored stanardsville and the Charlottesville area. There were fast chargers in Charlottesville and slower ones in the area. On the way home, we had plenty of charge left to make it to DC without stopping. Yes it required a bit of planning but the apps will tell you if the station is in use or if it’s offline. I was not totally sold on getting an EV (my husband pushed for it), but this trip was a piece of cake."

That sounds like a dawdling weekend, not a road trip where you're trying to cover ground to get to your destination. When I'm driving to Michigan, I'm not stopping in Haymarket unless I stupidly forgot to fuel up before leaving the my house in DC.

NP — Road trip involves stops / exploring things along your route. Otherwise you’re just your personal greyhound bus. (Your never call that a road trip.)

PS As a fellow MI-expat a trip to the Mitten state is just a long commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can charge any EV with a standard wall outlet, it'll just take a while. There are a lot mroe electrical outlets around than gas stations, so you can use a standard outlet in a pinch. At least to charge enough to where you'll be able to get it to a high-speed charging station.

Tangent question: who is paying for the free charging?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can charge any EV with a standard wall outlet, it'll just take a while. There are a lot mroe electrical outlets around than gas stations, so you can use a standard outlet in a pinch. At least to charge enough to where you'll be able to get it to a high-speed charging station.

Tangent question: who is paying for the free charging?

In my experience, [twitter]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can charge any EV with a standard wall outlet, it'll just take a while. There are a lot mroe electrical outlets around than gas stations, so you can use a standard outlet in a pinch. At least to charge enough to where you'll be able to get it to a high-speed charging station.

Tangent question: who is paying for the free charging?

In my experience most charging stations are not free. Sometimes you'll find a free one at a grocery store as a way to lure shoppers in (Safeway in Bethesda; MOM's market in Rockville are examples). But the price to charge is a lot lower than the price to fill your tank with gas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can charge any EV with a standard wall outlet, it'll just take a while. There are a lot mroe electrical outlets around than gas stations, so you can use a standard outlet in a pinch. At least to charge enough to where you'll be able to get it to a high-speed charging station.

Tangent question: who is paying for the free charging?

I have an Airbnb and guests have asked if they can charge their cars over night. I googled and it's supposedly about $5 worth of electricity to fully charge a small EV. I offered to charge them $15. No one has ever taken me up on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"We just took our ID4 for a long weekend in Shenandoah for our first trip. The charging situation was totally fine. We left with a full charge, topped up at the Walmart in Haymarket and then explored stanardsville and the Charlottesville area. There were fast chargers in Charlottesville and slower ones in the area. On the way home, we had plenty of charge left to make it to DC without stopping. Yes it required a bit of planning but the apps will tell you if the station is in use or if it’s offline. I was not totally sold on getting an EV (my husband pushed for it), but this trip was a piece of cake."

That sounds like a dawdling weekend, not a road trip where you're trying to cover ground to get to your destination. When I'm driving to Michigan, I'm not stopping in Haymarket unless I stupidly forgot to fuel up before leaving the my house in DC.

We just took our ID4 to New York, and stopped for 20 minutes to charge in New Jersey, where we also used the bathroom and got a cup of coffee, charged for 30 minutes in New York while hanging out with family at a park that happened to have a charger, and then another 22 minutes to charge in Delaware on the way home, where we used the bathroom and got lunch. Fitting the charging into the trip was just fine. Maybe it added a total of 20 minutes to the whole round-trip drive over stopping for gas, but that seems worth it, since it also saved us a lot of money over doing the trip with a gas car (the NJ and Delaware charges were free because we used Electrify America stations, which you get three years of free charges at if you buy an ID4).

[Anonymous]

We have a Model 3 with the standard range, so the maximum range is 220 mi. Which translates into a charging stop every 2.5 - 3 hours or so. So we just plan our food and restroom breaks to coincide. We always take longer inside in Wawa then it takes to charge.

Compared to filling up our Odyssey, it's about a wash. Yes, we could drive farther before needing to refuel, but someone always has to go to the bathroom before that anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can charge any EV with a standard wall outlet, it'll just take a while. There are a lot mroe electrical outlets around than gas stations, so you can use a standard outlet in a pinch. At least to charge enough to where you'll be able to get it to a high-speed charging station.

Tangent question: who is paying for the free charging?

I have an Airbnb and guests have asked if they can charge their cars over night. I googled and it's supposedly about $5 worth of electricity to fully charge a small EV. I offered to charge them $15. No one has ever taken me up on it.

How would you know if they charged a vehicle? Do you check your electric bill after each stay? What if the guests just liked the AC set at 60 degrees?

[Anonymous]

So glad I found this thread! I've been toying with the idea of going electric, but I have a few questions:

1) How is your range right now in the height of summer heat? I read somewhere that it decreases significantly with the A/C running.

2) We are a family of 4, but have a grandparent who lives nearby and increasingly, we have 5 people in our current vehicle, a compact SUV. I want to go larger, but I'm not seeing much in the way of 3rd row SUVs (or minivans) out there. Does anyone have an all electric one? Or do I have to hope for the VW ID6 to come to the US? The back of the Tesla Y looks cramped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So glad I found this thread! I've been toying with the idea of going electric, but I have a few questions:

1) How is your range right now in the height of summer heat? I read somewhere that it decreases significantly with the A/C running.

2) We are a family of 4, but have a grandparent who lives nearby and increasingly, we have 5 people in our current vehicle, a compact SUV. I want to go larger, but I'm not seeing much in the way of 3rd row SUVs (or minivans) out there. Does anyone have an all electric one? Or do I have to hope for the VW ID6 to come to the US? The back of the Tesla Y looks cramped.

I'm not aware of any 3rd-row seating available in U.S. EVs now. The Rivian R1S, which isn't on the market yet, has a 3rd-row option, but I think it's going to wind up being pretty expensive: https://rivian.com/r1s

Our range has been fine during the summer -- still getting a long-term average of 3.3 miles per kWh in our ID.4, which works out to basically the EPA-rated range, even with a lot of highway driving and AC use lately (long-term is pretty short-term, since we only got the car a couple of months ago). It's something to keep in mind for road-trip-planning purposes, mostly; for driving around town, it doesn't really matter if you have to charge slightly more often if you're able to get a charging station installed at home.

[Anonymous]

Tesla X has third row seating and it’s very cool and roomy.

[Anonymous]

FYI, Range is way worse in winter than in summer heat.