First Success w/ Fast Charge EV Batts? Could be HUGE game changer!

Maddmatt

Explorer
yeah, I don't have a dog in this fight, but for the record - for the vast majority of people in America range anxiety is not a real issue, but the perception of it is very real. How many times have you reached for that flashlight in the back of your truck, only to finally remember that you haven't changed the batteries in 3 years, and it's a toxic mess. I think that affects people's thinking. Living in the western part of the country, there are definitely areas where range anxiety is legitimate with a fossil fuel vehicle as well - but for the most part today's EV's would work just fine for just about everybody.

BUT I said all that to say this - if submitting to our robot overlords will put one of these in my garage? I'm listening..... has a cool VW Type 3 vibe
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Lovetheworld

Active member
Brands have more flexibility to shift around the interior since there is no big engine in the way. The new electric VW ID3 looks like Golf size but has the internal space of a larger Passat.

Anyway, regardless of all of that, it just drives so much better and smoother. Which is such a nice thing that many people overlook.
I drove my dads Mercedes C class with chiptuned diesel automatic, and I hated it. It is not a bad car, but all the stuff going on (in the automatic gearbox and turbo etc) before it actually puts some power on the road was slpw and unpredictable. I came from a petrol car with manual, which is more predictable, but yeah still I am not going back for a daily driver. Sticking to EVs for that.
My fun cars are old and still have a manual transmission (the 4x4 with low gear).

I have a friend, was hesitant to switch to an EV. Went to a dearship for a ride, he drove 100 feet and he knew he wanted the car.
 

JaSAn

Grumpy Old Man
Perhaps you should think about why the hell you are daily driving a 4x4. Don't sell the 4x4, keep it on the side for your fun trips or pull a trailer or something.
But just daily drive a regular sized electric car. That will be the best option.
Whatever you use to power your pickup truck, it will always be an inefficient thing, unless you are using its potential. Which is pulling heavy trailers or overlanding / 4x4 trips.
From this side of the pond (Europe) we completely don't understand the use of pickups. Unless it is for pulling heavy trailers. In all the other cases we only see downsides.
If I were in the US, I would buy a second hand electric car (like Chevy Bolt or Leaf or something) and daily that, and just keep some V8 truck for nice trips.

Really, fast charging is completely overrated, people should realize this.
For some of us here a 4X4 pickup allows us to do overlanding. I cannot afford a specialized vehicle for just running around town. And if I can only have one tool in my toolbox it needs to be as versatile as possible, even if it is inefficient in most of its uses.

As to fast charging, we are a culture in a hurry: fast food, fast download speeds, on-demand movies . . . We don't want to wait for anything, let alone 30 minutes or (shudder) an hour to 'gas' up my truck.
 

Lovetheworld

Active member
Well, in this hurried life, an EV actually saves you time. I mean, since I own an EV I almost never visit the roadside stations anymore. I did one fastcharge in half a year. Can you imagine using your petrol/diesel car and filling up only once a year or something?
People not owning an EV never seem to realize this. The cars are saving you money and time most of the year. Maybe your holiday trip will take one hour longer per travelling day, who cares? Well probably a lot of US people having only 10 days off in a year.
With regular car sizes, you can see that a Model 3 is already close to or equal to driving a petrol car on holiday. 4x4s will get there too, just never 400 miles in 5 minutes.

And sure, not everybody has the space or the money to have two cars. And if you want both of those vehicles to be relatively new, it will be costly.
Lots of people who use RVs/campers, have them stored somewhere, and daily drive a normal car.
You could think of that kind of model too. I don't use my 4x4 all the time. It would completely suck, also because it is an older vehicle.
Running a car here is a lot more expensive than in the US, so driving a 4x4 daily costs lots of money. I can buy a second car and drive that, and all the expenses of having/maintaning the second car next to the 4x4, would still be slightly cheaper than driving the 4x4 daily. And the 4x4 goes into storage, which is much better for the car.

I mean, 4x4 pickup trucks have lots of disadvantages for daily driving. They are less safe (either for the people you crash into, or for yourself because they topple so easily), where does the cargo go in bad weather? (this is a mystery for us Europeans with vans). Fuel efficiency always sucks. Because you are driving some 2 ton vehicle just to get to work. Tires and brakes and everything.
Also, in the US, used electric vehicles are a bit cheaper. You don't have to go and buy a Tesla. A used Chevy Bolt or Nissan Leaf will do fine for the daily stuff for most people.

I just want to point out that you hardly know what you are asking if you want to keep driving a big 4x4 as EV (so Rivian or bigger) and then have it charge in 5 minutes for 400 miles. It is just completely bonkers.
At some point they will be able to make a car that could do that, but you are probably going to require the energy of a small town to do that. I am not saying it will never happen, but certainly not in 5 years, perhaps not even 10 years.

So, if it is unacceptable to you to take (one or) two half an hour stops on an 800 mile driving day (which I find very normal, to be a responsible driver) than yes, EVs will not work for you in next 10 years.
For all other cases, they will work just fine.

And as said before, on a limited budget you can look at plugin hybrids. I think the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is a nice compromise. It is not a full on 4x4 at all, but it will do nicely with some light mods, while being reliable and doing the daily commutes on electricity.
 

smlobx

Wanderer
Not currently an EV owner but becoming interested in the concept.

Our electric company leased a Nissan Leaf for members to borrow which we did last week. It was very interesting but a couple of issues would need to be resolved before they obtain mass market appeal imho.

1. The biggest issue according to this video is not only range but that the charging infrastructure is not standardized with at least 3 different plugs currently in the US. Unlike Europe which has standardized charging stations.


2. For people who live in apartments ( and most likely live in/near a city) they who would be ideal EV candidates there is little likelihood that the owners would spend the money to install charging stations without some financial incentive.

3. For those of us with homes/garages it would be an easy change if at least one of the vehicles was still an ICE.

We will probably be making our next vehicle purchase an EV but we will not be using an EV vehicle for overlanding...
 

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