Electric Car Ownership - Any Experiences?

[Ryujin]

I have one word for you-

Buc-ee's.

Imagine if someone said, "I want the greatest convenience store ever, but make it so 'Murikuh that giant monster trucks look at it and say, 'You've gone too far.'"

Whatever you think it is, you're wrong. It's more. It's Florida Man slamming a keg of Bud while singing the national anthem and watching football, while slowly walking away from an explosion. Except as a convenience store.

Even their store branded stuff is better than expected. As in their jerky isn't what you'd expect from a gas station.

 

[Zaukrie]

Many are its partisans, but it's a convenience store more than a full grocery store.

East coast contender for greatest grocery store is probably Wegman's.

Ah, I think I got those two confused! My bad. Carry on. Ignore me....(generally a good idea, other than when I want you to pay attn).

 

[Umbran]

When I've been paying attention it seems like I've seen a pretty high frequency of out-of-order ones.

I think someone mentioned upthread - there are folks who are so against electric vehicles (and the people who would choose to drive them, I suppose) that they vandalize/damage public charging stations.

And sure, everything breaks from time to time. Some are better made than others. And the industry is new, so there are no tried-and-true designs out there. So, yes, sometimes someone has to go and fix them.

Broadly speaking, charging stations are usually part of networks - over time, the networks that are better at placing and maintaining their stations will win out.

And, since they are part of networks, there are apps that will tell you when a station is out of order or occupied, before you go. Some of them allow you to reserve a station, as well.

 

[Umbran]

East coast contender for greatest grocery store is probably Wegman's.

Off topic for this thread, mind you...

With respect, that is only true if you want to buy your alcohol while grocery shopping. I find Wegman's to be horribly inefficient in its use of space and layout, forcing you to wander around to find anything. That's great for the store, as it encourages impulse buying, but not so good for the consumer.

Also, I find every other store in my area beats Wegman's in terms of variety of a given product. If I am looking for flour, for example, I can get it at Wegman's. But I can usually get more different types and brands of flour at the other large chains.

 

[Umbran]

So, part of the plan is that my wife and I are also going to get a gas-powered vehicle as well, for my less frequent driving, as a backup for my wife's car, and so on.

Knowing what my wife needs in a backup vehicle, and what I typically use a car for, a compact hatchback is probably ideal.

So, I start looking at brands and cars. And... geeze, these all have crappy gas mileage. I am so used to our former Prius C, which got 40+ mpg on a bad day, closer to 50 mpg most of the time. And all these are listed as having like 30 mpg at the upper end. Who puts up with mileage that low? Sheesh!

 

[Ryujin]

I think someone mentioned upthread - there are folks who are so against electric vehicles (and the people who would choose to drive them, I suppose) that they vandalize/damage public charging stations.

And sure, everything breaks from time to time. Some are better made than others. And the industry is new, so there are no tried-and-true designs out there. So, yes, sometimes someone has to go and fix them.

Broadly speaking, charging stations are usually part of networks - over time, the networks that are better at placing and maintaining their stations will win out.

And, since they are part of networks, there are apps that will tell you when a station is out of order or occupied, before you go. Some of them allow you to reserve a station, as well.

Watching a Youtube channel like "Wham Bam Tesla Cam" will show you just how much hate there is for EVs, especially Teslas. The seem to get keyed with inordinate frequency which is extremely stupid, given that they have something like 6-8 cameras by default. Some are directly accessible by the user and others require a tech to access.

Off topic for this thread, mind you...

With respect, that is only true if you want to buy your alcohol while grocery shopping. I find Wegman's to be horribly inefficient in its use of space and layout, forcing you to wander around to find anything. That's great for the store, as it encourages impulse buying, but not so good for the consumer.

Also, I find every other store in my area beats Wegman's in terms of variety of a given product. If I am looking for flour, for example, I can get it at Wegman's. But I can usually get more different types and brands of flour at the other large chains.

The Ikea of grocery stores.

 

[Kannik]

Part of the point is that we don't want or need them to. Mashing electric vehicles into the same model, patterns, and infrastructure as internal combustion is a flawed premise!

This is one of the interesting little flips in the mind to do with an EV: to think of them more like your phone. We don't worry that we have to go somewhere and sit for two hours while our phones charge, because electricity is everywhere. If we need to plug in, we can. Natch, EV charging spots are not quite that ubiquitous yet, but if think of it more like phones we also don't necessarily need for them to all be L2 or L3 chargers. Plugging into into a 120V/15A circuit will net approx 5 miles of range per hour of charging. It ain't much, but with frequency it adds up. Consider that say you plug in at home (and didn't get a 240V 30A or 50A circuit installed) overnight that can add up to 50 miles of range, which will cover many people's daily drives. If at work you get access to another bog standard outlet, you could get an additional 40mi from the 8h workday too, which is starting to encroach into 100mi of slow charge per day. What's nice about that is that adding 120V circuits is relatively trivial (compared to adding 208V or 240V). Heck, 25 years ago many of my university's parking lots already had 120V outlets available for each parking space -- to plug in your the block heater so your car could start in the morning.

One little tip I've found useful for long distance driving to speed things up: because the batteries charge quicker when they're at a lower state of charge, it's better to run the batteries down to 25%-30% and charge with more frequent short-time stops rather than try to charge to full in one or two stops. Even with getting off the road more often, it can often save appreciable amounts of time. (That said, on many of my own long travels in my EV I will end up charging nearly to full during some food break.)

 

[payn]

So, part of the plan is that my wife and I are also going to get a gas-powered vehicle as well, for my less frequent driving, as a backup for my wife's car, and so on.

Knowing what my wife needs in a backup vehicle, and what I typically use a car for, a compact hatchback is probably ideal.

So, I start looking at brands and cars. And... geeze, these all have crappy gas mileage. I am so used to our former Prius C, which got 40+ mpg on a bad day, closer to 50 mpg most of the time. And all these are listed as having like 30 mpg at the upper end. Who puts u with mileage that low? Sheesh!

I've never had a vehicle that did better than 25MPG... Of course, I only put about 4K a year on the vehicle so its very manageable.

 

[Ryujin]

So, part of the plan is that my wife and I are also going to get a gas-powered vehicle as well, for my less frequent driving, as a backup for my wife's car, and so on.

Knowing what my wife needs in a backup vehicle, and what I typically use a car for, a compact hatchback is probably ideal.

So, I start looking at brands and cars. And... geeze, these all have crappy gas mileage. I am so used to our former Prius C, which got 40+ mpg on a bad day, closer to 50 mpg most of the time. And all these are listed as having like 30 mpg at the upper end. Who puts u with mileage that low? Sheesh!

I was rather surprised by my recent purchase of a Mazda CX-30. No, the mileage isn't anywhere near approaching a hybrid. Call it 9.0L/100 Km city and 7.1L/100 Km highway or, for our Imperial using friends south of the border, 26 MPG (US) city and 33 MPG (US) highway. Now consider that Toronto's traffic is arguably the worst in North America, even compared to places like Mexico City, and this is currently made even worse by one of two major arterial highways into the core having one of three lanes closed each way, as you get close to downtown.

My old Mazda5 was giving me a measured 11.1L/100 Km, which is about 21 MPG (US). Despite being a 2015 it was in great mechanical shape, had good tires and pressures, etc.. In ideal conditions, on the highway, I'd get sub 7L/100 Km, which is about 34 MPG. The CX-30 is currently giving me a measured 9.1L/100 Km in the exact same commuting conditions. The Mazda5 was a normally aspirated 2.5L. The CX-30 is a normally aspirated 2.5L. The difference? Cylinder deactivation and an extra gear in the CX-30. Your driving conditions will have a great effect on your mileage.

Of course I'd love a hybrid, but didn't find one that I liked, and I'm now saving almost $10.00 over 300 Km travelled. Of course that cost $38K with taxes to get

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I suspect this will depend a lot on where you live. Here in Germany, less than half of the population own property, and if I remember correctly, only about a third own a house. So a decent amount of public chargers is needed for the rest of the people (assuming a general shift to EVs is still desired)
That being said, it does indeed seem like chargers are mostly popping up around supermarkets and administrative buildings first (at least where I live; the next bigger town seems to have more of them in other places, too).

That will be an issue for a while but over time, landlords will upgrade properties with charging options, just as they at some point had to ensure running water, electricity and internet connectivity over the years. IIRC, German law already makes it difficult if not impossible for landlords to forbid their renters installing wall boxes.