That’s a 370 mile drive. Most EVs can already make that trip today, with a stop in San Bernardino if necessary. Some like the Lucid can do substantially more. In 5 years I suspect no EV beyond a city commuter sold can’t make that trip without a single charge. Those who make the trip without a full charge knowing it’s a limited resource trip would suffer the same fate as people who ignore “last fuel for 100 miles” signs on the route today. Regardless I suspect this problem isn’t one, and it’s not a problem for almost any other location in the entire country so I don’t think we should set national policy based on the relatively uncommon trip of non stop between LA and phoenix, which has an alternative route slightly longer through San Diego and Yuma with more infra.
I would note that a 6 hour drive requires for most people at least one stop to use the restroom and most people require food and beverage at some point as well as a stretch. This is the time span for EV charging. If that infrastructure can exist today it can have EV charging at those locations. In fact the locations who add EV charging will attract customers during the transition period between the age of fire and the age of Maxwell.
> That’s a 370 mile drive. Most EVs can already make that trip today
Per https://ev-database.org/cheatsheet/range-electric-car, there seems to be essentially two cars that theoretically have >370 mi range (and looking at the data, the range is distinctly less if you're on a highway and not regeneratively braking a fair amount).
That's a pretty big difference between gasoline and electric cars. With gasoline cars, 400 mile range is a comfortable low bound on how far you can go after filling up, no matter the driving conditions; with electric cars, 400 mile range is something you might hit in optimal driving conditions.
San Bernardino would be your stop as I mentioned. I mentioned lucid as the car that can today make the trip without a charge. I further mentioned that even on the trip the fact people need to take rest breaks after hours of driving incentivizes businesses to provide fast charge points to attract paying customers.
My statement was that within 5 years almost all cars would be able to do the trip end to end. At that point no intermediate charging would be necessary, but having charge points at restaurants and other places for breaks would be sensible even so and a net positive for those businesses. This would break the value of a gas station since it’s a pretty low end experience as a customer, while say a Starbucks with EV charge points would be a higher margin business end to end and provide a generally superior customer experience. I think these economics are unassailable.
I would note regenerative braking in an EV doesn’t give you an advantage in any context. With a hybrid the gasoline expenditures of power can be recaptured as electrical charge. Highway driving for an EV is optimal because regenerative braking is not perfectly efficient and the act of slowing and accelerating at all will reduce your range. Your best profile in an EV is accelerating slowly and keeping a constant speed.
This is a common misconception about EVs. The stated range is for the EPA range, not on open roads at 80MPH (typical speeds on I-10 between Phoenix and LA). Even Tesla’s longest range Model, a Model S, with a 405 mile “range” needs to charge TWICE on the Phoenix to LA drive. This is only a 373 mile drive, and assumes you start completely full. From the 405 mile advertised range, you’d think you could drive Phoenix to LA, and arrive with enough charge to still drive to dinner. One of my most annoying revelations in owning a Tesla.
> Most EVs can already make that trip today, with a stop in San Bernardino if necessary.
With the AC running which is a practical requirement on that drive for most of the year? Highly doubt any current EV is going to do fewer than two stops on that drive. I doubt even more if that drive were from the LA metro to Phoenix as the first quarter of the route has a lot of day time traffic.
I'm not saying the drive is impossible for an EV or anything, I just don't see an EV not having to stop several times on that drive. Maximum range numbers for every EV I've ever looked at seem to be pulled from the world of frictionless pulleys and spherical cows.
With a stop in San Bernardino as I said. In 5 years most cars will be able to do it without, as I said. The lucid can make the trip today without stopping. But most humans can’t drive 5-6 hours without stopping once.
I would note that a 6 hour drive requires for most people at least one stop to use the restroom and most people require food and beverage at some point as well as a stretch. This is the time span for EV charging. If that infrastructure can exist today it can have EV charging at those locations. In fact the locations who add EV charging will attract customers during the transition period between the age of fire and the age of Maxwell.