This is huge. The 20-30 minute charge is very clearly a bottleneck, despite owners saying its a good opportunity to go into Target and do some shopping.
When I got my car I had to drive it 1500 miles back to my home and did it alone. I would stop when the tank needed filling. I got maybe 450 miles per tank, so maybe every 6-7 hours or so. That's 10 minutes per 6 hours, which is (10/6 / 20/3 =) 1/4th the overhead you're describing. So I'm agreeing with OC: when it's just me, 20 minutes every 2 hours starts becoming a bit much.
I am. But it's the same for everything. I don't live in a place I can install a car charger. It would be that overhead increase for every time I charged. It would actually be worse if it's not a once in a lifetime (so far) road trip because at least those times I wanted to be stopped for a bit. I'd imagine the times I'm rushing to work and have to stop for gas would get a lot worse with a long charge time.
> I'd imagine the times I'm rushing to work and have to stop for gas would get a lot worse with a long charge time.
Of course. That's where my other comment is relevant: " "very fast charging" should not be the default, it should be rare. ... the default is overnight at home or during the day at office or a mall, with the software giving you that "topped up as specified, every morning, that's better than what an a ICE vehicle can provide"
i.e. with an EV and commute, you can slow charge and also never "stop for gas", ever. The vehicle is just ready, every day.
If you "don't live in a place where you can have a car charger" at home or at work, then IMHO an EV is not ideal for you, yet. The infrastructure isn't ready for you, work on that first.
> I don't live in a place I can install a car charger.
That's very different from needing to charge in 10 minutes on a road trip. For most people even a garage with access to a 110v wall socket is sufficient to cover daily commute driving. If you don't have that or a place to charge at work, yeah going electric is a chore.
I am in a rental and don't have a charger I just plug into the wall.
I haven't had to visit a gas station since I got it so that's about 10 minutes a week this year saved. So I'm up almost 2 and a half hours so far this year.
It's not one-size-fits-all? If you're regularly driving extreme distances and peeing into a bottle while driving, and you don't have access to home or work charging, then your vehicle choice can and should be different at present.
But what if someone had to a do a trip where the gas stations where clearly out of the way of their route? That adds more time.
Gas stations are ubiquitous simply because they are 100 years worth of infrastructure roll out.
If you're saying that EV infrastructure isn't there yet, then you're stating the obvious.
But, and hear me out :
a) Will it stay that way? If 50% of vehicles are EV's then 50% of gas stations could be out of business, and that's a re-enforcing spiral of inconvenience. My view is that there some cases where a fossil fuel vehicle is the best choice. But when they're under 10% of all cases, will the infrastructure agree, or nix it by being 10% as common as it is now? Past a certain point the whole distribution system is unprofitable and just folds up. Then gasoline engines go the way of the horse: A few people still ride them, but it's mostly an impractical, expensive hobby with known issues with the smelly stuff that comes of of the back of them.
b) Gas stations of any kind, even bad ones, are rare at a home. Electrical plugs - wall sockets - are EV chargers usable for some purposes, and almost all homes have them. That level of emergency infrastructure is hard to beat.
> 20 minutes every 2 hours starts becoming a bit much
I didn't say that it was "20 minutes every 2 hours" - in fact the sentence "If you stop every 2 hours, you don't need the full 20 minutes " says that it's less than that.
Your specific case described "10 mins stop every 6-7 hours" is extreme and of questionable safety. How much fluid did you consume during that time?
I'm not going to say "don't do it", but lets not pretend that it's the average use, or even your average use. So you should not optimise for that at the expense of making other cases worse.
You're also saying that the comparable charging time, even for extreme cases like this, is not all that far off.
We just rented one with an ICE, because they only have mild-hybrids.
We need a 15-20min rest after every ~2h (~120miles) anyway.
I cannot refuel unattended, thus the 500+ miles of range are nice, but I would be more than happy to reload a BEV at every stop.
120miles of extra range should be doable, even in just 15min.
Considering we could start with at least 80% battery charge, we wouldn't need the full 120miles extra at every stop.
I don't see the problem even with small batteries (58kW netto) and the charging rate (e.g. ID3 above 100kWh @ 10-80%). It's only a problem if chargers aren't well maintained, or stupid ICE drivers block a station out of malice (and yes: mainly the same sickheads that are responsible for the current economic debacle).
