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Tesla’s secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints
(www.reuters.com)
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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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In the US, people tend to drive a lot further than in Europe.
Every year, I make a few trips of hundreds of miles. My sister lives ~200 miles away (~320km) with an average highway speed of 70mph (112kph), and probably drive ~80mph most of the way (~125kph). In a gas/hybrid, I get there without having to stop and it takes 2.5-3hr. My parents live ~850 miles (~1350km) away, and my brother lives ~650 miles (~840km) away, and I try to visit one of them every year. We could fly, but I have three kids so we'd need to rent on the other side, which would be annoying and expensive.
Most of the time we drive <100 miles (160km) in a given day. Work is ~25 miles (40km) each way, and all of our shopping is within 5 miles from our house.
The problem is charging. My company doesn't have charging, so an older Leaf won't work for a commuter (there are stations nearby, but I'm not making a 20-30 min stop on my way home). I don't want to spend a ton on a commuter, so that's out (EVs with enough range are $20k+). Most of the space between my house and the rest of my family is empty, so even gas stations are few and far between (often 30-50 miles [50-80km] between stations, and those are towns with <1k people), and the charging stations that exist are often broken or slow charging only. So we can't use an EV for a family car.
If my company gets EV charging (they're talking about it), I can replace my commuter (hybrid getting >45mpg [~5.2 Liters/100km]). But for a family car, it's going to run on gas until I can get >400 miles (640km) range, which would mean I could visit my parents or brother with 1-2 recharges, and my sister without a recharge. The current 200-250 miles (320-510km) range just isn't going to work because I'd probably need to recharge even for a simple trip to my sister's house.
I want an EV, but in the US, it only seems to work if you don't need to do big road trips. Our rail infrastructure sucks (in the West where I live), flying is a huge violation of privacy (and super inconvenient), local transit (buses, subways) sucks in most areas, and cycling infrastructure doesn't exist in most metros. If I lived slightly closer to work, a <100 mile (160km) range would work, but I'm worried about commuting in the winter (consistently <0C weather, so apparently range gets halved). Once I can get an EV to replace my commuter for <$10k, I'll do it.
As an American, I understand and appreciate this - which is why I pointed out the difference between the previous comment's generalisation of EV inefficiencies and made the point about infrastructure being the key issue.
What holds for the US is not universally applicable. This is the world wide web, after all. ;)
Back 5-7 years ago, the company FastNed got the Dutch government to allow for charging stations every 50km along our highways (no tolls, btw - we pay enough in taxes). They had to go to court and break the stranglehold of oil companies to allow for FastNet charging at the same rest stop...and it worked. FastNed is everywhere, making EV ownership easier, and expanding into in Belgium, France, Germany and the UK. They also work with the Elli charging service as a partner, and that lets you charge nearly everywhere in the Continent. Equal access is the name of the game - share the wealth. Even Tesla had to make sure all connectors in Europe had the same plug and that (along with access to government subsidies) helped open up their networks here.
Smaller networks that corral charging points for themselves don't survive as well. It's possible that in Europe the networks are naturally smaller and so becoming something of a co-operative in a larger network makes sense. Networking together in the US could help resolve that, but now with NACS the equation has been reset again.
Your argument on range only shows further that infrastructure is the key. You need electricity run pump gas; there should be fast chargers everywhere there are gas stations. Then you wouldn't need to go 600km (I know I can't go farther than 2-3 hours without needing a break, and that's about the range (~400km) of my 58kWh ID.3).
Filling up gas takes ~5 min, recharging an EV takes 20-30, if you have a proper fast charger. So even if every gas station had a fast charger, it would still be inconvenient.
When I drive long distances, I usually only stop for gas. So if an EV required more frequent stops, it's going to add a lot of time to the trip. My gas cars get about 400 miles per tank, so that's what I expect from an EV for highway range.
Current EVs have too much range for a commuter (i.e. cost too much), and not enough range for road trips, so they're not there yet for me. Give me something like a Bolt for <$20k with ~150 miles of range and I'll probably buy it. I don't need self-driving features, fast acceleration, or a fancy infotainment system, as long as it has a heater (not heated seats), A/C, and a way to play my audiobooks (headphone jack works), it'll meet my needs. I got my current commuter (used Prius) for ~$10k w/ <60k miles, so that's what it's competing with.
We'll get there eventually, and until then, I'll be driving my hybrid.
Unless you have it plugged in at home or work, then every time you get into the car it's got full range. If you're saying you want to drive 400+ miles without a break, then I wonder about how safely you drive. Certainly you're not suggesting driving MORE than 400 miles, tank after tank, without a break...that's just silly and dangerous. My range estimates of 2.5-3 hours is about how long I can drive safely without needing a break, not the machine. Otherwise it's just comparing useless numbers (but that's how we were programmed for decades to buy cars anyway, right?) But also you're ignoring any environmental impact of driving on gas and comparing new EVs with a $10k used Prius. So what are we even talking about?
Yes, about 1-2x/year, I'll drive 600-900 miles in a day. Usually I'll stop only for gas and to pick up some fast food, and keep going and do it all in one day.
I've done this almost every year for almost 20 years now and have never had an issue. I've never had an accident, and I was only pulled over once for expired tags (got a warning). Sometimes we'll switch off driving (usually I'll just drive the whole way though), but we don't stop for more than 10-15 min at a time.
Here's a trip I did last year:
As a kid, we used to drive between my parents' current house and where I now live (to grandparents house), and I drove most of the way as soon as I could drive because I got car sick otherwise.
We also occasionally drive to visit in-laws, which is about 600-700 miles, and again, we do that with only stopping for gas (we usually bring lunch).
Usually I'll drive about 3-4 hours at a time, sometimes a little longer. I just throw on an audiobook and go for it, or sometimes my spouse and I just talk.
It's more complicated than just my own emissions. Here are some of the variables at play:
According to this article the breakeven point where an EV would start being more eco-friendly than an ICE car is 13.5-78.5k miles, so for my area it's probably ~50k miles. My Prius gets 45-50mpg, so I guess that number would be a bit higher (maybe 75k miles?).
And then beyond just emissions, there's also the issue that EVs use a lot of conflict materials. My Prius also has a battery, so it's a little more complex, but it's a much smaller battery than in an EV.
So it's a complex set of issues that it's hard for me to say definitively that upgrading my older cars (each with well over 100k miles) is the better option. What I can say is that upgrading our family car (minivan that gets crappy mpg) to an EV would require a significant change in lifestyle. We like to go on road trips to areas with poor EV charging, so we'd have to compromise on that or rent when we go. I could upgrade my commuter, but that would be quite costly and it's probably not that much better than my current car since I already get great fuel economy, so I'd rather wait and see.
So my plan is:
If I bought two EVs (and yes, we need two cars), we'd need to rent an ICE for those road trips, and that sucks. If there was a decent selection of high range EVs, or the charging network were significantly better, maybe an EV would make sense. But it currently doesn't.