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Electric Cars Are Suddenly Becoming Affordable
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
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I have a car that I mostly use for just trips around town. But once or sometimes twice a year, I go on a thousand-kilometer-or-so trip to visit some relatives. Assuming for whatever reason that this wouldn't work with an EV, you can say "well that's one trip a year you won't be able to go on."
But that trip is important to me. It'd be a huge negative not being able to do that, or a really big expense to rent a car capable of the trip. I wouldn't switch exclusively to an EV if it wasn't able to make that trip, because I have a car that can do it right now.
It's a real concern.
The only time that trip is going to be an issue is if you are going 250-300miles away from an interstate. Even then, a few pigtails and you can charge at any campground or RV park nationwide. Charging is a lot less of an issue than the media wants you to believe. I’ve been traveling around the country in an ev without problems for 30k miles. Pull up a map of just Tesla Superchargers and you’ll see a huge amount of roadtrip coverage… and that isn’t bringing in all of the other manufacturers charging networks or the rv/campground charging possibilities.
I spend 100% of the trip more than 300 miles away from an interstate. I'm Canadian.
Charging duration is also an issue. The annual trip generally takes me 12-13 hours. So if you add significant charging time that pushes it long enough that I wouldn't feel comfortable doing the whole trip in one day any more.
Charging duration at fast chargers is not that much of an issue for the most part. You'll be able to drive for for hours and you will likely want to stop for a bit anyway.
The lack of chargers where you would be is definitely an issue though. Renting an ICE would make sense then and you would almost certainly save money overall with that combo. In my area, an EV would save $1000-2000 USD for fuel costs each year (small hybrid on the low range and a crossover on the higher end). Given gas prices in Canada, I would have to imagine the savings are even higher for you.
More realistically, you should be instead told "well, that's one trip you'll be making in a rental ICE car instead".
You'd still come out on top overall, I'm pretty sure.
Well I'm not sure and I'm the one with the wallet, so I'm staying with my existing car.
Besides, another thing that helps the environment is not buying new cars when one doesn't need to.
In terms of CO2 emissions, getting as many ICE vehicles of the road as possible is best. Depending on your electrical power source, an EV can beat out an ICE within 30k km. On the shittier end, if your power comes from coal, it is closer to 125k km.
You could even argue for the rental when there’s not an EV in the mix. Maybe I have an older car where reliability is questionable. I’m more willing to risk a breakdown at home where I have options and resources, than at a distant destination or where it affects travel plans. Maybe I have an econobox for cheap local transport, but comfort is more important when looking at a long drive. Maybe I have good reason to drive a Pickup locally, but that would not be good for a trip.
Doubt it. Renting a car is a fucking rip off.
One argument is that for once a year it’s actually cheaper to rent than to overbuy.
Maybe, but the percentage of people who actually need that is vanishingly small. There will be outliers, it will take years for full adoption, and the technology is changing rapidly, but I’m still reading your description as: over 99% of people could be served by an EV
for a once a year trip I would just rent. Same reason why you don't need to buy a truck because just in case you need to move, you jsut rent a U-haul for that occasion.