A 9-hour drive in Toyota's new electric SUV showed me how brutal EV road trips can be with the wrong car.

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

According to that website, my typical drive to North Carolina in a Chevy Spark starting at a 90 percent charge would take 17 hours and 33 minutes, with four hours and 39 minutes of charging time, and a mind-blowing 14 (count 'em... FOURTEEN) charging stops.

I can make the trip in the Tradmobile in about 8 hours with one stop for gas.

Plenty of charging stations along the route, though.

Are you still driving to North Carolina? Lol

 

[Phenomenally Frantastic]

Speaking of prices, Model 3 is now cheaper than the Average New Car sale price. Model Y trending that way too.

 

[Tenacious E]

Why? Our family could certainly be fine with a 200 mile range.

Because that wouldn’t even get you across iowa. I’m not against electrics day-to-day, but we would need a horse in the stable capable of going the distance on long road trips.

 

[RollingBallofButcherKnives]

240 miles of range? I could make that map work easy.

The problem though is how many chargers are there? Do you have to wait in line 90 min to get at one? Then another 90 while yours charges? Are you spending all your time planning the trip around these charging stations where as gas stations are everywhere….when does our supply of lithium run out? Will we be dependent on foreign countries for lithium? Where do we get rid of huge spent lithium batteries? Hopefully there is better batteries on the horizon. I am not anti-ev, just think there is a long way to go before it is a good option….

 

[The Tradition]

Are you still driving to North Carolina? Lol

Almost once every month. We have a monthly executive meeting there, and then I spent the rest of the week visiting our workplaces.

Flying isn't practical for that.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Almost once every month. We have a monthly executive meeting there, and then I spent the rest of the week visiting our workplaces.

Flying isn't practical for that.

Ok.
Im surprised they let you get away with it. You’d be on the expense radar at my company so fast.

 

[The Tradition]

Ok.
Im surprised they let you get away with it. You’d be on the expense radar at my company so fast.

It would be more expensive to fly and rent a car for the entire week, and you'd probably have to fly in one airport and fly out of another depending on where I need to be, which makes things even more complicated.

North Carolina is a surprisingly big state.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

It would be more expensive to fly and rent a car for the entire week, and you'd probably have to fly in one airport and fly out of another depending on where I need to be, which makes things even more complicated.

North Carolina is a surprisingly big state.

I bet it’s not more expensive than paying you 65 cents a mile. What’s your mileage expense on those trips, $800-$1,000?

 

[Joes Place]

Unless there are massive breakthroughs with batteries

Narrator: "But there, indeed, have been massive breakthroughs in batteries. For the past decade"

 

[RollingBallofButcherKnives]

Narrator: "But there, indeed, have been massive breakthroughs in batteries. For the past decade"

For sure. They still have a long way to go…

Plans To Dig the Biggest Lithium Mine in the US Face Mounting Opposition - Inside Climate News

HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Nevada—Deep below the tangled roots of the old-growth sagebrush of Thacker Pass, in an extinct super-volcano, lies one of the world’s largest deposits of lithium—a key element for the transition to clean energy. But above ground, a cluster of tents has risen in the Northern...

insideclimatenews.org

 

[artradley]

Because that wouldn’t even get you across iowa. I’m not against electrics day-to-day, but we would need a horse in the stable capable of going the distance on long road trips.

How many families have to drive across an entire state more than 3 or 4 times a year? Not me. And if those trips involved an extra half hour charging, you should also take into account the time savings of not needing to go to the gas station every few weeks, or change the oil a couple times a year.

Are there some people that travel too far too often? Sure. But not all by any means. Possibly not even most.

 

[artradley]

Almost once every month. We have a monthly executive meeting there, and then I spent the rest of the week visiting our workplaces.

Flying isn't practical for that.

What cities are involved?

 

[The Tradition]

I bet it’s not more expensive than paying you 65 cents a mile. What’s your mileage expense on those trips, $800-$1,000?

On my last expense report where I just went to Raleigh it was $727 there and back.

Good luck beating that with airfare, rental car, daily airport parking at the Orlando airport, etc.

 

[billanole]

We can’t even manufacture the batteries without destroying the environment. Disposal of the batteries is a joke as we have warehouses full of the leaking things. Our electric grids are not able to handle the current 6% of EV’s that currently need charging. Our first responders can’t even put a fire out when one just blows up for no reason.

We are about 50 years away from being feasible with something similar to today’s EV’s.

Dumb ass.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

On my last expense report where I just went to Raleigh it was $727 there and back.

Good luck beating that with airfare, rental car, daily airport parking at the Orlando airport, etc.

Hey, more power to you. Sounds like a nice slush fund!

 

[billanole]

The problem though is how many chargers are there? Do you have to wait in line 90 min to get at one? Then another 90 while yours charges? Are you spending all your time planning the trip around these charging stations where as gas stations are everywhere….when does our supply of lithium run out? Will we be dependent on foreign countries for lithium? Where do we get rid of huge spent lithium batteries? Hopefully there is better batteries on the horizon. I am not anti-ev, just think there is a long way to go before it is a good option….

The batteries are recycled.

 

[joelbc1]

We can’t even manufacture the batteries without destroying the environment. Disposal of the batteries is a joke as we have warehouses full of the leaking things. Our electric grids are not able to handle the current 6% of EV’s that currently need charging. Our first responders can’t even put a fire out when one just blows up for no reason.

We are about 50 years away from being feasible with something similar to today’s EV’s.

What else CAN'T we do, Peter? Jeeeebus keeeeeerist.......,the way you think, we should still be living under the rule of the Brits.....

 

[BioHawk]

This is why I just don't see any way other than cars going to replaceable battery trays as a method of recharging the vehicle. To have enough charging stations available to make the wait for charging viable just isn't realistic. You'll have to have acres of parking lots with charging stations.

 

[billanole]

This is why I just don't see any way other than cars going to replaceable battery trays as a method of recharging the vehicle. To have enough charging stations available to make the wait for charging viable just isn't realistic. You'll have to have acres of parking lots with charging stations.

Well, desantis rolled out a big Howdy to a new Buck EEs station in Florida that will have something like 120 gas pumps. Acres of parking lot.

 

[billanole]

• I drove the new Toyota bZ4X electric SUV from New York to Washington DC, and back.
• The nine-hour drive involved three hours of charging.
• I learned the hard way that sometimes you need to choose between staying warm and maximizing range.

Electric cars are quick, quiet, and kind to the planet, but limited range and lengthy charging times mean road trips aren't exactly their strong suit.

That's what I learned when I took Toyota's new bZ4X SUV from New York to Washington D.C. one weekend in early April. The 500-mile journey wasn't some epic coast-to-coast adventure, but rather the kind of long-haul drive someone might casually take a few times per year and not think twice about — if they're behind the wheel of a regular gas car.

t's nerd out for just one moment to establish some basic concepts.

Every EV has a maximum charging rate, expressed in kilowatts (kW), that governs the amount of power it can accept from roadside fast chargers. For the bZ4X AWD I tested, that's an uncompetitive 100 kW. The higher an EV's rating, the faster you can hypothetically charge — so long as you find a charging plug whose rating is equal or greater.

But you don't always achieve that max charge rate due to the charger, the temperature of the battery, or, in my case, settings built into the vehicle itself. During my trip, the car never got close to 100 kW, leading to some excruciating charging times.

Toyota engineered the SUV to prioritize battery longevity, a spokesperson said, which means putting a damper on fast charging, which can accelerate battery wear.

On the way down to D.C, I pulled into an Electrify America station with a 37% charge, looking to add just enough energy to make it the rest of the way. The Toyota refused to pull more than 35 kW, so just getting to 74% took a full 45 minutes of waiting around — not exactly something you want to do at night when you still have hours of driving ahead of you.

That stint added 95 miles of range, according to the SUV's estimates. But highway speeds sap energy quickly, so in real-world terms, it was probably more like 75.

On the return trip, I stopped at an EVgo station with 6% remaining. This time, the Toyota wouldn't budge past 50 kW, so charging to 80% took an agonizing hour and 15 minutes.


Total it all up and charging stops added two hours of travel time to the roughly nine-hour trip.

But this experience isn't universal. Teslas charge quickly and benefit from an expansive, private charging network. Some Hyundai batteries can charge to nearly full in the time it takes to find a bathroom and grab some beef jerky. Many vehicles beat the Toyota's so-so 222-mile range, cutting down the frequency and urgency of pit stops.

You need to leave yourself a big range buffer​

Each time I charged up, I made sure to create a comfortable buffer between the distance Google Maps said I had left and the Toyota's remaining range, as indicated on its screen. I've run out of range too far from a charging station before, and it wasn't fun.

That turned out to be a savvy move. Factors like high speeds, inclines, and — as we'll discuss in more detail later — use of the climate settings can deplete an EV's range faster than expected. So unless you know your EV well, don't blindly trust what it tells you.

Here's an example. When I left the Electrify America station in New Jersey and set off for DC, the Toyota indicated 188 miles of range— plenty to drive the 138 miles remaining, right? Nope.

I watched my beautiful buffer wither away to just 11 miles by the time I arrived, triggering an unsettling message telling me to charge soon. A couple of wrong turns dropped my final range to just nine miles.

Since charging stations aren't nearly as abundant or well-marked as gas pumps, you need to carefully plot out your pit stops in advance to avoid a bad time.

Prepare to choose between comfort and range​

A combustion-engine car creates heat as a byproduct, so cranking up the radiator is no big deal. But electric cars use energy from their batteries to make heat, leaving drivers choosing between maximum range and maximum comfort.

I hit the road back to New York on a chilly morning with 176 miles of range. When I went to turn on the heat, the indicated range plummeted to 125 miles. The options became: Stay toasty and charge twice, or endure the cold and stick with the planned one-stop strategy. Given the bZ4X's lackluster range and my previous, lengthy experiences charging it, I went with the latter.

I bundled up and relied mostly on the seat and steering-wheel warmers (which are more efficient than the regular heater) to make things almost bearable. I'd be lying if I said I didn't curse these silly electric cars under my breath once or twice.

But the electric future seems inevitable at this point, so we might as well learn to live with it.

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[mnole03]

This is why I just don't see any way other than cars going to replaceable battery trays as a method of recharging the vehicle. To have enough charging stations available to make the wait for charging viable just isn't realistic. You'll have to have acres of parking lots with charging stations.

In ten years, there will be cars that charge in 10 minutes. The same amount of time as filling up and using the bathroom.

 

[billanole]

In ten years, there will be cars that charge in 10 minutes. The same amount of time as filling up and using the bathroom.

… and most charging will occur prior to the day’s drive, such as at home or at the business/job site.

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

Here you go

ABRP

ABetterRouteplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.

abetterrouteplanner.com

Enter vehicle type, starting location, and end location. Hope it helps.

Thank you

 

[bdcolt45er]

For people who regularly take long trips, a plug-in hybrid looks like a great choice. First 40-50 miles driven are pure electric, and can be fully recharged in a couple hours or overnight at home.

Very, very few people need more than 240 miles of range. But Biden is installing 500k new high-power public chargers so even driving long trips shouldn't be too big a deal in a couple years.

I feel like hybrids remove a lot of the benefits of electric. Part of the benefit of electric is that you don't have to deal with the combustion engine.

 

[The Tradition]

Well, desantis rolled out a big Howdy to a new Buck EEs station in Florida that will have something like 120 gas pumps. Acres of parking lot.

Buc-ees is a destination and cheap gas is the draw.

 

[JRHawk2003]

I got my first PHEV recently and I really like it. I can go fully electric for short around town trip, go eco mode on longer trips or switch into a mode with more kick.

I think Iowa is tough a bit for EV's because of the cold. I had a Prius for some time and the cold really effected it. The PHEV will be as well, but it would still deal better with Winter. In a warm climate they would be a lot easier to own.

 

[billanole]

Buc-ees is a destination and cheap gas is the draw.

I stopped at one and was nearly run over by the Wally Worlders. Ewweh..
Another China mart.
I can understand the draw for you.

 

[Colonoscopy]

 

[The Tradition]

I stopped at one and was nearly run over by the Wally Worlders. Ewweh..
Another China mart.
I can understand the draw for you.

They have a WALL OF JERKY!

And BBQ.

 

[JRHawk2003]

Its still possible we could see another technology like hydrogen move forward. Hydrogen works in buses in some places already.

 

[JRHawk2003]

Its weird to me that people stake their political identity on using fossil fuels.

Did people stake their identity on horses 100 years ago?

 

[SA_Hawk]

For people who regularly take long trips, a plug-in hybrid looks like a great choice. First 40-50 miles driven are pure electric, and can be fully recharged in a couple hours or overnight at home.

Very, very few people need more than 240 miles of range. But Biden is installing 500k new high-power public chargers so even driving long trips shouldn't be too big a deal in a couple years.

How many new nuclear power plants are we building to get ahead of future EV needs? 10, 20 or 0?

 

[SA_Hawk]

Its weird to me that people stake their political identity on using fossil fuels.

Did people stake their identity on horses 100 years ago?

Why do people stake their political identity on eliminating fossil fuels?

We will need fossil fuels for the next 100-150 years minimum.

 

[Joes Place]

We will need fossil fuels for the next 100-150 years minimum.

We won't need them for most transportation for anywhere near that long.

 

[The Tradition]

Its weird to me that people stake their political identity on using fossil fuels.

Did people stake their identity on horses 100 years ago?

The blacksmith's union was probably bigly against horseless carriages....

 

[DropitlikeitsHawk]

Will do, as soon as I get off yours!

Giving yourself a zing. Loser.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

This is why I just don't see any way other than cars going to replaceable battery trays as a method of recharging the vehicle. To have enough charging stations available to make the wait for charging viable just isn't realistic. You'll have to have acres of parking lots with charging stations.

If almost everybody could fill up your car with gas at home how busy would gas stations be?

If you can’t charge up your EV at home 80-100% of the time I wouldn’t get one.

 

[SA_Hawk]

Is it impossible to design something like old headlights on a corvette that flip up when turned on but instead of a light install small fan blades that spin when driving to help maintain a charge on an EV?

 

[DropitlikeitsHawk]

I keep asking. What source of power will provide the electricity?

 

[onlyTheObvious]

Sure see a lot of people driving SUVs and trucks that cost well over $60k and get shit gas mileage but all of a sudden $40k for a model 3 is some barrier.

Bull Fing Shit