On 11/19/2014 10:59 AM, Ben Goren via EV wrote:
On Nov 19, 2014, at 8:32 AM, Peri Hartman via EV <[email protected]>
wrote:
Range anxiety doesn't so much come from the range of the vehicle
but the ability to charge.
That's a good point. You can argue all day about the relative merits
of at-home and on-the-go charging, but the fact remains that American
culture is largely built around on-the-go charging. It's what people
know and how they think.
I'm not sure of that. I don't think EVs are ubiquitous enough to have
become part of the American culture. Of course that's how gas cars work
and some (many?) people have trouble imagining a world where they don't
have to stop to "fill up."
>[...]
Next up is the convenience of charging at home overnight and starting
each day with a full "tank" rather than having to stop somewhere for
gas. That's nice a nice feature, but, for most people, on the level
of having the proper number of cup holders.
For me, that realization was the Ah-ha! moment I needed. When I'm
evangelizing I ask people to imagine how big their gas tank would need
to be if the car was filled by elves while they slept. Many people have
thought about it and said 2 or 3 gallons. 60-90 miles. Personally I have
2 EVs and a plug-in hybrid now and with one exception I've only ever
charged them at home. I'll tell you the exception in the next paragraph.
Closely related is the much reduced need for maintenance...but cars
are black boxes that people already don't understand, and most of the
things that break have nothing to do with the drivetrain.
New cars are remarkably reliable so mostly its the difference in
scheduled maintenance. Even so, my Ford C-Max Energi has scheduled
maintenance every 10,000 miles. The Smart ED I'm leasing has scheduled
maintenance very 10,000 miles too. When I get there I'll let you know
which was more expensive. It's 25 miles to the Smart dealer from my
house and in the winter the range on the Smart is about 45 miles (75 in
summer). So when I bring the car there for service in the cold their
charge stations need to be working or the car is stuck there. That's my
no-at-home charging exception.
Personally I think plug-in hybrids like the Volt and my C-Max are
probably the ideal vehicle to introduce people to EVs. Complexity aside,
they may be the ideal vehicle for most people. I have a 20 mile round
trip to work. The C-Max does about 25 miles electric in the summer (14
in winter) so most of my driving is pure electric. I put gas in the
thing every 3 months or so and I hate it. I got the Smart because I got
annoyed that the C-Max wasn't making the round trip as a pure EV in the
winter (and because it was so inexpensive!). But I have the choice of
either depending on where I need to go that day. A Volt with its 38 mile
range would probably spend 95% of its time as an EV in my house. But
there's no range anxiety. Well there is as anyone who owns a PHEV can
tell you. It's reverse range anxiety. How far can I go before the damn
gas engine kicks in?
--Rick
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