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MostlyStable a day ago

Hybrids are great. If they had slightly larger battery range (50ish miles), I'd probably go that route myself. More people should probably be choosing them.

But I think that the situation you are posing: quasi regularly driving a trip that is >100 miles with no ability to charge at all is actually pretty uncommon. And even in your case, since you are driving that far (and visiting family), I assume you are staying overnight. You can get a portable lvl 2 charger for a couple hundred bucks that will plug into a dryer plug and charge your vehicle back to full overnight. (admittedly. this assumes the drive is in ideal conditions and you get the full 210 miles; given where you are going and the apparently lack of infrastructure, if this is mountainous at all, then yeah....very well might not make it)

To me, the issue that actually affects more people is that if you need a family sized vehicle, your options are A) pretty limited and B) almost all >$60,000. For a single person, or a childless couple, EVs are pretty accessible, for families, that's much less true.

lukevp a day ago | parent | next [-]

There is a ton of infrastructure between Austin and Ft. Worth, it’s almost a contiguous city at this point. And there are no mountains in the vast majority of Texas, it’s very flat. There are a lot of chargers on that route, not sure what OP is talking about.

TexanFeller 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Austin to Ft Worth is not the route to my parents, it’s a separate drive I sometimes need to do. Yes there is good charging along that route, my point was that a hybrid could make that trip without wasting time for charging or filling up.

MostlyStable a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I totally missed that they had actually specified the route, and was just commenting on a generic one (which is why I guess it might be mountainous, definitely places in the West where you can drive >100 miles without charging infrastructure....just also not many people to visit).

vel0city a day ago | parent | prev [-]

As someone with two kids, a Model Y or a Mach E are very reasonable vehicles for a family. Both are under $60k.

MostlyStable a day ago | parent [-]

That's fair. I was basically taking my family's "worst case" scenario (10+ hour drive, 2 kids, 2 dogs, + luggage) and assuming that was typical, when in actuality that's probably as rare a situation as the one I was replying to. We can, just barely, make our current vehicle + roofrack work with 1 kid and 2 dogs when we visit my parents, but since we are planning a second kid, we are looking around for something larger.

For anyone not trying do to both kids + dogs, there are probably a lot more options.

dzhiurgis 17 hours ago | parent [-]

Model Y is very spacious. I can take 2 kids + week worth of glamping gear. I did fit 3 kids in back before, but you'll probably want to get slimmer seats (which are far cheaper than upgrading 3 row car). It's ridiculous how versatile this car is.