| ▲ | blitzar 5 days ago |
| > recharge after roughly 170 miles ... these cars won't be dead weight or dirt cheap The average car journey is 8 miles. Being an average with a finite lower limit of 0 it is skewed higher by the people who for various reasons drive long distances. You don't need a 1,000 mile range to get to the shops at the end of the street. It helps, but not that much. |
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| ▲ | spiffytech 5 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| The magnitude of person-to-person variation makes it tough to get signal out of averages. I read a blogger say a 40-mile trip is exceptionally log for him, so why worry about EV range? Meanwhile we put 160 miles on our EV yesterday doing ordinary errands that all got stacked on the same day. 100+ mile days happen a few times a month for us¹. That 160 miles is 65% of our 0–100 range, or 108% of the 20–80 range. And we have a level 1 charger, so it'll take 26 hours in the driveway to recoup that charge. ¹ In my area a normal daily commute is 30–40 miles round-trip. Throw in some extra errands, or two people sharing a car, and you don't have to be an outlier to routinely have 100+ mile days. |
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| ▲ | jghn 5 days ago | parent [-] | | I am not intending this as a backhanded way of suggesting your experience is invalid. I get that it's quite possible in some areas. However, I think the point of the GP is that the number of people who say this is their typical experience is going to be larger than the number of people for whom it actually is their typical experience. By that I mean: your story is quite common in discussions like this, both online and offline. Yet, if the mean distance is 8 miles, and we know it's going to be skewed high due to the 0 bound, it can't be all that common. To be honest, I'd be curious to see the median here. | | |
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| ▲ | 62951413 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| A typical Bay Area commute (e.g. to SJ or San Mateo/Redwood City) is 40+ miles one way. A typical weekend drive (e.g. to Half Moon Bay or Sonoma) is a 100-mile roundtrip. |
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| ▲ | eloisant 4 days ago | parent [-] | | Still less than 170 miles. Remember that you would usually charge at home so you start every day with a full battery. |
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| ▲ | potato3732842 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| You can screech about averages and means all you want but the fact of the matter is that if you're exceeding your vehicle's capabilities on a weekly or monthly basis the inconvenience of ownership goes up exponentially. I do 100mi/day but I all but need the ability to make that 200 on a weekly basis and am doing a 300 on a monthly basis. With charging at work and home those numbers become 50, 150 and 250 between charges. So a "nicer" electric car is doable in the summer for me but it still falls on its face when those longer trips involve substantial cargo. So yeah, I'll keep driving rusted out minivans that make people clutch their pearls. For people who just want a dedicated commuting vehicle used EVs with 80% battery are a pretty good option. |
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| ▲ | CraigJPerry 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Maybe you're just richer than the average person, that affluence buys you a lot of convenience that others can't access. It's easy to forget the budget issues faced by many families when you're not facing that constantly yourself, but it's basically an existential consideration for a not insignificant proportion of the population. You're circa $1700/year more expensive in fuel with your minivan[1] than with a comparably sized EV. Your 5 hour / 300 mile journey takes around 30 mins more in the EV end to end (time spent stationary at a charger somewhere near the mid point of your route). Equiv of driving at 55mph average vs 60mph average over that time. I'd happily use the time to drink a flask of tea i brought with me and then go for a comfort break. [1] assuming $4.80/gallon in a 25mpg minivan, vs an inefficient EV that only averages around 2mi/kwh at $0.30/kwh. Obv the 1700 excludes servicing, tyres and depreciation | |
| ▲ | pjc50 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Meanwhile in Korea: https://driving.ca/auto-news/crashes/hyundai-ioniq-5-666000-... | | |
| ▲ | potato3732842 5 days ago | parent [-] | | What is that even supposed to be a rebuttal to? I didn't complain about the longevity of small EVs (they're generally quite good in that regard). Not to pick on you personally but I think it speaks volumes about the type of people who make up HN community that I can come in here with a fairly narrow and niche critique of a product (inflexibility basically), hedge that comment with a "but it's still good for a lot of people" statement and a bunch of act like I'm dismissing the entire product category and then act like completely tangential things disprove that. It's like I've offended a religion. | | |
| ▲ | noelwelsh 5 days ago | parent [-] | | > You can screech about averages and means all you want > So yeah, I'll keep driving rusted out minivans that make people clutch their pearls. These antagonistic statements are unnecessary and the reason you are being downvoted. |
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| ▲ | foobazgt 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It sounds like you can't find a used minivan-like EV, with 250+mi range. A 2022 model y has 330mi range new (probably around 300mi now). You can get them for $23K after federal rebate. Seems like a good deal that would be "doable" for you. | |
| ▲ | gambiting 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I mean, I don't disagree with you. But a lot of people have two cars if both adults work and have to drive to work - so it makes perfect sense for the second car to be electric. We have a little VW e-Up with "just" 120-150 miles of range and in day to day use we never get anywhere close to running out. In fact my wife uses it to commute every day and we charge it once a week from a regular plug at home. It saves considerable amount of money over a petrol Polo she had before, to a point where the car pays for itself(almost). But yeah, we also have another car(a PHEV Volvo) that we use for long trips. | |
| ▲ | thinkcontext 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > I do 100mi/day You are an extreme outlier, you should wait until the technology develops further. To use your parlance, no need to screech about people clutching their pearls at you. | | |
| ▲ | ZeroGravitas 5 days ago | parent [-] | | Counterintuitively, driving a lot of miles regularly on a daily basis is pretty much ideal for switching to EV as you maximise fuel savings (and minimise pollution if you care about that). This has different impacts depending on your local gas to electricity price ratio. It's his weekly and monthly longer trips that complicate matters but in many jurisdictions he'd still be saving enough to make it worthwhile. |
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