I Rented an Electric Car for a Four-Day Road Trip. I Spent More Time Charging It Than I Did Sleeping.

[krichton]

Any idea what apartment dwellers are going to do? Assume a couple (both work and drive their own EVs) living in a apartment. How likely is it that the owners/managers of the complex will pay for chargers for each vehicle. How about those living on minimum wage living in public housing? Will the government give them a free car as if it was a cell phone?

If you're living on minimum wage, I'm pretty sure you won't be buying an EV anytime soon.

 

[krichton]

EV's are just impractical right now because charging stations are rare, and not always compatible with the EV models.

Charging stations are rare? Maybe if you live in the middle of nowhere, but most states have plenty of charging stations in cities and along many highways.

 

[Confederate Soldier]

Charging stations are rare? Maybe if you live in the middle of nowhere, but most states have plenty of charging stations in cities and along many highways.

In cities... Key word, in cities. Not everyone is near a city, or lives in a city. Hell, I used to live 40 minutes away from a grocery store, the nearest charging station was an hour and a half away. Even now, the nearest charging station near me, is about half an hour away, and there are only two slots to charge in.

 

[Esdraelon]

What is New Orleans like anyway? I am interested in a haunted New Orleans tour. Seems fun even if you do not believe in ghosts or spirits.

I live about 3.5 hours away from the Crescent city and my advice is to visit it when the weather is cooler. Summers are extremely hot AND humid. Don't go during Mardi Gras unless you're an "adventurous" sort

 

[Big Bend Texas]

Yeah, and some derp US Senator from Michigan was bragging about driving her EV from Michigan to the City of Demons aka DC. Sure.

​

I thought it would be fun.​

​

That’s what I told my friend Mack when I asked her to drive with me from New Orleans to Chicago and back in an electric car.​

​

I’d made long road trips before, surviving popped tires, blown headlights and shredded wheel-well liners in my 2008 Volkswagen Jetta. I figured driving the brand-new Kia EV6 I’d rented would be a piece of cake.​

​

...​

​

New Orleans, our starting point, has exactly zero fast chargers, according to PlugShare. As we set out, one of the closest is at a Harley-Davidson dealership in Slidell, La., about 40 minutes away. So we use our Monday-morning breakfast stop to top off there on the way out of town.​

​

But when we tick down 15% over 35 miles? Disconcerting. And the estimated charging time after plugging in? Even more so. This “quick charge” should take 5 minutes, based on our calculations. So why does the dashboard tell us it will take an hour?​

​

“Maybe it’s just warming up,” I say to Mack. “Maybe it’s broken?” she says.​

​

Over Egg McMuffins at McDonald’s, we check Google. Chargers slow down when the battery is 80% full, the State of Charge YouTube channel tells us.​

​

Worried about time, we decide to unplug once we return to the car, despite gaining a measly 13% in 40 minutes.​

​

...​

​

By the time we reach our next station, at a Mercedes-Benz dealership outside Birmingham, Ala., we’ve already missed our dinner reservations in Nashville—still 200 miles away.​

​

Here, at least, the estimated charging time is only an hour—and we get to make use of two automatic massage chairs while we wait.​

​

Salesman Kurt Long tells us the dealership upgraded its chargers to 54-kW models a few weeks earlier when the 2022 Mercedes EQS-Class arrived.​

​

“Everyone’s concern is how far can the cars go on a charge,” he says. He adds that he would trade in his car for an EV tomorrow if he could afford the $102,000 price tag. “Just because it would be convenient for me because I work here,” he says. “Otherwise, I don’t know if I would just yet.”​

​

...​

​

The following week, I fill up my Jetta at a local Shell station. Gas is up to $4.08 a gallon.​

​

I inhale deeply. Fumes never smelled so sweet.​

I Rented an Electric Car for a Four-Day Road Trip. I Spent More Time Charging It Than I Did Sleeping.

Our writer drove from New Orleans to Chicago and back to test the feasibility of taking a road trip in an EV. She wouldn’t soon do it again.

www.wsj.com

EV's need more rest than humans.

 

[krichton]

In cities... Key word, in cities. Not everyone is near a city, or lives in a city. Hell, I used to live 40 minutes away from a grocery store, the nearest charging station was an hour and a half away. Even now, the nearest charging station near me, is about half an hour away, and there are only two slots to charge in.

Hence, why i said, if you live in the middle of nowhere, which is apparently where you live. Since when have companies or government infrastructure, outside of the post office ever catered to the minority of us who choose to live in out of the way places?

 

[Cardinal Carminative]

Yeah, and some derp US Senator from Michigan was bragging about driving her EV from Michigan to the City of Demons aka DC. Sure.

​

I thought it would be fun.​

​

That’s what I told my friend Mack when I asked her to drive with me from New Orleans to Chicago and back in an electric car.​

​

I’d made long road trips before, surviving popped tires, blown headlights and shredded wheel-well liners in my 2008 Volkswagen Jetta. I figured driving the brand-new Kia EV6 I’d rented would be a piece of cake.​

​

...​

​

New Orleans, our starting point, has exactly zero fast chargers, according to PlugShare. As we set out, one of the closest is at a Harley-Davidson dealership in Slidell, La., about 40 minutes away. So we use our Monday-morning breakfast stop to top off there on the way out of town.​

​

But when we tick down 15% over 35 miles? Disconcerting. And the estimated charging time after plugging in? Even more so. This “quick charge” should take 5 minutes, based on our calculations. So why does the dashboard tell us it will take an hour?​

​

“Maybe it’s just warming up,” I say to Mack. “Maybe it’s broken?” she says.​

​

Over Egg McMuffins at McDonald’s, we check Google. Chargers slow down when the battery is 80% full, the State of Charge YouTube channel tells us.​

​

Worried about time, we decide to unplug once we return to the car, despite gaining a measly 13% in 40 minutes.​

​

...​

​

By the time we reach our next station, at a Mercedes-Benz dealership outside Birmingham, Ala., we’ve already missed our dinner reservations in Nashville—still 200 miles away.​

​

Here, at least, the estimated charging time is only an hour—and we get to make use of two automatic massage chairs while we wait.​

​

Salesman Kurt Long tells us the dealership upgraded its chargers to 54-kW models a few weeks earlier when the 2022 Mercedes EQS-Class arrived.​

​

“Everyone’s concern is how far can the cars go on a charge,” he says. He adds that he would trade in his car for an EV tomorrow if he could afford the $102,000 price tag. “Just because it would be convenient for me because I work here,” he says. “Otherwise, I don’t know if I would just yet.”​

​

...​

​

The following week, I fill up my Jetta at a local Shell station. Gas is up to $4.08 a gallon.​

​

I inhale deeply. Fumes never smelled so sweet.​

I Rented an Electric Car for a Four-Day Road Trip. I Spent More Time Charging It Than I Did Sleeping.

Our writer drove from New Orleans to Chicago and back to test the feasibility of taking a road trip in an EV. She wouldn’t soon do it again.

www.wsj.com

Yup. That's the silliest part of all of this! THESE MACHINES ARE NOT UP TO THE TASK!!! I say do NOT force me to get an "auto-car" while there are still serviceable and solid HORSES ABOUT! Why they practically grow them on farms!

 

[Rambunctious]

 

[Rambunctious]

I listened to a woman talking about her Tesla... how much she loves it... then she told the story about the time when her and her husband had planned their first trip... They sat down and calculated the miles located charging stations and planned a lot better than I may have...
But...
They neglected to reduce the battery mileage usage for climbing hills with steep grades with a headwind.... they ran dry in the mountains and had to be towed back down....
Buuuuaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[themirrorthief]

EV's are just impractical right now because charging stations are rare, and not always compatible with the EV models.

and california is already having blackouts...try a bicycle instead chairman mao

 

[Cardinal Carminative]

and california is already having blackouts...try a bicycle instead chairman mao

California could have FEWER blackouts and brownouts if they mandated solar on all new construction and fed it into the grid.

But conservatives usually hate that sort of thing. They are stupid.

 

[Captain Caveman]

California could have FEWER blackouts and brownouts if they mandated solar on all new construction and fed it into the grid.

But conservatives usually hate that sort of thing. They are stupid.

Unfortunately, power grids are not easy to juggle the electric. It's nowhere near as simple as you think -

The National Grid - powerPerfector

Here's one snippet from the article -

This switching between sources, to ensure a constant supply of energy, has a knock-on effect on the quality of the power supplied to our homes and businesses, increasing the number of transients or spikes on the supply

 

[toobfreak]

Charging stations aren't cheap.

Oh goodie: one charging station for every 8,000 Americans!

 

[Cardinal Carminative]

Unfortunately, power grids are not easy to juggle the electric. It's nowhere near as simple as you think -

The National Grid - powerPerfector

Here's one snippet from the article -

This switching between sources, to ensure a constant supply of energy, has a knock-on effect on the quality of the power supplied to our homes and businesses, increasing the number of transients or spikes on the supply

Fair enough. One can always hope. But if we are unable to learn how to do that I guess we'll just have to take our chances.

 

[Flash]

There was a report I heard on the news today that in California EVs account for 1.9% of the vehicles on the road in the state.

To provide charging power just for that 1.9% they need to build a 19 gigawatt power station. That is another dual reactor Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.

 

[MarathonMike]

that kia uses an 800 volt system for quick charge.
There probably werent any 800 volt charging stations in the area, so it was charging at the slower 400 volt rate

One fast charge in the Kia EV6 told me everything I needed to know

This is why the Kia EV6 will win top trumps at every EV charging station debate: because the high charging speeds resolve one of the biggest paint points of owning an electric vehicle.

www.inverse.com

And Tesla has it's own chargers for Teslas only. Do see a pattern here? No uniformity with charging stations. This is going to be the mother of all cluster fuks. And China will be grinning ear to ear collecting their billions from the US as we struggle to drive from state to state. Back to the 1900s WHOOOOPPEEEEE!!!

 

[Captain Caveman]

Fair enough. One can always hope. But if we are unable to learn how to do that I guess we'll just have to take our chances.

That's the challenge that the renewable camp are trying to resolve, storing renewable energy. Unfortunately for the grid and how the grid works coupled with our random usage patterns, solar and wind produces power intermittently. So renewables can only supply a modest percentage of the power, that's why we've recently seen in the news coal stations getting powered up to meet demand.

Anyone who wishes to come off fossil produced electric, they will have to have a powerwall of Lithium batteries, or submarine batteries, then a solar/wind/water contraption to charge them.

 

[Deplorable Yankee]

Yeah, and some derp US Senator from Michigan was bragging about driving her EV from Michigan to the City of Demons aka DC. Sure.

​

I thought it would be fun.​

​

That’s what I told my friend Mack when I asked her to drive with me from New Orleans to Chicago and back in an electric car.​

​

I’d made long road trips before, surviving popped tires, blown headlights and shredded wheel-well liners in my 2008 Volkswagen Jetta. I figured driving the brand-new Kia EV6 I’d rented would be a piece of cake.​

​

...​

​

New Orleans, our starting point, has exactly zero fast chargers, according to PlugShare. As we set out, one of the closest is at a Harley-Davidson dealership in Slidell, La., about 40 minutes away. So we use our Monday-morning breakfast stop to top off there on the way out of town.​

​

But when we tick down 15% over 35 miles? Disconcerting. And the estimated charging time after plugging in? Even more so. This “quick charge” should take 5 minutes, based on our calculations. So why does the dashboard tell us it will take an hour?​

​

“Maybe it’s just warming up,” I say to Mack. “Maybe it’s broken?” she says.​

​

Over Egg McMuffins at McDonald’s, we check Google. Chargers slow down when the battery is 80% full, the State of Charge YouTube channel tells us.​

​

Worried about time, we decide to unplug once we return to the car, despite gaining a measly 13% in 40 minutes.​

​

...​

​

By the time we reach our next station, at a Mercedes-Benz dealership outside Birmingham, Ala., we’ve already missed our dinner reservations in Nashville—still 200 miles away.​

​

Here, at least, the estimated charging time is only an hour—and we get to make use of two automatic massage chairs while we wait.​

​

Salesman Kurt Long tells us the dealership upgraded its chargers to 54-kW models a few weeks earlier when the 2022 Mercedes EQS-Class arrived.​

​

“Everyone’s concern is how far can the cars go on a charge,” he says. He adds that he would trade in his car for an EV tomorrow if he could afford the $102,000 price tag. “Just because it would be convenient for me because I work here,” he says. “Otherwise, I don’t know if I would just yet.”​

​

...​

​

The following week, I fill up my Jetta at a local Shell station. Gas is up to $4.08 a gallon.​

​

I inhale deeply. Fumes never smelled so sweet.​

I Rented an Electric Car for a Four-Day Road Trip. I Spent More Time Charging It Than I Did Sleeping.

Our writer drove from New Orleans to Chicago and back to test the feasibility of taking a road trip in an EV. She wouldn’t soon do it again.

www.wsj.com

Id take the 08 jetta with 200,000 miles on it over a brand new electric to

 

[Deplorable Yankee]

In its Flex Alert, California ISO said it was encouraging consumers to pre-cool their homes and use major appliances and charge electric vehicles and electronic devices before 4 p.m. It asked consumers to avoid using major appliances and charging electric vehicles between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m

California Gov. Newsom signs executive order to increase electricity supply as state braces for major heatwave

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order that will allow the state to procure more electricity as its power grid braces for a historic heatwave.

www.foxbusiness.com