Social Question

Jeruba's avatar

If you have an electric vehicle, have you ever actually run out of power?

Asked by Jeruba (56167points) 1 day ago

I don’t know about others, but that’s my fear with respect to switching to EVs.

Has it ever happened to you?

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7 Answers

gorillapaws's avatar

Not yet. My car turns 7 in April. I have a charger in my driveway, so I plug in every night, set it to charge to about 70% of capacity which is around 200 miles of range (plenty for me in a day and it’s better for the batteries), and then I don’t have to worry about it. About once a week I travel to a town that’s about 80 miles away and drive around there. On those days I charge up to 95% and only occasionally have to use the supercharger for about 10 minutes to give myself an extra buffer to get home when it’s very cold outside (maybe half a dozen times per year).

I save about $2,000 per year in fuel (and that’s after factoring in the extra expense on my power bill), never have to do oil changes, wake up early to fill up before work, transmission flushes, spark plug replacement, fuel filter replacement, timing/serpentine belt replacement, and because of the regen breaking, I’m still on my original set of brake pads after ~90k miles. I’m pretty sure my. car will work out to be cheaper than owning a Corolla by the time I’m ready for a new car.

I will never go back to a gas car and neither will my wife. And there are other awesome benefits like pet mode where you can leave the A/C running in your car and keep your dog at a comfortable temperature while you go to the grocery store (or in my case, keep the wine in my car from getting ruined from being too hot).

Lightlyseared's avatar

No. Fully charged I have a range of 450ish. Which in England is enough to cover quite a lot of country. I understand why range anxiety may be an issue in the US but never understand people getting it here.

JLeslie's avatar

My SIL has been in situations where she did not have enough charge to get to work. Her next car will be gas. She’s not good at remembering to plug in. Her daughter loves her electric car, but her commute is 5 miles.

I recently saw a post on facebook about long distance driving, and it sounds frustrating to me. The person had to stop and charge 4 times and the stop was about 15–20 minutes each time. They were lucky to always be able to pull right up to a charging station. The more people have EV’s the more likely someone will have to wait for a hook up. We sometimes have to wait on a gas pump line too, but pumping gas takes two or three minutes once you are at the pump.

jca2's avatar

@JLeslie and when we’re waiting to pump gas, the wait to pump is usually less than five minutes, because each person pumping only takes about two minutes, so the wait is quick, as well as the actual pumping being quick. If the person at the pump took 15 to 20 minutes the way it takes to charge an EV, the wait would be way longer.

JLeslie's avatar

@jca2 I noticed on the Florida turnpike there are multiple EV stations, so even if they were all full, hopefully someone would be finishing up in a few minutes. The thing is, if I had to charge my car for 20 minutes, I would want to park it while charging and go inside and use the bathroom or eat. I wonder the etiquette on that? Gas station etiquette you aren’t supposed to leave your car at the pump while you go inside to buy a hot dog. I guess some slow stations maybe some people do it.

gorillapaws's avatar

@JLeslie ” I wonder the etiquette on that?”

You’re essentially expected to quickly move your car from a supercharger when it’s “done” which is usually around 80%. Beyond that, you start accruing some steep idle fees if the charging station is at capacity. Your phone gives you a notification though when it’s time to make your way out. Something like “Your car is almost charged, please return to your vehicle to avoid idle fees” or something like that with a short grace period (maybe 5 minutes or something).

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