this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I'm somewhere in the middle. I've thought about getting an EV my case is a 2012 Camry... And it's still doing fine, but it is getting up there in the years.

I don't drive much at all three days since I work from home.

When I do drive it's roughly 150 miles to my parents or my grand parents. It looks like without installing something at their houses I could charge up 120 miles in a 24 hour period with the car entirely on the charger (but sometimes I want to go drive around and see friends or things and that's time the car is not charging so ... 120 miles might be an over estimate in some cases). That's a bit uncomfortable especially when the cold weather makes the range drop so the "320" miles total becomes closer to "270". Then there's the whole thing where batteries lose capacity over time...

That means I'm going to potentially need to plan for stopping at a charger. There really aren't that many chargers available between, e.g. where my parents live in Marietta Ohio, and where I live in Akron Ohio. When looking at a map (provided by Ford for the Mustang Mach-e I was looking at) there were maybe a dozen charging locations with pretty much 1-3 chargers each ... That's compared to a dozen busy gas stations I've encountered with ~8 pumps each.

I'd probably be fine but ... I think I'd be better off waiting a couple of years and seeing if the 600 mile EV range becomes a reality. At that point all of my regular trips are accounted for and I'm okay looking for charging on the odd times I go on a large trip.

Alternatively, maybe there will be more chargers by that point (or charging will be faster) and I'll feel more comfortable that I'll be able to find a charger when I need it.

I don't want my long 2 1/2 hour trip to turn into a 3+ hour trip on the way back ... or turn into a particularly dangerous or sketchy situation because the charger I need is being used by someone else/down for maintenance/broken and it's very cold outside.

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I live in California, so the infrastructure is likely more built up here, but I regularly make trips from the SF Bay Area all the way to San Diego or Las Vegas just fine. On a shorter 2.5 hour trip, I could see it being annoying, but a couple charge stops on an 8 hour trip offer a nice time to take a break to grab a quick bite and carry on. Just my two cents.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 1 points 9 months ago

I've thought about that too, but the stretch of road there is basically an interstate through the country side the majority of the route. There's very little in terms of interesting cuisine or places to really walk around.