EV Thread

   #581  

Andy

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Old vid but a neat installation:


Pickup trucks have so much unused space that they seem like a natural for EV conversion.
 
   #584  

Mike R

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What's the bigger hurdle right now keeping EVs from being mainstream? Range or Cost of Entry?
 
   #585  

PetrolDave

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What's the bigger hurdle right now keeping EVs from being mainstream? Range or Cost of Entry?
I would rate both of them equally.

Range is a problem because of the lack of charging points both in non-urban locations and on major routes.
Cost of Entry is a problem because the volumes of EVs being manufactured are so low that the economies of scale haven't been reached yet.
 
   #586  

Uwe

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I would say it's the cost of batteries. They're still somewhere north of $100 / kWh, most likely close to $150.

So range and cost are a trade-off. You can make a reasonably priced EV with a range of 100-200 miles, which would be entirely adequate for 90-some percent of use cases; commuting, grocery getting and so on, but it would suck horribly for any kind of road trip, so people generally won't buy that. They want something with the range they're used to, which means at least 300 miles. But to get 300 miles of range, you need something like 100 kWh of batteries, which will cost $10,000 to $15,000 to make. That's an expensive fuel tank!

Tesla has built out an extensive network of Superchargers in the US, so at least for them, infrastructure isn't really a problem. They're located along major interstate highways too. This one is at a "Truck stop" on Interstate 81 in rural Virginia. IIRC, it has ten or so charging bays. My wife sent me this picture earlier today when she stopped there for fuel. There were actually four Teslas looking forlorn while charging,

P9cJDPy.jpg


We stop there fairly often because that place has some of the cheapest diesel fuel anywhere our regular road trips. We've never seen more than one Tesla charging there, and more often it's none.

When we stop there, we get up to 700 miles of additional range in under 5 minutes. :cool:

-Uwe-
 
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   #589  

D-Dub

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not so much vehiclular prostitution, but charger prostitution.

I really don't see how this is different than all the other for-pay ev chargers?

If I am charging my vehicle at home, I am either paying the electric company, or paying the solar panel company.

If I am out and about and looking to charge, I am either using the goodwill of some free charging station, or paying through one of the existing ev charging networks.

This incentivizes people to more readily share their home chargers (which again are not free unless perhaps you have already paid for the capital investment into solar), so that people on the move can access them in a convenient manner.

Sure beats running an extension cord, or the whole vehicle into someone's yard so they can plug in the car.
 
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D-Dub

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   #596  

Uwe

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In the case of the Taycan, the actual voltage sits somewhere between 610 (depleted) and 835 volts (when full)
With 198 cell strings, they are not babying these cells. That's 4.22V per cell full, and 3.08V empty. Pro-tip: If your Taycan spends a lot of time sitting the the garage, do not keep the battery full. It will last a lot longer if the cells are down at or below 4.0V when just sitting around doing nothing.

-Uwe-
 
   #598  

dieseldub

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With 198 cell strings, they are not babying these cells. That's 4.22V per cell full, and 3.08V empty. Pro-tip: If your Taycan spends a lot of time sitting the the garage, do not keep the battery full. It will last a lot longer if the cells are down at or below 4.0V when just sitting around doing nothing.

-Uwe-

Coming from a TDI where we vent the tank and fill them all the way up the filler neck and don't think twice about it... that's got to be one of the most annoying things about battery powered vehicles.

The range is already meh, but to protect the crazy money you spent on the vehicle and ensure a properly long battery lifetime, you have to reduce the range even further by not charging the batteries above a certain point.

I think I'll be keeping my 600+ mile range for awhile to come yet.... Ok, maybe 450 in the Touareg V10....on a good day.
 
   #599  

Uwe

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I think I'll be keeping my 600+ mile range for awhile to come yet.... Ok, maybe 450 in the Touareg V10....on a good day.
Yep, we get about 700 in our Touareg V6 TDI. I don't care how fast an electric car is in theory; the moment a trip length exceeds that car's range, I'll get to the destination sooner. My wife and I did a 600 mile run on Saturday. We stopped twice; once for fuel & potty (~10 mins) and once just for potty (~5 mins). The trip was under 9 hours, door-to-door.

-Uwe-
 
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