When do you think you will buy a 100% pure electric vehicle?

When will you buy a 100% pure electric vehicle?

  • Already Own One

    Votes: 72 8.1%
  • In the next year

    Votes: 7 0.8%
  • Between 1-5 years

    Votes: 163 18.4%
  • 6-10 years

    Votes: 189 21.4%
  • 10+ years or never

    Votes: 454 51.3%

  • Total voters
    885
Pure EVs are incredibly efficient, and that's the only way that we've got anything resembling acceptable range. The energy density in the battery technologies available today pales in comparison to the energy density of a gallon of gasoline. I think to the point that 100kWH battery is the equivalent of something like 5 gallons of gas.

This is also why harsh conditions impact range of EVs much more than gasoline cars. The efficiency is so dialed in for an EV, that even a minimum hit to it makes a big difference in range. Internal combustion is so inefficient by comparison, that we often don't notice the drops in efficiency.

Pure EVs are incredibly efficient, and that's the only way that we've got anything resembling acceptable range. The energy density in the battery technologies available today pales in comparison to the energy density of a gallon of gasoline. I think to the point that 100kWH battery is the equivalent of something like 5 gallons of gas.

This is also why harsh conditions impact range of EVs much more than gasoline cars. The efficiency is so dialed in for an EV, that even a minimum hit to it makes a big difference in range. Internal combustion is so inefficient by comparison, that we often don't notice the drops in efficiency.
I’m not talking about efficiency of converting battery vs gas energy into work, I’m talking about efficiency of how far the same amount of work (whether gas- or battery-derived) can move your vehicle. So primarily talking about aerodynamics here (and I guess regenerative braking efficiency as well)

Consider RAV4 conventional hybrid (my real world mileage over 5 years is 38.5mpg), vs Volvo xc60 phev - when driven is gas mode its rated for 28mpg

That suggests, if you took the rav4 body and frame and the xc60 body and frame, and you put in the same electric motor and a battery pack equivalent to 10 gallons of gas in each one, you’d get the following range:

RAV4: 385 miles
Xc60: 280 miles

That’s a MASSIVE difference

I’m just surprised that Toyota still seemingly has such a huge edge in this type of efficiency (I’m guessing from some combination of aerodynamics and regenerative braking technology). And if they ever get around to adopting EV technology I’m excited to see what their expertise in efficiency will mean in EV form
 
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I’m just surprised that Toyota still seemingly has such a huge edge in this type of efficiency (I’m guessing from some combination of aerodynamics and regenerative braking technology). And if they ever get around to adopting EV technology I’m excited to see what their expertise in efficiency will mean in EV form
I think the main reason is Toyota uses Miller/Atkinson cycle engines. These have (thermal) efficiency gains over traditional 4-stroke "Otto" cycle engines.
 
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Reactions: BigCyFan
Anyone else in a cold weather climate have insight into how long you need to let the battery "precondition" before hitting a supercharger?

We chose not to install electric needed for fast charging at home. Based on our daily driving habits, the normal outlets we have are fine for about 355 days of the year. Occasionally, in the winter when battery drains faster and charging takes longer, we'll hit the supercharger at Target if we've really run the battery down driving longer distances.

Even that can be slow when it's -10 degrees like it was this weekend in Minneapolis. Again, something we know is a minor inconvenience for us only a couple of times each year. Curious if others here have recommendations.
 
I heard on the radio this morning that Casey's is bringing fast chargers to some locations. Further research shows this is somewhat old news as it was announced a couple of months ago and is just at six highly strategic locations with none in Iowa.

 
I heard on the radio this morning that Casey's is bringing fast chargers to some locations. Further research shows this is somewhat old news as it was announced a couple of months ago and is just at six highly strategic locations with none in Iowa.

I'm surprised they aren't putting one at the Casey's near their headquarters. KT has a bank of chargers near Thiesen's in Ames.
 
Anyone else in a cold weather climate have insight into how long you need to let the battery "precondition" before hitting a supercharger?

We chose not to install electric needed for fast charging at home. Based on our daily driving habits, the normal outlets we have are fine for about 355 days of the year. Occasionally, in the winter when battery drains faster and charging takes longer, we'll hit the supercharger at Target if we've really run the battery down driving longer distances.

Even that can be slow when it's -10 degrees like it was this weekend in Minneapolis. Again, something we know is a minor inconvenience for us only a couple of times each year. Curious if others here have recommendations.
It's really hard to tell. Once in awhile, we'll be driving to KC in the middle of the summer, and I'll get an alert 50 miles from the charger that it's pre-charging. I have no clue why it does that, and then it will just start pre-charging agian a few miles before t hits the charger.

We're taking the Tesla to northern Iowa this weekend, so I I'll try and watch it when we hit up the Dows stop.
 
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Anyone else in a cold weather climate have insight into how long you need to let the battery "precondition" before hitting a supercharger?

We chose not to install electric needed for fast charging at home. Based on our daily driving habits, the normal outlets we have are fine for about 355 days of the year. Occasionally, in the winter when battery drains faster and charging takes longer, we'll hit the supercharger at Target if we've really run the battery down driving longer distances.

Even that can be slow when it's -10 degrees like it was this weekend in Minneapolis. Again, something we know is a minor inconvenience for us only a couple of times each year. Curious if others here have recommendations.
We have charged our Two leafs 99.9% of the time with 110…when I transferred the 2021 Leaf to my daughter..the battery was at 98% of capacity according to “Leaf Spy”…and that was at 22K.
The Leaf supposedly has a poor battery cooling system…but didn’t seem to cause any problems.
 
Very, very dense folks in here.

I will say, this does go back to the piss poor job the EV industry has done explaining how this works to the average consumer. Specifically Tesla has just decided not to.
You could work to inform people who haven't had experience with EVs or you could alienate them by calling them trolls or dense.

It is clear which you have chosen.
 
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Reactions: Cyclonesrule91
You could work to inform people who haven't had experience with EVs or you could alienate them by calling them trolls or dense.

It is clear which you have chosen.
Myself, as well as others have done that 1000000 times. To some people it simply doesn't matter and they just become snarky dicks to us.

I have offered to let people here drive my car, but sure, go after me.
 
Anyone else in a cold weather climate have insight into how long you need to let the battery "precondition" before hitting a supercharger?

We chose not to install electric needed for fast charging at home. Based on our daily driving habits, the normal outlets we have are fine for about 355 days of the year. Occasionally, in the winter when battery drains faster and charging takes longer, we'll hit the supercharger at Target if we've really run the battery down driving longer distances.

Even that can be slow when it's -10 degrees like it was this weekend in Minneapolis. Again, something we know is a minor inconvenience for us only a couple of times each year. Curious if others here have recommendations.
I think if you're using the Tesla nav system it will do what it needs to do in the background to precondition the battery for DCFC. How long it takes to do that depends on a lot of factors.
 
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I have a friend with one, he really liked it all summer. In these cold snaps he can't even get 200 miles of range out of it.
Yeah, there is a noticable difference between winter and summer.

Trying to be the objective/reasonable EV owner, this is definitely a consideration. I would, for example, make the drive from Minneapolis to Ames in warm weather, but probably wouldn't try it in the winter.

There are super chargers on the way so - to be clear - I'm not worried about running out of battery. The decision would be (a) how long am I willing to sit at this super charger and (b) what if I had to wait in line to do it.

To be clear on another point, if I chose to spend the money to upgrade electric in my garage for fast charging this would be a non-issue. We'd just come home, park it overnight, and it would be fine the next day.

Knew this all going in, of course, but sharing real life experiences here for benefit of others. And trying to maybe learn a few things at the same time.
 
Myself, as well as others have done that 1000000 times. To some people it simply doesn't matter and they just become snarky dicks to us.

I have offered to let people here drive my car, but sure, go after me.
I'm not the one going after people in this thread. I love the idea of EVs and will get one when I can afford it, but you are doing a lot to fuel the (mostly unfair) stereotype of arrogance in EV owners.

This is a thread to inform those that don't know. There are certainly some trolls dropping by, but you are attacking anyone who asks too many questions or says that EVs aren't right for their situation.
 
This one surprised me. But isn't it bad at hauling and towing by bad I mean the range gets killed.
It does drop the range a lot. I have a 20' double axle trailer that I usually get about 1-1.2 mi/kwh, when pulling 5-6000 lbs. A single axle utility trailer is around 1.5-1.7 and a single axle enclosed trailer is around 1.4. Without a trailer I would normally get 1.7-2 mi/kwh. I pulled a seed tender this spring and you couldn't even tell I was pulling anything. It has the power to pull, just not the ability to go long distances.

This year I have averaged 1.5 mi/kwh since Jan 1st going about 22k miles. I took a small hit from putting all terrain tires on and I tow a trailer almost every day. All my charging this year has been at home.
 
My dad just bought a 2025 Rav-4 Hybrid. I really like it, he is adjusting some to the ride differences from his 2013 Avalon but overall likes it. Sounds like they have some decent changes and improvements coming for 2026.
 
Pure EVs are incredibly efficient, and that's the only way that we've got anything resembling acceptable range. The energy density in the battery technologies available today pales in comparison to the energy density of a gallon of gasoline. I think to the point that 100kWH battery is the equivalent of something like 5 gallons of gas.

This is also why harsh conditions impact range of EVs much more than gasoline cars. The efficiency is so dialed in for an EV, that even a minimum hit to it makes a big difference in range. Internal combustion is so inefficient by comparison, that we often don't notice the drops in efficiency.

Agree, but we all know efficiency, or lack thereof, only matters when manifesting in time or money.

To the user, ICE are incredibly efficient because to add more miles only takes a quick refuel, and at a cost that is low right now.

Like you stated , EVs are already efficient enough in terms of physics that for a vast majority of non-commercial use, it is much more convenient than ICE if one has home charging. As a long time EV owner, my first 200 mile MS was efficient enough.

Unfortunately range anxiety about edge case usage in which ICE is more efficient to the user, means a quest for even better EV tech (range)
 

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