I havent, as I am still dealing with the range anxiety aspect. I have a 96 mile round trip on a daily basis, so more concerned with getting home. I did make a stop at a tesla supercharger in ames last night, just to see how they operated and the ease of the charge process. I then proceeded to time my 0-105 on a stretch of lincoln way east of town last night
When do you think you will buy a 100% pure electric vehicle?
- Thread starter dmclone
- Start date
Born and raised outside of Centerville, spent 34 years living in Bloomfield and we moved up to Ames May of 2024 to be closer to our daughter and grandkids.I think I saw you were from Centerville.
ABRP
A Better Routeplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.abetterrouteplanner.com
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The articles I read said Toyota is scaling back production of EVs, it said nothing about producing a million hybrids this coming year, nor did I. Toyota is going all in on their hybrid platform, no longer offering the Camry in 2025 in a gas version, have not offered a Sierra minivan in a gas version for a couple of years and I have been reading that they are at least talking about moving away from the gas version of the Grand Highlander. I really doubt if that is true, because they are struggling now to meet the demand for the hybrid version. But they have a couple new battery plants opening this year or early next year, and I saw today they are planning on moving the Lexus version of the Grand Highland from their Indiana plant to somewhere else, so they can increase production of their Grand Highlander. Toyota also announced the other day that coming later this year they are going to start making a Grand Rav 4 version, which will also offer a hybrid option.
My Subaru is basically rebranded Toyota awd EV (their first and only try) with slightly more rugged trim, some additional safety features and raised 1" ground clearance to make it "more Subaru".
Considering it's their very first EV it's a very good car, it's the best car I've ever had by light years but a lot of that is just things I like about any modern EV. If the range was like 280 instead of 240 I'd say they hit it out of the park on the first try. They also had the huge mistake that the 2023 charged super slow but they fixed it for 2024. My previous cars were a gas VW SUV and a hybrid Subaru crossover that also used Toyota hybrid tech.
There's a Lexus version too and I test drove them all. For my needs the very slight cost increase of the Solterra over the AWD BZ were worth the added features. The Lexus is absurdly expensive for being effectively the same car as the other two. I like the interior of the Lexus better than the Toyota but I actually like the safety features and interior much better on the Subaru version.
The technology exists. I posted a video about a little over a month ago of Chinese automakers rolling out new systems that have 5 minute charge time. Of course it will take forever for that to make its way to the US because we cling to outdated technology out of fear that cross country trip we take MAYBE once or twice a year will take a little extra time and planning.
One thing to remember is that the baseline demand keeps rising nationally. Ideally I think baseline could be kept covered by coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric. Then use solar/wind to cover as much as possible after the baseload. These data centers use power like a wino with a bottle of Ripple.
Honestly im not sure. still ignorant to some of this stuff. from what I can see one of the stops is at a 350KW chargers, which my understanding as of now is that those are fairly fast chargers, but the other one is a 6.5 kw, however there is a 125kw nearby. still trying to understand these things
Des Moines to the Ozarks? Or where are you starting from?
Will you have access to a charger where you’re staying in the Ozarks?
Some of the EV "experts" are skeptical on these 5 minute charge times that the Chinese are claiming. If their claims are valid, that would be good news.
And thats without an overnight hotel stay...I think I saw you were from Centerville.
ABRP
A Better Routeplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.
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If he was at a hotel with a lvl 2 charger, he'd have a full charge in the AM.
Doesn't matter if its embellished some. They could double the time to 10 minutes and it still gets you to the average time it takes to stop and fuel up an ICE vehicle on a road trip. The technology will get to the point when this gripe about long road trips is completely invalid. The point is the gripe is currently way overblown for the amount of inconvenience it would actually cost the average consumer, and the fact that many people cling to the idea that its some kind of massive inconvenience will significantly slow adoption of better technology.
We're in the Midwest sir, that's a easy straight through drive.
I'd almost bet my life the breakthroughs are or will be real and they will come from China.
They have a government that is happy to win slow and steady uninterupted 20-50 year battles, we have one that completely changes course every 2-4 years and our newest position is we want to focus mostly on coal for our homes and gas for our vehicles.
I'm not saying I want to live in a society like China's but BYD plus Chinese government's consistent approach is a massive advantage over our legacy car companies in bed with oil industry and a government that fights against EVs 50% of the time. Tesla could easily have been America's BYD with a more consistent government and almost got there even without it, but there are countless reasons Tesla did what the US legacy manufacturers did not and history will likely show that to be shortsighted.
This thread of trepidation is perhaps the biggest advantage China has in their process of soon dominating the American, European and Japanese auto industry. A huge % of Chinese drivers are first or second generation car owners. They don't have a century of irrational sentimental attachment to the internal combustion engine, it's not at all part of their idea of what makes their country great or what makes a man 'manly'. That's a massive edge for easy adoption, it's not "new" for many people, it's simply their first family car and the only thing they'll ever know.
I would say the when is a huge question for many people, is this 5 to 10 minute full charge going to happen in 5 years or 35 years? Just because some thing is better technology really does not matter, there have been many products produced that lost out in the end, even though they were the superior product. I can remember years ago when everyone thought diesels were the future for cars here in the US, in fact my brother owned one, nothing but problems. Now they sell well in Europe but just never caught in in the US. EV's may well be the same thing, just the hint during the Biden administration that they were pushing EVs and cutting down production of ICE vehicles went over like a person with VD at a group orgy.
No one can predict with much accuracy what the American people will want to purchase next year let alone 5 to 10 years from now.
My wife and I discussed trading off her Mach E on something larger and the Rivian R1S would be a great fit but I'm leery of not having anything nearby if something goes sideways.
