Electric Cars -- anyone own one?

[dantiff2]

Got the latest report from my son on his Chevy Bolt. The weather over the last few days has been fairly brutal with temps around 0 to 10 F, strong northerly winds, and heavy snow. They are anticipating -15 today. He says, so far, they have seen a 70 to 80km decrease in range (about 20%). Part of this is due to battery efficiency loss while some is due to the use of winter tires and the use of heater etc. The heater is good, and heat is instant. He hates the traction control and wishes the default setting was off so the car would get around better in the snow. I also hate electronic traction control on any vehicle, so I'm with him on that.
Even with the reduced range, the car is working out well as a daily driver. A trip into town is about 12 miles for them and a trip into Calgary is about 45 miles. The car is great for this, but it wouldn't make it to my place on its best day (about 270 miles). We are heading down to Moscow, Id, next weekend and they will be joining us there. They will drive their 13 year old Hyundai Sonata for this trip, as they do for any long trip.
So, as expected, the EV works great as a daily commuter and is not really usable for longer trips. There is a definite loss in efficiency in cold weather. This is also not unexpected, but it is manageable. WH

How do they manage to charge their Bolt in temps that low? I thought it was recommended not to and also not to park indoors?

 

[Knotwild]

My wife's driving habits around town in her electric car (2015) in our climate -30 to 100oF has an average of 4 miles per kWh. I travel widely throughout the US in mine and do about 3 miles per kWh. So if your generator were 100% efficient at 20kW and 36 hr it would provide 20x36x4 miles (2880) for my wife's car for the 50 gallons or almost 58 mpg. No bad, but as you can see presumes a lot of things.

Mileage in electric cars is dependent upon a lot of factors similar to gas vehicles but moreso. The 720kWh your generator produced at probably about $250 ($5 diesel) would be about $40.52 for my home charger at off peak prices (also assuming 100% efficiency).

Again, electric cars are definitely not for everyone, but can be a major saving for the right households.

Drew

Thanks Drew. That helps me to understand better. I have always believed that electric vehicles can/will be good as technology advances. But, I am perturbed by the government's approach to making a switch without forethought and planning. I am also old enough that I'm not real keen on letting other's have control of my things. As in my thermostat, or charging a car, or driving a charged car.

 

[Will Henry]

How do they manage to charge their Bolt in temps that low? I thought it was recommended not to and also not to park indoors?

So far, it has not been all that cold (above zero), though that is changing today. The car is charged in the shop, where the temperature is generally around 50 degrees F, in the winter. His plan is to park the Bolt if it is much below zero, and just use the Hyundai. WH

 

[jackieschmidt]

Well, I just put a deposit on a 2023 Bolt EUV.
Why?

I drive around 92 miles every day back and forth to my shop. I am putting a lot of wear on my 2018 GMC Denali Truck.

If I am going to drive a car, it might as well be an all electric.

My younger brother has been using one as work transportation for several years.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Tesla got the green light to sell the tesla semi truck now. Pepsico will get the first ones

 

[Adam in WI]

Here I figured Elon was going to get his approvals revoked after wanting to make free speech Twitter's new operating model

 

[M-61]

I wonder how long until your homeowners insurance company calls and asks if you own an electric car?
They won’t care if you have a garage or not.
Few more fires similar to the e- bike burn in NYC might be like getting hurricane insurance in south Florida. With premiums sky high.

 

[TrxR]

I wonder how long until your homeowners insurance company calls and asks if you own an electric car?
They won’t care if you have a garage or not.
Few more fires similar to the e- bike burn in NYC might be like getting hurricane insurance in south Florida. With premiums sky high.

This video claims that fires are greatly exaggerated.

 

[M-61]

Yeah, really looks like bullshit to me.
If they weren’t dead you could ask the crew of the UPS flight 6
Then again get a job loading li-ion batteries on an aircraft. Not only limited in amount they are covered with a fireproof ballistic blanket. Those little batteries (same as your flashlight or the 7,200 in a Tesla actually become a projectile.)
I guess you can figure out the BC of one.

 

[M-61]

In case you can’t identify this it is UPS flight 6
Cause? LI-ion battery fire beneath cockpit.

 

[M-61]

Anyone can buy whatever they want.
It is after all America, I think.

 

[Will Henry]

At -20 F, the Bolt is usable but loses about 40% of it's range. The heater, fine at 0, isn't so great as Minus 20. Gets around quite well in the snow. WH

 

[M-61]

Any clue what the rear window defroster does?

 

[NorCalMikie]

 

[Dusty Stevens]

The new tesla semi just completed its maiden voyage- 500mi loaded to 81,000lbs. Supposed to start delivery in a few days. Its supposed to save the owner $500,000 over its life at sub $3 diesel. Imagine at $6 like in CA right now

 

[Will Henry]

Son got to experience another downfall of the Chevy Bolt. If your wife doesn't bother to plug it in when she parks in the garage, right beside the cord, you can be caught with a low charge. He says it's just the same as when she doesn't put gas in the car except that it takes longer to charge than to put some gas in. So, he had to stop and charge for twenty minutes to make it to work. He can plug in at work and it charges right up in three or four hours. WH

 

[gkgeiger]

I live in a large golf car community. This is my vehicle for traveling inside the bubble, that what residents call it. Approximately 150k residents and thousands of golf cars.

 

[Bill K]

I really believe that in the long run, they will find the cost for battery replacements and overall use of a electric vehicle is too costly and will fade out also due to problems with disposing of the batterie materials.
Maybe hydrogen engines would work better. But at my age, I will stick with the old combustion engines and enjoy travel with less issues in range and charging.

 

[jackieschmidt]

I installed my Juice Box 40 Amp charger over the Holiday. Simple hookup, 220 50 amp circuit. I was lucky in that one of my breaker box’s had an open spot to put a twin 220 breaker. It uses a 14/50 plug.

My Chevy Bolt EUV will be here in two weeks.

 

[Stephen Plumb]

My personal belief is that an EV makes a great second or third vehicle. I however live in South Africa, where our state owned power generator cannot supply the current electrical needs of the country, so the thought of adding EVs into the mix is disastrous, given that we are typically without power from anything from 2-8hrs a day.

I have been watching TFL and was interested in some of their fast chargers. 150-300KW. In nominal terms a excrementally large amount of energy. I have an 8KW inverter that take care of most of my electrical needs at home, but can see up to 10-12KW - grid supplemented - if heaters, geysers (water heaters - not sure what they are called in the US) are running. So 300KW is a massive, massive amount of energy.

If you have a charging station with a few of these, you are very quickly into the MW range, and now you are talking about needing a local substation, to say nothing of the additional power generation. I don't think a lot of people have thought through the electrical reticulation needed to support large scale EV adoption. Some work has been done in Germany where I believe they will need to add about 30GW of Nuclear to the grid if they proceed with banning ICE vehicles in a couple of years, and Nuclear builds are neither cheap nor fast.

I am a firm believer in free markets and economic forces, but not the billy club of government regulation and coercion. Elon has made a vehicle that people can choose to buy, but are not forced to. Many have made that choice, and good for them, but are they subsidised? I know that top gear's James May bought an EV, and Jeremy Clarkson was telling anyone near them that they had helped pay for Jame's EV despite him being a wealthy man.

As I understand it, Toyota is not pronouncing the death of the ICE just yet, and I believe they may well be looking pretty good in a few years, if these reports are true. I think EVs can be useful in many areas, and make sense for a good many applications, and the soccer mom is certainly one of those. If you live in Europe and seldom venture far from home, it may well make sense as a primary vehicle. I would be very wary of committing to one as a primary vehicle especially if you need to tow/drive long distances on a regular basis.