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Comment by ianai | Hacker News Reader

Well I drive a 250 mile round trip every week or every other. Range does matter.

250 miles is within range of a bunch of different cars - and not just Tesla or luxury brands but also Fords, Skodas, Nissan, and Volkswagens too. At UK speed limits that is like 3.5 continuous hours driven at 70mph (in reality you'd not be doing 70 all the time either)... Most people would take a bio break and maybe a coffee in there somewhere and fast charging for 15 mins at 100+kw can give some decent top-up (e.g. ID.3 does over 500miles per hour charging, so just 5mins while you go take a piss is another 40 miles range added)

https://ev-database.uk/#sort:path~type~order=.price~number~a...

The catch is when it's cold out. I'm in a similar situation. ~120 miles one way. My Nissan Leaf gets ~140 miles per charge, and it works fine in the spring/summer/fall.

In the winter I get about 90 miles on full charge, so not only am I stopping to charge, but I have to be at full charge when I leave. Also consider that the only fast charging station on my route is right around 30 miles in, and I'm running "on fumes" every trip.

I know there are cars with bigger batteries that will make it. But I also know they are another ~$10k, which is a significant upcharge.

Yes for me the weather requires AC for most of the year in addition to significant periods of cold weather. There's also the significant lack of charging infrastructure.

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