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Comment by drewg123 | Hacker News Reader

I've done multiple ~1000mi road trips in my Model X, and I've peed in a lot of bushes too. A lot of the newer chargers (at least on the east coast) are located at WaWa's, and have 24hr restrooms. But the chargers at malls are a pain. Either the mall is closed, and you need to pee in the bushes, or the mall is open and the traffic is terrible and the chargers are ICE'ed in.

There is one charger in Hardee SC thats in the parking lot of a police station. I was a bit nervous to use the bushes there..

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I've taken multiple long trips in my Toyota Prius, and never once had to pee in the bushes. 600 mile range on a single fill-up, but after driving for a few hours I'm usually ready for a 5 minute break.

I totally get how cool EVs are, and how much fun they can be to drive. And if you're spending 90+% of your time just commuting to work, it can potentially save you money on gas.

But I would definitely not subject myself to long road trips with EVs at this point in history. One out-of-service charging station along the way can ruin your whole week.

My experience with hybrids and long trips is that you're stopping more frequently for gas. They've got small gas tanks and small batteries. Both of which are burned through quickly when you're on a freeway and not touching the brake pedal.

I'm real curious as to which hybrids you've been taking trips in. A gen 4 Prius can easily do 600 miles at highway speed. A gen 3 should be able to do at least 550 on a full tank. That's nearly 8 hours at 70mph.

There's no current EV that can do that.

My experience was with a BMW 330e. I guess I should clarify, I mean true plug in hybrids. Is a gen 4 Prius a PHEV?

The Prius Prime is the PHEV version, which is more expensive than the standard Prius. It has the same gas engine and nearly the same gasoline range as the standard Prius (it gets slightly lower MPG due to the increased weight). You're obviously not going to get far on battery power alone, that is about 25 miles. The intention was to be able to cover a typical commute to work, and then be able to charge a work.

Just read a little bit on the 330e. It doesn't get nearly as good gas mileage as a Prius, but is obviously a much peppier car.

Though if I was spending that much money, I'd try to get a Rav4 Prime, which is nearly as quick (5.7 seconds for 0-60 mph), 600 mile range, and all wheel drive. But that's a personal preference, I'm not in the market for a sports sedan.

my Prius Prime plug in hybrid is great. 40KM full EV range which is 90% of my yearly trips in town so only have to fuel up on longer trips. Highway range (with extra drag of a roof rack and bike on top per my last trip) was 800km per tank.

Its too bad PHEVs are not modular to allow for removing the gasoline engine for the 90% of trips where you don't need it.

In fact, I have a vision for modular PHEVs where the gasoline engine is on a trailer you pull on trips, and all it does is charge the electric battery to keep the electric motor running. You wouldn't even have to own or maintain the gas engine, you could rent them at u-haul or some a car rental chain.

I would actually love something like this for my Tesla.

They had a range extension trailer for the original Tesla roadster. I don't know how popular it was...

The main issue with that is the total efficiency isn't that great.

If you're not taking frequent long trips, than it seems a pure EV makes the most sense. You can just rent a car for the longer trips.

If you are more frequently taking long trips, but your daily trips are often short enough, a PHEV can make the most sense.

I wonder if the smell of urine is a thing around superchargers.

I'd hazard a guess that most people will opt to urinate as far away from sources of high voltage electricity as they can. In the UK we periodically get news stories about people being electrocuted by urinating on railways, and many will have been traumatised by watching the terrifying "Play Safe" Public Information Films as children.

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