Comment by gspencley | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gspencley | Hacker News Reader

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> except for in the rural highway case where gas stations might be all that's easy to find when you're driving between urban areas.

Range is the one thing that is preventing me from looking at EVs at the moment. I own a car but I don't actually drive much in the city since I work from home and use grocery delivery services since I hate grocery shopping. When I tend to drive most it's because I'm going a long distance: 8 to 10 hour road trips up north etc. The idea of adding hours to such a trip, or turning it into an overnight trip, makes it a non-starter for me.

I bring this up because the article specifically talks about about gas stations along the Autobahn. I've never been to Germany, let alone driven on the Autobahn, so maybe it is used quite frequently for shorter trips. But speaking of freeways in general, especially here in North America, I wonder if this is another reason that looking to gas stations along a freeway is a misguided "target." If people are using EVs on freeways, wouldn't they be more inclined to exit the freeway into a city and charge at a motel or a shopping centre while they stop overnight or at least a few hours?

> The idea of adding hours to such a trip, or turning it into an overnight trip, makes it a non-starter for me. > If people are using EVs on freeways, wouldn't they be more inclined to exit the freeway into a city and charge at a motel or a shopping centre while they stop overnight or at least a few hours?

Yes you're right on the money.

I bought an EV to drive around my home area in CA. Instead I've just used it for road-tripping back East to see family.

Each road-trip has convinced me how bad these cars are for long-range driving. Aside from "range anxiety" (going only from one supercharger location to another, and not venturing away) - the charging times are brutal for cross-country trips.

You will spend hours per day, hours, sitting in back of Holiday Inn Expresses in the middle of nowhere Kansas, or in back of a shady truck stop in the middle of Texas.

Safety as well: I've thought about if I were a female for example at some of these locations it wouldn't be safe to be alone, with nobody around, sitting in your car. You're unable to start it and drive away if it's plugged in, not without getting out to unplug it which you have to do manually (there's no emergency eject charger cable button). So if there is a Texas Chainsaw Killer outside your window you're screwed.

Having said all that. It is a perfect car for just driving around my neighborhood IF that's what I intended to. In practice, I never do it.

It's a completely different experience in a Tesla. We've done 4 3000 km trips in our Tesla (Ottawa to Saskatoon and back twice). Never any anxiety, the car tells us where to charge and we know it will work.

Being a young family, we had to stop more frequently and for longer for bathroom breaks etc than it took to charge.

Hopefully you get a NACS adapter and a proper experience soon.

Yes and no. You only stop for "hours" once / day when you're done driving. It's _convenient_ to charge overnight (and why wouldn't you do it) but it's not necessary. 90% of my charging is done during the day, during the drive.

For example, here's a 7+ hour drive from Calgary to a campground in the middle of Saskatchewan: https://i.imgur.com/GTeNnYa.png (the 5.4 hour charge is us charging up using the RV hookup at the campground)

We stopped for about an hour total. If you are a "roadtripper" -- that is, no stopping, just getting to the destination, then sure, you have a point. That's 1 hour where you could have been at your destination. From my perspective, I took that time to get lunch and stretch my legs and use the washroom... mental health stuff.

Yeah I guess I'm a "roadtripper." I don't like driving itself. I just want to get from point A to point B as fast (and safe) as possible. Typically on an 8 hour drive my wife and I will make one or two 5 minute stops for bathroom breaks and to refuel. We'll eat in the car if we actually have to eat (but I only eat one meal a day so that's not common). The mental health hit for us is knowing that we're wasting precious vacation time travelling rather than vacationing. If we loved the drive itself then maybe it would be different, but I don't.

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