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Comment by WildGreenLeave | Hacker News Reader

I think this is partly because there is not really an alternative once you run out. Getting a jerrycan of gas from a gasstation is possible, a reasonable expectation can be made that if that happens a good samaritan will help you. Or a friend can drop by with one.

The same thing cannot be said about electric cars, unless you have a good friend with a fuel generator. Even then you still have to wait for it to charge. More likely you will be towed, at least in The Netherlands they will tow you to the next parking place. If you are lucky it will be one with a charger, if you are unlucky you are once again on your own.

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We'll have to see. I know AAA has some mobile charging trucks that can boost an EV with a few extra miles (diesel generator AFAIK), but I don't know how widespread it's been deployed or response time, and it does mean that the service truck is on site for 30+ minutes vs the 1 minute to give you some gas.

I think the shitty part at least in Canada is the sheer network fragmentation for fast charging. Understandable why it's fragmented but it's still frustrating nonetheless.

> same thing cannot be said about electric cars

Gas cars need a jump all the time.

If this is really an anxiety of someone’s, they can carry a capacitor in the back sufficient to be charged somewhere and take the vehicle to a charger. That should work in 90%+ of situations.

> Gas cars need a jump all the time.

All the time? That's some strong exaggeration there. Last time I needed a jump start was in 2016 and before that.. can't put an exact year to it but it was back in the 80s.

> If this is really an anxiety of someone’s, they can carry a capacitor in the back sufficient to be charged somewhere and take the vehicle to a charger.

Please describe in some detail how you expect this to work? Can you link to this "capacitor" that people should buy that can do that?

> Last time I needed a jump start was in 2016 and before that.. can't put an exact year to it but it was back in the 80s

As in it's frequent. I'd estimate about as frequent as someone running out of charge in an EV nowadays.

(If you're in a hot climate, e.g. Arizona, and park your car outdoors, it literally can be every year or two.)

> Can you link to this "capacitor" that people should buy that can do that?

Apparently they're still marketed to commercial users, pricing in the $5k+ range. EV to EV charging, emerging on newer vehicles, would be the analog.

Do these exist?

A quick Google turns up this kind of thing [0] which, based on the price point and form factor, is aimed at tow truck operators rather than individual drivers. Costs $10k+ and will take up most of the back of your car.

[0] https://jtmpower.ie/collections/electric-vehicle-charging

Yes, they do, and it's available as a service in Australia:

https://mobileevcharging.com.au/

That's a commercial unit again, not something you throw in your trunk.

That's probably the right solution to this - and something every tow truck will carry in 10 years - but it's not the "capacitor in the back" analogue to an empty jerrycan.

>Gas cars need a jump all the time.

In my family's 20+ years of owning multiple vehicles I can count on one hand how many jumps we've needed, and they fall under the category of 1. old battery or 2. left some lights on.

The latter wouldn't even kill the battery any more.

Errr that's a few minutes at most to fix, and once the car is started, the battery is no longer necessary. That's a fundamentally different thing to a dead battery in an EV, where the battery is essential to the propulsion system.

They also sell portable jumper battery packs for like 60 bucks. We got one because our car battery got terrible during COVID, when we barely drove it for a year or more. I've never had to use it, but it's nice to have in case the need ever arises (and it can be used to charge electronic devices). It stays basically 100% charged for surprisingly long periods of time.

Aren't their car models who can charge other vehicles ?

In some capacity yes, a lot of them. Plenty of EVs can do "vehicle to load" or V2L. i.e. they have plug points for running appliances off the vehicle battery. This can be used to slow-charge another EV.

"The scenarios where this is useful are plentiful, from helping a stranded EV driver with no power to whipping up a brew with a portable kettle."

https://www.ag-elec.com/vehicle-to-load-v2l-what-is-it-and-h...

I see it like "give the vehicle a few miles, to get to a better charge point" and nothing more.

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