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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday March 15 2018, @12:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the move-it-when-you-are-done dept.

Motor Trend magazine has passed 15K miles with their long term Chevrolet Bolt test car. The latest report http://www.motortrend.com/cars/chevrolet/bolt-ev/2017/2017-chevrolet-bolt-ev-review-long-term-update-6/ discusses charging away from home and work -- availability and use of Level 2/3 chargers in and around Los Angeles.

I've used public chargers from several companies, including ChargePoint, EVgo, Blink, and EV Connect, but a cursory internet search turns up at least 15 providers operating in the U.S. Every single one of them would prefer you sign up for a membership and download their app, but every one I've tried also allows for guest use. There are perks for membership, including better rates, quicker payment, and quicker activation at the charger, but the real benefit is not having to deal with guest access. At minimum, it requires entering a credit card number either online or through their app, which you'll have to download. At worst, it requires calling the customer service line, waiting on hold, then reading them the charger's ID number and your credit card number over the phone. Some EVgo stations I've used have credit card readers, but every one I've found hasn't worked. Prices vary wildly as the charging networks generally let the owner of the station set the rates. Some charge a flat fee, some charge by total time or electricity used, and others do both.

(discussion of the author's experiences over the 15K miles including trips that required charging at the destination and also airport runs with the Bolt full of people and luggage)

I've waited to address public charging until my time with the Bolt is nearly up so I could provide as complete a picture as possible. Here in Southern California, where EVs are popular and public chargers are fairly common, public charging is workable if mildly inconvenient. So far, the number of chargers seems to have mostly kept pace with the popularity of EVs, but we're already seeing lines forming at Tesla Superchargers. As EVs become more common, the public charging network is going to need to grow at the same or better pace to keep up, and whether that happens is anyone's guess. If electric cars are ever going to be ubiquitous like some people predict, we're going to need a lot more chargers, and we're going to need them everywhere, at nearly every parking space, so people who can't charge at home or are running low can top up. That's going to take a lot of investment from a lot of people, and it remains to be seen if supply keeps up with demand.


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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday March 15 2018, @02:39PM (4 children)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday March 15 2018, @02:39PM (#652948)

    Or more likely you'll just rent a car for long trips or large objects. My wife owns a Prius and had no trouble moving an older relative from one apartment building to another in one big trip; she simply drove the prius to the uhaul guy two miles from my house, paid $50 for a truly gigantic truck that seems to get less than five MPG, and did the work.

    According to the anti-EV people I've argued with, what you describe here is completely and utterly impossible.

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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday March 15 2018, @03:20PM (3 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 15 2018, @03:20PM (#652960)

    Another good one is "Everyone needs 500 mile range every single day which will be unaffordable battery size".

    Yet, assuming $5 per mile for a bizjet and pilot, the cost savings of buying a 100 mile range car instead of a 500 mile car mean that instead of sitting in a car with me for 56 hours to visit the Grand Canyon, it would be cheaper to buy the shorter range car and charter a Lear 31 for our family trip. I could spend a huge stack of money to sit in a car for 56 hours, but I'd rather spend the same stack on a cheap car and three hours in a chartered lear jet. Reality is I'd probably get plain old airline tickets and save tens of thousands, but whatever.

    Another good one is I had a coworker with one of those $80K dualie pickup crew cab all leather 4x4 trucks expressing how horrible it was we had to pay to get paver bricks delivered from Home Depot... For the price difference between the wife's Prius and his truck, I could have not only paid for delivery, but hired groundskeepers to do all the patio labor multiple times. Sometimes HD will have a coupon deal to waive your delivery charge if you spend enough which makes the ratio of cost infinite.

    Another fascinating ratio is a good rule of thumb is a limo costs about $100/hr around here, so limo service from my front door to the grand canyon and back, would theoretically only cost $6K or so, which sounds much more vacation like and relaxing than paying $50K for a battery pack big enough for me to drive myself.

    Taking my entire family one way from my house to downtown Chicago is $36 on a bus, About $70 total for car including tolls and some hours of parking, $100 on train, $200 in a limo, $500 in a chartered plane (back before they destroyed Meigs Field twenty years ago). Given the traffic I wouldn't even consider driving there.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Whoever on Thursday March 15 2018, @04:10PM (1 child)

      by Whoever (4524) on Thursday March 15 2018, @04:10PM (#652980) Journal

      Interesting math you have there, where in your theoretical large-battery EV, you only do one long trip during the entire time that you own the vehicle. I guess that makes as much sense as most of your posts here.

      Electric vehicles are here to stay. More car manufacturers are installing charging stations. EV stations are going to become more prevalent, and, as EVs become a larger proportion of the total vehicle fleet, gas stations will shut down (or perhaps they will become combined gas/charging stations)

      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday March 16 2018, @12:58PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 16 2018, @12:58PM (#653555)

        Its a matter of time. I can't commute 2000 miles daily to work for sheer chronological limits.

        Likewise I just can't do major family vacation more than maybe once a year, although for practical reasons there's always something going on such that we'd be lucky at every other year. I think for the vast majority of people the "national lampoon" movie drive across america comedy is just that, a movie comedy, not real life.

        Also we went to Ireland one summer, and no matter how hard I'd want to drive there, I'd have to fly over the ocean, so that was about 15 mile drive to the airport even though Ireland is really far away.

        Also the USA is large. This summer it looks like we can spare time and coordinate schedules for about one week for all family members to visit Glacier Natl park. Probably. Its not even sure yet. If we drive, we'll pretty much have to turn around and go home once we get there, so we certainly won't drive. I don't even see the point of going there for less than three full days, or spending more time on the road than at the park.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Thursday March 15 2018, @05:02PM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday March 15 2018, @05:02PM (#653000)

      Another good one is I had a coworker with one of those $80K dualie pickup crew cab all leather 4x4 trucks expressing how horrible it was we had to pay to get paver bricks delivered from Home Depot... For the price difference between the wife's Prius and his truck, I could have not only paid for delivery

      Would he really put a load of paver bricks into an $80K all-leather truck? Won't that scratch up the bed liner?

      For bricks from Home Depot, can't you just rent a pickup from HD for like $25, if you're local? That'd be the really cheap way to do it. $25 is probably less than the difference between a single fill-up between the Prius and the $80k dualie. But yeah, free delivery if you buy enough is even better.

      It's really astounding how bad a lot of Americans are at basic math, and calculating whether it makes more sense to buy something to have the capability at any time or just rent occasionally.