SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Electric car charging stations head to Love's Travel Stops across the US:
[Electrify America] announced Tuesday a new collaborative effort with Love's to install charging stations at its stops across the US. Five locations are already open as of today in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah and Florida. Crucially, the stops now open helped complete a nationwide charging route from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.
The new stations will charge at rates up to 350 kilowatts and can add up to 20 miles of range per minute. Ultimately, Electrify America's goal is to continue chipping away at America's range anxiety about electric cars. With more places to charge, it will be mighty difficult to run out of juice. Of course, the company's also bound to invest the cash as part of a Volkswagen dieselgate settlement here in the US...
Will such partnerships vanquish range anxiety for electric vehicles (EVs)?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday August 20 2020, @12:19AM (5 children)
most people don't drive 300 miles at a time.
Daily US average is about 26 miles per day [statista.com]
most trips in the US are under the average EV range - actually up to 95% [greencarreports.com]
Anti-EV logic in SN seems to follow these options:
"EVs don't suit some of my trips, so they are useless technology"
"EVs don't suit one trip I do once a year, so they are useless technology"
"EVs don't suit one type of transport model, so they are useless technology"
"EVs don't suit every possible transport requirement, so they are useless technology"
replace "EV" with "motorbike", or "Box van", or "Milk cart", or "Mazda Miata" to demonstrate logic fail.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2020, @01:09AM (2 children)
Very much depends upon location. Typical city/surburbia folk, yup, they don't drive anywhere near that on a typical outing or a typical day. A rancher out on the plains of Oklahoma, they very well may drive 300 miles at a time (or in several bursts throughout a day).
(Score: 3, Touché) by MostCynical on Thursday August 20 2020, @02:17AM (1 child)
hence most, not all
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday August 20 2020, @08:41PM
Maybe you should have thanked him for proving your point!
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 20 2020, @10:03AM
Most people also don't have a Miata. Not practical enough.
Unlike EVs, though, nobody is saying everyone has to get rid of their current car and switch to a Miata.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday August 20 2020, @12:45PM
That is correct: most drivers don't cover much distance on a daily basis. Even EVs with range on the low end can cover the typical driver's daily needs.
EVs with longer ranges can manage road trips; there are many videos online of people doing just that, in Colorado (harrumph! EVs can't work in a place with mountains...), in Norway (harrumph! EVs don't work well in cold places...), etc. It takes about 30 minutes to recharge at a fast charger, which puts the pacing of the trip about in line with what the AAA recommends for safe practices on long trips (ie., "Take a break every 4 hours to stretch your legs and refresh").
Energy storage and recharging speeds are about to get better, though. We've seen a lot of stories come through SN on researchers trying different battery chemistry and structures; it's a matter of time before they cross the critical threshhold with energy density and recharge rates. The cool thing about that is it will sweep across all our civilization, not just cars.
Washington DC delenda est.