The Key to Widespread Adoption of EVs: Less Range (and faster charging)

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Bouldergramp

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From current Wall Street Journal with that title:
"Imagine two vehicles on a road trip between Orlando and Washington, D.C., a distance of about 860 miles. One vehicle has 300 miles of range and can fully recharge in about an hour, which is typical of how long it takes many of today’s faster-charging EVs to refill at a charging station. Another vehicle has a battery only half as big, with 150 miles of range, but can recharge fully in 15 minutes. Even adding in all the extra time required to get on and off the highway for more frequent stops, the vehicle with half as much range but four times the charging speed beats its much heavier and more expensive cousin by about 20 minutes."
 
WSJ circa 2023:
Still completely clueless about EVs

A few hints for the ignorant writer:

1. 860 mile one-way trips are much less frequent than 100 - 300 mile trips. Cherry picking a distance that matches the desired talking point is a fool's errand.
2. Larger batteries have proportionally larger C-rates, and in any case the charge rate drops after 50% SoC which means that fast charging is best done to ~ 50 - 60% SoC
 
Here is one of over 400 comments on the article:
"I love it when important information is left out so as not to mess up a good agenda.

The author does a calculation of time spent charging a high mileage/fast charger versus low mileage/fast charger and concludes the latter is 20 minutes shorter.

And not once tells us the total trip time..

860 miles averaging 70 mph (hard to do) in a gas vehicle will take 12.3 hours. A gas car will require 2 stops of....15 min.....each, equating to 12.8 hours total.

Using the authors EV methods, the trip takes 2 hours more than that for high mileage EVs (2 charges of 1 hr each) and 1.66 hours more than that for low mileage EVs (6 charges of 15 min each).

Yeah, that works. Not only do I have to sit longer in the car, I have to cool my heels sitting in the parking lot of a charging station plus waiting on the prior guy to finish HIS charge.

You want an EV for urban trips? Have at it. It's a good thing. But, folks, this is a HUGE country, and let's start remembering we tried a similar time warp when Jimmy Carter mandated 55 mph speed limits which, west of the Mississippi, is one of the sillier things ever."
 
Bouldergramp said:
From current Wall Street Journal with that title:
"Imagine two vehicles on a road trip between Orlando and Washington, D.C., a distance of about 860 miles. One vehicle has 300 miles of range and can fully recharge in about an hour, which is typical of how long it takes many of today’s faster-charging EVs to refill at a charging station. Another vehicle has a battery only half as big, with 150 miles of range, but can recharge fully in 15 minutes. Even adding in all the extra time required to get on and off the highway for more frequent stops, the vehicle with half as much range but four times the charging speed beats its much heavier and more expensive cousin by about 20 minutes."

The first error that author makes is that smaller batteries have smaller power max. Half a battery is half a charging rate because even with the best cooling system and the physical limits of the battery itself can only collect so much power in one instance. The 300 mile EV is the one that can store enough energy for 150 miles in 15 minutes because it wouldn't need to be fully charged. The 150 mile EV would require a full charge every time and no battery I know of can take full power all the way to 100% SoC without damage or very short lifespan.

The author seems to be confusing the reality of what the EV battery can do right now and some pipe dream in the future with perfect batteries. :lol:
 
Bouldergramp said:
Here is one of over 400 comments on the article:
"I love it when important information is left out so as not to mess up a good agenda.
860 miles averaging 70 mph (hard to do) in a gas vehicle will take 12.3 hours. A gas car will require 2 stops of....15 min.....each, equating to 12.8 hours total."

Important information left out.
A truck driver is limited to 11 hours in a day driving.
A passenger-carrying driver is limited to 10 hours in a day driving. And both need a 30 minute break after 8 hours.

https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-service/summary-hours-service-regulations


With two or more drivers, sure.

With one driver, the more frequent and longer stops are welcome, and NWIH would I drive 850 miles in a day. Even when younger.

Picking an extreme case doesn't lead to good discussions.
 
Thanks for reposting the article. I read it early this morn & commented, but for the most part it is a wasted effort. The author is mostly clueless about charging "300mi takes 1hr charging"? let alone the commenters.
Wsj reporting is generally better on EVs than NYT/WaPo, but it would be hard to be worse.
That said I have a MY and want a used Leaf. 60-90 mi is fine for 99% of my trips & my supermarket has free chargers- 20+ mi rnd trip is free!
 
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