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Of course one might ask if you had both ICE and EV cars in your garage and news of hurricane coming your way how would you prepare and what vehicle would you take to escape?
I'm guessing this scenario played out in Florida and majority took the ICE (both in preparation and actual getaway). But that's just me.
Of course one might ask if you had both ICE and EV cars in your garage and news of hurricane coming your way how would you prepare and what vehicle would you take to escape?
I'm guessing this scenario played out in Florida and majority took the ICE (both in preparation and actual getaway). But that's just me.
I don't have an EV myself, and I don't see myself buying one any time soon. But I'm not a hater, the Teslas are pretty sweet and the charging networks are expanding every year. You can make arguments for or against but my point above was that worries about EVs preventing you from evacuating are unfounded. Evacuations happen over days, if you know where the charging stations are along the road you're not going to be stranded. You can even charge on a 120 volt line if you have to there is time
It's actually not, people had days to evacuate and when the hurricane probability was up to 95% it was still 2 days away (48 hours). 300 miles is more than enough driving for when you need a rest stop, and while you're eating the car can charge
Except you can rarely use the full 300 mile 'range' due to the location of the Superchargers. If you are passing a Supercharger at 190 miles and the the next one would be at 300 mile, you would be foolish to roll the dice that you will reach the battery max 300 miles. Most people will be stopping at 190 miles. ICE vehicles can actually come close to max mileage range due to the large amount of gas stations.
well if you're in the storm with no power it's too late anyways to evacuate. And don't forget you can use your EV as a giant power source if in place and the power goes out. The point is an EV will not get you killed trying to evacuate unless you decide to go very last minute (<12 hours) and you can make it work. Finding gas isn't any easier than finding a plug when everyone is leaving
I was talking about now. After the storm. I was talking about people who evacuated and cannot get home, some are stuck along the road. The gas cars with no gas will likely get home before the electric cars with no electricity. It is simply easier right now to bring more fuel to a gas powered car. However all of them are stuck. No electricity = no gas.
Personally, I have a natural gas generator for the house, and a gasoline powered generators I use to work on things away form the house (right now it is out under the kids fort in the woods). If I had an electric car, I could just charge it at home. Natural gas is rarely disrupted, but even if it is, I could make electricity with gasoline if gasoline was available or if I had stockpiled it. Those small generators are pretty efficient. I can run this one (4.5 kw) for 12 hours on one tankful of gasoline. I do not remember the size of the tank it is one to three gallons. WE always have a handful of 5 gallon canisters of gasoline around. Between lawn mowers, weed wackers, rotor tiller, snow blower, chain saw, generator, cleaning uses and putting a bit in a car because we do not have time or do not feel like gong out to a gas station, we go through them fairly quickly. When we get down to two (10 gallons =+/-) we go fill up some of the empty ones. At any time, I will have about 24 hours of gas for the little generator. Use it sparingly, and that will last quite a while.
What i do not understand is people who bought a bunch of cans of gas have enough to get home and still have a lot left int he back of their car or truck. Why are they not going around giving stuck people a gallon or two? Maybe some are. One guy called into a radio station and said he was on his way home. He had found gas to fill up his car and had 25 gallons in portable tanks in his car that he bough on his way out. When asked what he would do with all that gas, he simply said he would use it up eventually. Meanwhile he was reporting to the radio host about all the cars he was seeing in parking lots and along the roads with people stuck because they had not gas available. What a cad. How can he just drive by without helping when he has 25 gallons with no use for it?
What's the range on that combustion car - you're looking at a 20 gallon tank max, assume 20 mpg, your typical best case range is 400 miles. Not that far off from an EV with a 300 mile range, and most cars have less than 20 gallon tanks and many drive SUVs/trucks with much worse than 20 mpg. Getting a charge wouldn't be anymore difficult than waiting hours in line with the people making a run on gas
Again, hurricane evacuations have long lead times. You have plenty of time and opportunity to both get far and recharge with an EV
Depends on the vehicle. My Expedition SUV has a 31 gallon tank and gets ~16.5 mpg mixed driving. On paper that's a range of 511.5 miles. In reality it typically goes about 470-480 miles on a tank. My Ram 2500 diesel has a 34 gallon tank and gets ~18 mpg. That is 612 miles on paper, but in reality I typically see about 550 miles per tank on the highway.
Bigger vehicles have much bigger tanks than smaller ones. A 2016 Honda Civic for instance has a 12.6 gallon fuel tank but gets 26-31 mpg in the city. It's range is closer to the Tesla (worst case scenario about 327 miles per tank) than a larger vehicle, so that point is really invalid in these circumstances.
You're ignoring the option to already have gas stored in the event that you have to leave later than many evacuees. You still haven't answered how an EV can do the same thing......
You're ignoring the option to already have gas stored in the event that you have to leave later than many evacuees. You still haven't answered how an EV can do the same thing......
An EV cannot do the same thing, my argument is that it doesn't matter because you have tons of lead time to evacuate and that evacuating a hurricane should not be a factor in considering whether or not to buy one
An EV cannot do the same thing, my argument is that it doesn't matter because you have tons of lead time to evacuate and that evacuating a hurricane should not be a factor in considering whether or not to buy one
This is true... but if everyone evacuated when they were supposed to you still run into congestion at stations and the potential to run out of gas/power before everyone can get out. If you want to avoid that, then states would have to evacuate by district giving each time to leave and giving each district access to the facilities. But that isn't currently how it works.
I'm not saying don't buy an EV. I'm saying you need a backup plan and some means of transporting fuel with you if you intend to evacuate at any given time. It doesn't matter if you leave a week early or the day prior. Banking that you will have fuel availability (or charging stations) is dangerous and risky. And it proved so by the people who thought they had time to go and then couldn't recharge/refuel in time.
what does that have to do with civilian use of cars
Great Question...
Topic is Electric Car Useful as Evacuation
Some say yes and many have reservations.
The posts bolster both sides.
If Electric proved useful equal or superior to IC vehicles it only begs the question why government doesn't have a fleets of electrics on standby... instead of all the IC National Guard and now Military pressed into service.
The answer is simple and it is not cost... it is logistics... i.e. refueling in theater and prolonged storage between events.
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