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That's not to say it will not improve, and I hope it does. But as the discussion has now turned, in today's time the EV isn't as dependable for evacuation purposes as a gas burning vehicle. Even if you manage to leave early enough to make it out, what's to say you can come back if your city and cities along the way home are without power for weeks at a time? You may get half way home and be stranded.
Again, the question was whether anyone was able to get out with their Tesla. The answer is yes. People do not make purchases based upon a rare dooms day scenario. If the Tesla owner is in South Carolina and there is no power there either, our problems are far bigger than the kind of car one owns.
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.
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......
An Ice does it's best at highway speeds. It's going to get better MPG doing 60 than in stop and go traffic doing 15. The electric car is the opposite. It's going to do it's best at slow, stop and go speeds. It's going to be constantly regenerating energy by the constant breaking.
In slow stop and go scenario's a Tesla is going to beat it's average. An ICE is not. I can go far further putting around town than traveling on the interstate. Being as mine is a plug in/Hybrid, I actually turn my electric off after 45 mph.
An Ice does it's best at highway speeds. It's going to get better MPG doing 60 than in stop and go traffic doing 15. The electric car is the opposite. It's going to do it's best at slow, stop and go speeds. It's going to be constantly regenerating energy by the constant breaking.
In slow stop and go scenario's a Tesla is going to beat it's average. An ICE is not. I can go far further putting around town than traveling on the interstate. Being as mine is a plug in/Hybrid, I actually turn my electric off after 45 mph.
Until your battery runs out. But you have an extra battery in the trunk right?
Everyone keeps ignoring the ease of carrying extra fuel with you. Not so with electric. If your ICE has a range of 400 miles you can easily double that with a quick trip to Walmart and gas station.
Until your battery runs out. But you have an extra battery in the trunk right?
Everyone keeps ignoring the ease of carrying extra fuel with you. Not so with electric. If your ICE has a range of 400 miles you can easily double that with a quick trip to Walmart and gas station.
Then by that regard we cannot assume that an EV will maintain enough energy from braking during stop and go traffic in an evacuation to sustain any real benefit. While it is true that an EV doesn't use much power during a stop, it does still have a slow drain on it from instrumentation and the on board electronics. They all produce a drain.
The ideal situation is one where the end range of the vehicle (or it's capability to extend the range without relying on outside sources for replenishment... I.E. gas station or charging station) is enough to get you out of harms way. There is only one way to do that right now. Bringing additional fuel with you.
Let's look at options available to extend the range of the vehicle outside of charging stations or gas cans. (This is a potential scenario) It's quite possible to add an additional fuel cell to a vehicle to extend their range without the need of gas cans today. My previous F-250 had a total fuel capacity of 71 gallons of diesel. A 31 gallon main tank, with a 40 gallon auxiliary tank in the bed with an electronic monitoring system that refilled the main tank when it dropped below a preset limit. (Before anyone says this is un-affordable, the total cost was <$1,800) The total range of the truck when both tanks were full was a smidge over 1,200 miles. No stops, no refills. Are there options such as these available for an EV? No, because it would require a battery the size of a 53' truck. You could (and I have) make it out of harm's way and back on the same tank and have fuel to get around in town until power is restored.
And again I never said that people shouldn't own an EV. I pointed out that it may not be the most ideal vehicle to attempt an evacuation in due to it's obvious limitations with requiring a recharge that is only available from electricity. The assumption is made that there will be electricity available. You have more flexibility with a gas burner at the present moment.
EV's are cool and I don't deny that at all. Some people likely made it out in them. But those people are now limited to when they can return home because they have to ensure 100% that there will be functional charging stations along the way home. That is easily remedied with a gas vehicle by simply bringing a few cans of gas back with you in the event that you need to stop on the side of the road and re-fuel.
Then by that regard we cannot assume that an EV will maintain enough energy from braking during stop and go traffic in an evacuation to sustain any real benefit. While it is true that an EV doesn't use much power during a stop, it does still have a slow drain on it from instrumentation and the on board electronics. They all produce a drain.
The ideal situation is one where the end range of the vehicle (or it's capability to extend the range without relying on outside sources for replenishment... I.E. gas station or charging station) is enough to get you out of harms way. There is only one way to do that right now. Bringing additional fuel with you.
And yet, people did do it. It's odd how so many are able to completely miss this despite claiming otherwise.
No, just real life situations. One can easily extend range of an ICE ($10 can filled with gasoline).
Real life is people did leave in the EV's and made it out. Not theory, but fact.
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