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Tesla reports about 1400 of those superchargers scattered about the US. Tesla even has an app that will route you and tell you where to stop for a recharge. It looks to me like two stops a day -- lunch and afternoon and then an overnight charge. It's about what I do when my dog and I go coast to coast.
Some of the big auto companies are already working on fuel-cell cars, planning to roll them out in the next couple of years. Electric may become a niche market. I have no idea how much better fuel-cells would work in climate extremes, but we'll probably find out in the coming years.
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To make H from some source like water is an exothermic reaction-- you put energy into it to get the H out of it-- more energy than you get when you then burn the H to get energy back out of it again. This only makes some kind of sense when the initial energy source is "clean" itself-- PV, wind, hydro-, or nuclear. The hydro- is the only one of those that makes economic sense, given the current cost of fossil fuels.
Another issue usually ignored in these discussions is the safety factor-- gasoline & kerosene (Diesel) are pretty difficult to get to explode or burn in a crash. Batteries & tanks of gas have particular safety problems in the event of a mishap.
An over-looked power source that may be a viable option for short trip transportation applications is compressed air https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_air_car Someone else brought this up here recently.
Tesla reports about 1400 of those superchargers scattered about the US. Tesla even has an app that will route you and tell you where to stop for a recharge. It looks to me like two stops a day -- lunch and afternoon and then an overnight charge. It's about what I do when my dog and I go coast to coast.
My charging station at home is a level 1, so it takes 5 1/2 hours. But, yes, the level 3 chargers at restaurants are fast. And the software in the vehicles routes you from one charging station to the next.
Sub-- lead me thru this-- I'm a little confused. If I recall, you've said you have a 4kW installation and a hybrid that goes 25 mi on a charge. If I'm doing the arithmetic right, then for a car that weighs 1500 lb and driven 25 mi would require 15 kW-hr of power (ignoring losses of inefficiency). With 4 hrs of good sun, your array would generate 16kW-hr of power/d-- so a single charging of the car would take about 1/7th of your weekly power production....Does that sound about right?
If it is, I'm impressed with your efforts at conservation--average American household uses 30kW-hr /d -NOT counting automotive requirements (!). I'm glad that's working out so well for you.
Sub-- lead me thru this-- I'm a little confused. If I recall, you've said you have a 4kW installation and a hybrid that goes 25 mi on a charge. If I'm doing the arithmetic right, then for a car that weighs 1500 lb and driven 25 mi would require 15 kW-hr of power (ignoring losses of inefficiency). With 4 hrs of good sun, your array would generate 16kW-hr of power/d-- so a single charging of the car would take about 1/7th of your weekly power production....Does that sound about right?
I have no idea.
I do not know how much kilo-watt-hours is needed for a sedan to drive 25 miles. We plug this thing in and it works for us.
I have been able to drive it into town [and back home again] once a day.
I wish the charger plugs were standardized. That is the problem I see right now.
Restaurants that offer a free level 3 re-charge have their charging stations set up to service Teslas and nobody else.
2800mi/300mi = 9-10 charges to get across country; ie- 9.3 charges; 10 x 6 = 60 hrs spent charging-- actual travel time @ 75mph -- 36 hrs; total time 96 hrs = 4 days....Conventional ICE-- same driving time + 8 hrs for sleep = 44 hrs---<2 days.
Long distance just isn't one of the EVs niches.
And that’s when they are new. What about when the Tesla 3 is 5 years old with 60k miles on it? I bet it doesn’t get anywhere near the original 296 mile range at that point.
Just like everything else that’s rechargeable, battery life gets shorter and shorter every time it’s recharged.
I do not know how much kilo-watt-hours is needed for a sedan to drive 25 miles. We plug this thing in and it works for us.
I have been able to drive it into town [and back home again] once a day.
I wish the charger plugs were standardized. That is the problem I see right now.
Restaurants that offer a free level 3 re-charge have their charging stations set up to service Teslas and nobody else.
Something doesn't jive with your story. Hybrid battery packs hold 15- 30 kW-hr of juice. https://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-car-battery/ You generate 16-20kW -hr per day, so it takes a whole day's power production (or more) just to charge your car battery, leaving nothing left over for your household + farm use....Now when you say you go to town once a day, do you mean solely in electric mode, or in hybrid mode where most of the power comes from the ICE? (I'm not arguing with you-- just trying to get a real evaluation of the feasibility of the situation.)
In regards the standardization of plugs, that's one of the inconveniences the industry will surely work out, given some time.
Those "Level 3 Superchargers" with 1/2 hr charge time really cut down on battery life. That's a shortcoming of EVs- the battery replacement costs every 4-7 yrs. That's why re-sale value of EVs is low. A few hundred bucks will cover most repair problems with a 6 y/o conventional vehicle, but a 6 y/o EV will need $4-10,000 for new batteries.
When you find yourself sitting in slooow heavy traffic, look around at the faces of anxious drivers who are late for something and feel the pressure mounting. Then consider how much better things would be if all those cars around you were EV's. Not really much of a consolation eh? This idea of a personal and private cube of steel to motor around in has become a nightmare, and some think there may be an aspect of salvation-- if we just changed the power train. We manged to get ourselves backed into this corner by thinking in car-centric terms, EV or not, the car seems doomed to the American scrap heap of our industrial past.
Something doesn't jive with your story. Hybrid battery packs hold 15- 30 kW-hr of juice. https://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-car-battery/ You generate 16-20kW -hr per day, so it takes a whole day's power production (or more) just to charge your car battery, leaving nothing left over for your household + farm use....Now when you say you go to town once a day, do you mean solely in electric mode, or in hybrid mode where most of the power comes from the ICE? (I'm not arguing with you-- just trying to get a real evaluation of the feasibility of the situation.)
Whenever the vehicle drive battery gets low, it automatically shifts to ICE. I can usually get to town and home again on battery.
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... Those "Level 3 Superchargers" with 1/2 hr charge time really cut down on battery life. That's a shortcoming of EVs- the battery replacement costs every 4-7 yrs. That's why re-sale value of EVs is low. A few hundred bucks will cover most repair problems with a 6 y/o conventional vehicle, but a 6 y/o EV will need $4-10,000 for new batteries.
People were saying this back when I bought my first hybrid.
In reality drive batteries can be replaced for $3500.
I was originally thinking that I would sell our hybrid when it was approaching 100,000 miles. I spoke with the service manager at our nearest dealership. He says that he routinely sees these vehicles exceeding 300,000 miles on their first drive battery. What I really wanted to know is whether the codes they read from my drive battery can give us some indication to the health of the drive battery. But until the cells begin to actually fail, there are no codes. I am at 165,000 miles and so far there are no fault codes.
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