Charging Impracticality as explores by the NYTimes
 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/b...e=sectionfront

It’s about what I’d expect. Maybe better than I expected.

Things just aren’t there yet.

That written, 540miles is a rare trip for 95% of people.

That article is hot fucking bullshit.

But a Tesla. Problem solved.

To elaborate:

Adoption of EVs has not been “held back” by Tesla’s decision to adopt a proprietary charging standard and build its own infrastructure. It’s been massively accelerated by that decision.

The problems with Tesla charging are, in my experience, *massively* overstated.

I’ve now owned an EV for nearly six years. Have there been times where I’ve decided to drive my ICE car on a trip because of charging concerns? Yes. Two.

There have also been numerous occasions where I’ve decided to take my EV on a trip because of its advantages over ICE cars. Take last week, for example—the Tesla fit 5 ppl and luggage. The BMW wouldn’t have.

Also, driving the BMW the last couple of weeks really underlined for me just how primitive ICE cars feel after you’ve gotten used to EVs. It’s fun, in an “I make my own artisanal cocktails” kind of way, but in day to day driving it’s more work to go slower. And I have to get gas, which sucks.

I honestly don’t understand why the NYT hates Tesla as much as they do, but that article is another in a long line of articles that just seem aimed at accentuating the negative and completely ignoring the positives. I don’t get it.

I dozed off somewhere in the middle while they were still talking about a Bolt. Did they make any coherent and/or relevant points later in the article?

:lol: :lol: :lol:

And agree.

Regarding longer trips, there have only been a handful of them but when they come up, the gf and I have both voted to take the Tesla every time.

As soon as one of you Teslapologists move into an apartment without home access to a charger and keep singing the Gospel of Musk, I might start believing there could be a little objectivity in your praises.

Attachment 12406I’ll just leave you with a photo I took in Lisbon last week... this was a bank of 3 chargers (each with 2 outlets) on a city street. You don’t have to charge at home...

Just skimmed the article. As someone who has driven electric for approaching 100k miles over 6 years (including close to 20k miles on road trips stretching from coast to coast and from the Mexican border and into Canada), that article is just BS.

Mentioned a Tesla owner was “lucky” to arrive at a Supercharger with a single open stall. That’s BS. I’ve supercharged nearly 200 times in 6 years. I’ve waited for a Supercharger twice, both on the same day in 2014. It was right after the Tesla club weekend event with over 200 owners and was at the 2 nearest Superchargers to that event... Tesla has very high usage Superchargers, particularly in CA, but they have also built additional capacity to help out. And since they now charge (“free” was a mistake), you don’t hear the horror stories as much.

For other EVs, the charging networks are years behind Tesla. VW’s Electrify America is building out and helping to allow road trips. One of their sites is close to my hours - and i5 looks finished, but has not been powered on (work completed about 3 months ago...). As these come online, it will make other brands of EV feasible for road trips (assuming they have range over 200 miles)...

Clyde, the article mentions that, as it works through its litany of any EV talking points.

That’s a valid concern. I’m happy to acknowledge it. There are some use cases for which EVs are still problematic—and there is a lot of work to be done in encouraging landlords and HOAs and others to build out and allow more EV infrastructure.

If that had been the point of the article, cool. But instead, the NYT decided to reinforce all of the old tropes against EVs. They didn’t mention the market leading EV until about halfway through (despite the fact that the market leading EV solves many of the problems they fixated on), and then they did so in the context of emphasizing how much the market leading EV also sucks.

I’ve generally resisted believing that the NYT has an anti-EV (and, in particular, anti-Tesla) bias, but their coverage is pretty hard to defend.

And getting gas is super annoying. You don’t realize how irritating it is until you don’t have to do it.

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/06/22...n-up-the-mess/

This is biased the other way, but contains much more useful data than the NYT article.