[danudey]

How long does it actually take you to charge? I'm picturing the gas stations around here and even with a supercharger I'm not sure I'd want to just sit at a gas station for 15 minutes, even if there was room on these small-footprint locations to park several cars for an indefinite amount of time.

I don't have any better ideas, mind you; maybe small local parks should have to have charging infra if they have parking spots. Great place for the family to just get out of the car and stretch their legs for a while.

[rpgwaiter]

Waiting 15 mins at a gas station during a road trip isn't bad. You probably have to go in and use the restroom and grab snacks anyways. Usually by the time I'm done with that, the car is ready to make it to the next charger

[gnicholas]

I see people write stuff like this, and it doesn't resonate with my experience at all. My understanding is that 20 mins is the minimum for a 10-80% charge, and that's assuming that your vehicle can charge very quickly, and that you got lucky and found an available charger that supports very fast charging.

Second, a 20-minute stop is much longer than pit stops I make. It takes 3 minutes to fill my gas tank, and then I can go for another 400 miles. I might add another 4 minutes to use the bathroom, but I never stick around for 20 minutes.

I can imagine in the future there might be plentiful supply of super-fast chargers that can add 400 miles in 5-10 minutes. But today, the much more common experience is to add 250 miles in 20-30 minutes, which is a far, far slower rate. Until things change, EV advocates aren't helping their cause by claiming that charging doesn't take much longer than pumping gas. You might be correct that "by the time I'm done with that, the car is ready to make it to the next charger", but who wants to stop at every charger? I don't gas up my car enough to make it to the next gas station — I fill up the tank so I can make it to my destination.

For the record, I own a PHEV and like it. But I don't have an full EV because it introduces too much uncertainty for road trips, and because electricity is subject to outages where I live (norcal).

[matthewdgreen]

> Second, a 20-minute stop is much longer than pit stops I make. It takes 3 minutes to fill my gas tank, and then I can go for another 400 miles.

Don't do this. It's extremely bad for your health, and it also results in degraded and more dangerous driving quality. The worst thing is you probably don't realize it. Unless you're a professional driver, you should take a break every 2-3 hours for at least 15 minutes (which is coincidentally about what charging requires.)

[rpgwaiter]

This only applies to the supercharger network, but they are so common that I don't go from 10-80. It's usually more like 20%-60%, which is 15 mins or under for me usually. I can make it to the next charger with ~20% and repeat the process

Besides, chargers are usually really far from the actual building so you gotta add another couple mins just walking to/from your car :)

[gnicholas]

So you’re stopping every how many miles? 40% of 300, so 120? Seems like that adds a significant amount of travel time, roughly 1/4 hour for every 2 hours traveled.

[tills13]

Maybe I'm just coping, but I personally see this as a feature rather than an issue. Sitting for long periods of time is not healthy. Getting up for 10-15 minutes every two hours is _good_ for my mind and my body.

[gnicholas]

I would agree in general, but on the infrequent occasion when I'm doing a road trip, it's more important to reduce travel time and avoid traffic backups that result from extended travel time. Most of my trips are from norcal to socal, so avoiding morning/evening rush hour on both ends is the name of the game, at least for me.

[bryanlarsen]

The first stretch after every sleep is from 100 to 10, and a stop for food can easily put on 80%.

[ThunderSizzle]

It seems to me the status quo (the energy density of fuel) is far beyond anything EVs can do and is the better idea right now.

If we need to offer more efficiency beyond that, improving rail transportation is probably more realistic than EV infrastructure.