Not necessarily. You must have those fast chargers conveniently placed on your route. I can't even imagine going to Vegas from LA with an electric car currently.
You must have gas stations conveniently placed on your route. I can't even imagine going to Vegas from LA without a horse and buggy currently
The last part felt a little mean-spirited in retrospect. But my intention was to point out that you're just describing a lack of infrastructure yet
Once we build this stuff it's *there for use* and just has the usual burdens of maintenance. Arguably less since we don't need to transport big trucks full of oil to it regularly
LA to Vegas is about 270 miles, which is under the 333 mile estimated range of a Tesla Model 3.
I'm sure under normal conditions, 270 miles would be cutting it pretty close, if it even makes it there at all. Luckily there are 10 supercharges along the way.
Not sure how it is for non-teslas, but I'm guessing at least a few of those places with superchargers also have chargers that will work with other kinds of cars.
Think about what that means as to a practical limit, today. How many cars per day can make that trip assuming they have to recharge once along the way? It’s far from a solved problem even on that route.
I love electric cars. I’ve been drawing pictures of them thinking about them and waiting for them for a long time. And, I am very grateful for those that made them a reality. That said, I’m also pragmatic. Where we are today versus where we need to be to make them practical for a large portion of the population is sublime.
Each Tesla charging station has anywhere between 10 and 30 ports, so you can charge around 200 cars at the same time, let's say each takes 30 minutes(rather on the high side, 15-20 is more likely) and we have 10 active drive hours.
That makes around 4k can be charged on route, more realistic it's above 10k already.. and that's only Tesla.
Growing pains happen, but I drove my M3 across EU multiple times.. and needed to wait for a charger once, for 3 minutes.
Where exactly is this peak on a 3-4 hour drive where everyone starts with different percentages/takes break at different point in time and software optimizes to avoid overloaded stations automatically?
There are not so many and the chances of them working are a coin flip.
Driving through the desert on an open road is not conducive to efficiency. It’s hot, need AC blasting. It’s an open road—drive fast! (Or it’s bumper to bumper for 10 hours).
Exactly. But if two ten minute stops in Barstow and Baker was all it took to make it possible with a cheaper electric car, a lot more people would consider it. Anyway you'll need to stop for a piss.
As another commenter pointed out, LA to LV is actually doable with a number of current on sale EVs, with a decent size range buffer left behind after the trip. Furthermore, there are several fast chargers on the route in Hesperia, Barstow and Baker.
I did a whole trip from SF, national parks, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, LA, and back to SF in an electric car (Tesla Model Y). This was ~3 weeks ago.
The last part felt a little mean-spirited in retrospect. But my intention was to point out that you're just describing a lack of infrastructure yet
Once we build this stuff it's *there for use* and just has the usual burdens of maintenance. Arguably less since we don't need to transport big trucks full of oil to it regularly