[speeder]

I am in Portugal right now. You know something we don’t have often here? Garages.

For example in my neighborhood most cars are parallel parked, people are living in centuries old houses converted into high density condos, there are no garages.

So what is more practical, charging your car overnight without an electric plug or going to the gas station for a few minutes?

[gambiting]

>>So what is more practical, charging your car overnight without an electric plug or going to the gas station for a few minutes?

100x charging your car overnight with a plug. I don't think people who don't own an EV realize how great that is. Imagine if your petrol car magically got refilled with fuel every single night - add up all of those "few minutes" spent at a petrol station over your lifetime, and realize how much time you're getting back.

>> people are living in centuries old houses converted into high density condos, there are no garages

And yeah, that's a problem everywhere, not just in Portugal. Here in the UK a lot of people wouldn't have anywhere to charge at home.

[NetMageSCW]

Please don’t repeat the myth that your car is getting refilled every very night unless you are charging to 100% every night or are willing to concede your range is 80% of the stated range.

[sehansen]

If your daily driving needs can be fulfilled with 80% charge, you're coming out to a car that is effectively full every morning. Remember you still have the option to charge to 100% if you know you need to go longer the following day.

[gambiting]

I do recharge to 100% every night - is that unusual in any way?

[WorldMaker]

Between batteries getting bigger and home charging for many reasons capping at Level 2 (US "dryer plug" / UK regular plug) many EVs don't have enough time to recharge to 100% every night. That said, any over night gains are still better than gas can do.

(The unique US problem that the easiest charging is Level 1 is a complication here, too, because it especially can't recharge modern battery sizes overnight. But overnight Level 1 charging is still a game changer versus no overnight gas refueling. The "what's the point of charging when it can't do 100% overnight?" crowd can be quite vocal, despite gas cars having no easy way to refuel overnight.)

[jasoncartwright]

You use kerbside charging. Unlike petrol, electricity comes to you.

[rcxdude]

This is how it needs to work, but in practice it doesn't really exist right now. (And, in the few places where it does exist, the price basically destroys a lot of the running costs advantages of an EV).

[jasoncartwright]

I've been charging from lampposts and other street chargers for 11 years now

[muzani]

I do have a garage and 'fuel' is half the cost of my previous, smaller ICE. We're considering solar power to get it practically free.

There's some nicer differences like leaving the air-conditioning on constantly because there's no pollution and it's also practically free. It's nice to have a giant battery instead of requiring an engine to constantly recharge it to run the electronics.

[coderenegade]

That's cost, not practicality. Like it or not, the EV isn't as flexible when it comes to ownership, because you need a place to charge it. A product that is less practical has to be cheaper to compete in the market.

[gambiting]

>>A product that is less practical has to be cheaper to compete in the market.

Unless the downside doesn't matter to you, then obviously it doesn't. Our e-Up was more expensive than a regular petrol Up, but it was absolutely worth paying the extra for the convenience of being able to charge it at home - it's like having your own personal petrol station in your own driveway.

For someone else, that might have been an inconvenience and the car would have to be much cheaper to offset the hassle - for us it was worth the premium. So it's not so clear cut as you present it.

[jyounker]

Depends completely on the EV and usage patterns. Here's one of the more interesting points in the design space: https://silence-mobility.nissan.de/

[tirant]

With batteries reaching 800-1000km per charge and most people doing around 30km a day of driving (way less for people living in dense areas), you basically only need to charge your car once every two weeks.