I charge my car off of a regular outlet outside in a very cold climate, and charging like that will actually likely make the battery last quite a while. The only way to find out for sure is to wait, but it has been 4 years and the battery hasn’t lost any capacity. My car also has a 320 km range, so even in your scenario, if you charged 50km away and came home, you’d still have 270km of range.
I think you may have given too much weight to FUD about EVs from companies that would like to see them fail. I’ve seen a lot of concerns posted online that just don’t practically matter, once you actually try it. There’s also some really nice minor things about owning an EV, like not having to breathe in toxic fumes when walking around the car. Especially nice if you have kids that are right at the level of the tailpipe.
It is also fine to wait a bit, of course. In my area chargers are springing up in lots of places, and I think we’re not far off from a tipping point away from ICE cars, which will spread even to rural areas pretty quickly when gas stations start becoming unprofitable.
Good to hear. I fully expect our next car to be electric. Funny enough, the only gas station in my town just announced it was closing this year (the tanks are outdated and the company isn’t replacing them). Perhaps I made the wrong decision buying another ICE vehicle. Won’t be the first time I was wrong.
Good news! I’ve got information relevant to you. I grew up in a locale that would drop below 0F for most of the winter. It was NORMAL to get an oil heater and plug it into your 110v 15amp outlet outside.
Well with EV’s you get that same cable, and plug it in and it accomplishes basically the same goal but for the battery instead of the oil.
Even better it trickles “fuel” into your “tank” over night.
Or if you splash out dolla bills, you can get a dryer plug installed (240v 50amp) which fully charges your EV in a couple hours and keeps it nice and warm all night.
Everything else is the same, you put snow tires on it, drive to the slopes, skii all day, drive home…one difference though, its heat is available within seconds unlike my old car which took 10+ minutes in subzero temps to heat up and blow warm air. Heck, my EV has heated wiper fluid. That’s pretty cool.
oh… and here’s some extra cool parts… if you do the Airbnb thing somwhere, your “fuel” is included. Just plug it in to their 110v outside outlet. When driving back down the slopes, you know what it does? It CHARGES THE CAR! You get free “fuel”, just for driving back down the hill.
In all seriousness, a couple road trips with mine, in both 100+F and below 32F, I found out that all of those things don’t matter. Yes winter tires wreck the efficiency, yes cold wrecks the efficiency, but it’s still well over 200+ miles. All the extra convenience is so nice, that you really don’t want to go back.
One example, I drove the same route to the beach at different times, one in the winter, I got there with 31% battery remaining. The same trip in the summer I had 55% batter remaining. So, like 1/3rd a tank of gas left, or half a tank of gas. Both are FIIIIINE. Know what I didn’t do? Go to the gas station. I just plugged it in to the slow ass 110 wall outlet since… I’m at the beach for the weekend, in an airbnb… I don’t know how long it took, because it was charged when I was ready to leave. Honestly, how do people not see how convenient this is?
Battery life is pretty widely available for Tesla’s at least since they’ve been around for over a decade now. And like any car, it depends on how the owner drove it and maintained it. Some last forever, some are trash within years.
I don’t use a block heater. I don’t have a heated driveway. I don’t have heaters on my eaves. I don’t heat a bird bath. I don’t have exterior flood lights. If I can help it I don’t run heaters outside where I am not. I said in the OP I don’t like the thought of throwing electricity into the wind.
If you don’t live where you aren’t using a block heater, you don’t get cold enough to worry about ev usage. But also, plugging an ev in over night is generally how you’ll charge it. Unless you live in an apartment complex that can’t do that. So you’re not “throwing electricity into the wind”
Most new EV models allow you to set a “leave time” for when your car needs to be fully charged, with a warm battery and a pre-heated cabin. For example, Tesla owners have the ability to “precondition” their car, which entails setting a time via the Tesla app for their car to pre-heat.
Many people pre-heat standard engine cars in the winter, setting an app isn’t really that much different and arguably more convenient.
It’s a stupid argument to be so concerned over power being used when ICE are ridiculously wasteful. In a standard 50L tank 30 liters literally goes to doing nothing other than getting hot. If your EV is pulling 60% of the total energy bill to keep the battery warm you have other issues that need looking at.
Just out of curiosity are you clutching your pearls over the clock drawing power while your car is parked too?
The closest chargers are at least 50 km away in other towns
Most people would never use a charger only 50km to their homes, since they charge it overnight at home. Most EV owners only use public chargers a handful of times a year, actually.
Because you plugged it home every night prior. Even on a normal outlet, 10 hours of charging can give you 40 miles (about 65km) per day. That’s over 14,000 miles (22,500km) per year. And I’d hazard a guess that most people are usually home more than 10 hours a day, especially on the weekends. And that’s for a barebones level 1 setup. When you go into the world of 240 volts you at least double your power, and can easily go from 0-100 in 6 hours or less with a fairly common 40A setup.
I would like to buy an electric car but I will not because;
I charge my car off of a regular outlet outside in a very cold climate, and charging like that will actually likely make the battery last quite a while. The only way to find out for sure is to wait, but it has been 4 years and the battery hasn’t lost any capacity. My car also has a 320 km range, so even in your scenario, if you charged 50km away and came home, you’d still have 270km of range.
I think you may have given too much weight to FUD about EVs from companies that would like to see them fail. I’ve seen a lot of concerns posted online that just don’t practically matter, once you actually try it. There’s also some really nice minor things about owning an EV, like not having to breathe in toxic fumes when walking around the car. Especially nice if you have kids that are right at the level of the tailpipe.
It is also fine to wait a bit, of course. In my area chargers are springing up in lots of places, and I think we’re not far off from a tipping point away from ICE cars, which will spread even to rural areas pretty quickly when gas stations start becoming unprofitable.
Good to hear. I fully expect our next car to be electric. Funny enough, the only gas station in my town just announced it was closing this year (the tanks are outdated and the company isn’t replacing them). Perhaps I made the wrong decision buying another ICE vehicle. Won’t be the first time I was wrong.
Good news! I’ve got information relevant to you. I grew up in a locale that would drop below 0F for most of the winter. It was NORMAL to get an oil heater and plug it into your 110v 15amp outlet outside.
Well with EV’s you get that same cable, and plug it in and it accomplishes basically the same goal but for the battery instead of the oil. Even better it trickles “fuel” into your “tank” over night.
Or if you splash out dolla bills, you can get a dryer plug installed (240v 50amp) which fully charges your EV in a couple hours and keeps it nice and warm all night.
Everything else is the same, you put snow tires on it, drive to the slopes, skii all day, drive home…one difference though, its heat is available within seconds unlike my old car which took 10+ minutes in subzero temps to heat up and blow warm air. Heck, my EV has heated wiper fluid. That’s pretty cool.
oh… and here’s some extra cool parts… if you do the Airbnb thing somwhere, your “fuel” is included. Just plug it in to their 110v outside outlet. When driving back down the slopes, you know what it does? It CHARGES THE CAR! You get free “fuel”, just for driving back down the hill.
In all seriousness, a couple road trips with mine, in both 100+F and below 32F, I found out that all of those things don’t matter. Yes winter tires wreck the efficiency, yes cold wrecks the efficiency, but it’s still well over 200+ miles. All the extra convenience is so nice, that you really don’t want to go back.
One example, I drove the same route to the beach at different times, one in the winter, I got there with 31% battery remaining. The same trip in the summer I had 55% batter remaining. So, like 1/3rd a tank of gas left, or half a tank of gas. Both are FIIIIINE. Know what I didn’t do? Go to the gas station. I just plugged it in to the slow ass 110 wall outlet since… I’m at the beach for the weekend, in an airbnb… I don’t know how long it took, because it was charged when I was ready to leave. Honestly, how do people not see how convenient this is?
Battery life is pretty widely available for Tesla’s at least since they’ve been around for over a decade now. And like any car, it depends on how the owner drove it and maintained it. Some last forever, some are trash within years.
It’s not a oil heater, it’s a block heater, it heats the prestone.
I had one that went in the oil dipstick slot.
Block heaters are a thing for decades and no one worries about needing to keep the oil warm. Don’t see how warming a battery is any different.
I don’t use a block heater. I don’t have a heated driveway. I don’t have heaters on my eaves. I don’t heat a bird bath. I don’t have exterior flood lights. If I can help it I don’t run heaters outside where I am not. I said in the OP I don’t like the thought of throwing electricity into the wind.
If you don’t live where you aren’t using a block heater, you don’t get cold enough to worry about ev usage. But also, plugging an ev in over night is generally how you’ll charge it. Unless you live in an apartment complex that can’t do that. So you’re not “throwing electricity into the wind”
If you don’t have a block heater you don’t live someplace cold, just chilly. Either way it’s no reason to not get an EV.
EVs charging in the cold will heat their battery. It’s a big power draw and it is quite reasonable to not want to waste money and energy like that.
Yea you can just pay to heat the air in a internal combustion engine where 60% of the energy goes to making heat instead.
What is even your point?
But my ICE doesn’t consume energy when I’m not using it. I try to structure my life to drive as little as possible. My car sits more than it moves.
Most new EV models allow you to set a “leave time” for when your car needs to be fully charged, with a warm battery and a pre-heated cabin. For example, Tesla owners have the ability to “precondition” their car, which entails setting a time via the Tesla app for their car to pre-heat.
Many people pre-heat standard engine cars in the winter, setting an app isn’t really that much different and arguably more convenient.
It’s a stupid argument to be so concerned over power being used when ICE are ridiculously wasteful. In a standard 50L tank 30 liters literally goes to doing nothing other than getting hot. If your EV is pulling 60% of the total energy bill to keep the battery warm you have other issues that need looking at.
Just out of curiosity are you clutching your pearls over the clock drawing power while your car is parked too?
Most people would never use a charger only 50km to their homes, since they charge it overnight at home. Most EV owners only use public chargers a handful of times a year, actually.
How will it be fully charged at home in the morning if the last time I charged it was a minimum of 50kms away?
Because you plugged it home every night prior. Even on a normal outlet, 10 hours of charging can give you 40 miles (about 65km) per day. That’s over 14,000 miles (22,500km) per year. And I’d hazard a guess that most people are usually home more than 10 hours a day, especially on the weekends. And that’s for a barebones level 1 setup. When you go into the world of 240 volts you at least double your power, and can easily go from 0-100 in 6 hours or less with a fairly common 40A setup.
So why would you need a charger nearby?
Dude edited his comment. I was replying to a nonsensical reply he made that he resensed later.
deleted by creator