pnichols wrote:
So.... sitting on a highway in a dead-stop traffic holdup during a cold rainstorm (storm damage to the road) for 3 hours with the windshield wipers going, the headlights on, and the heater going ... would consume about how much of the average EV's battery capacity? This happened to one of our family members a few days ago a few miles from us.
Can EV's make it in these kinds of situations .... and in far worse scenarios in many areas of the U.S. and the world? How about use of energy-hog air conditioning hour after hour in high temperatures? Also, gas can be carried in a container to a stranded vehicle to get it going when out of fuel. What's the EV equivalent of this emergency help (other than the EV's driver sitting stranded in the sun a long time with a roll-out solar panel or sitting in the sun a long time with their vehicle's entire exterior surface being a solar cell)?
Can current EV technology and patched together refueling arrangements get some of us by, some of the time, in some places, good enough, given no unpredictable situations ... for short-trip personal transportation - yes. But IMHO EV's and the infrastructure to manufacture and support them for general use worldwide are a long way from being ready for prime time. Electrical storage technology will continue to be the limiting factor - Tesla's upcoming huge (lithium?) battery manufacturing plant notwithstanding.
Does anyone know what electrical storage technology (theoretical or in lab prototypes) can match diesel's energy storage capacity per unit volume? Also most folks probably gas up in about 10 minutes - this will be tough to match in an EV.
Howdy again. Ooh boy. All very good questions that all of us EV drivers have had to ask ourselves. OK. Here we go...and remember I am not an expert.
So first scenario, stuck in traffic etc. Kinda depends on the vehicle. In our little smart it will eat up more of the battery as it uses straight electric heat. Wipers and so forth not much of a load on an 18 kw battery. But the heat yes. Three hours??? I think I would be using my heat sparingly and then using my app to find a fast charger once I was out of the situation. It doesn't take much to keep a cab warm at zero degrees Celsius and remember the traction motor is the big draw. So yah an issue in the present inexpensive small commuters, spark, smart etc.
However many EV's (like our leaf) use a heat pump vice a resistance heater so assuming it isn't minus 20 it probably wouldn't be a problem. As the batteries get bigger, (Bolt, Tesla etc) really not an issue. If the car is not moving it doesn't use much power. I have sat in the car for an hour and a half and waited for someone with the AC on without losing a ton of range, or at least not enough to become a crisis.
Re stranding, can of gas etc. Although the manufacturers provide within their service plans a certain amount of completely depleted battery situations, meaning free tows, the general approach in most locations now is to tow the stranded car to a fast charge location and send the driver on the way. However California is already beginning to deploy recovery trucks that essentially have a DCFC (DC fast charge) station on the truck. 10 or 20 minutes later the stranded motorist is charged and on their way with no tow. This will become more main stream over the next decade.
I think your right in that the infrastructure has a way to go but within the next decade it will be a lot further than it is now. It is moving considerably faster in Europe than here though. For example, in Europe there are already over 4000 DCFC (non Tesla). There are about half that in North America. Having said that, some states and provinces are getting quite aggressive in their installation plans and in the next year there will be a lot more DCFC's on the continent. However, there are literally thousands of level II chargers across the continent, but of course usually in urban shopping areas. Great for leaving and shopping, not so much for long distance trips. Level 2 chargers usually take 2 to 4 hours to charge battery depending on the cars charging capacity. Level 1 and Level 2 depend on the cars charger to charge the battery. Typical sized on board chargers are 6.6 to 10 KW chargers. Level 3 chargers are DC chargers also known as Direct current fast chargers or DCFC. A typical charge rate would be 50 to 125 KWH depending on the cars design. For example, our Leaf charges at 50KWH on a DCFC. A Tesla is about twice as fast.
And to your last question re the fill up time of a gas vehicle in 10 minutes. So this is where we found we had to change our thinking a bit. So a typical charge at a DCFC is 20 to 25 minutes. This is no problem for us as we like a break every hour and a half or two hours. Time for quick coffee or walk the dog or whatever. DCFC charges the battery to 80 percent in about 30 minutes but normally you don't arrive at a DCFC with an empty battery so... The TESLA bunch have their TESLA superchargers but are able to use the DCFC network. It doesn't work the other way...eg we can not use the Supercharger network. The networks are closing gaps fast and businesses are starting to see the value of a Fast Charger at their business. By the way, they always cite 80 percent charge times because the speed of the charge starts to drop off after 80 percent.
You do things a little different when you own an EV. Remember, 90 percent of your charging will be in your garage at night. Depending on your commute you will plug in a couple times a week in the garage and you will unplug in the morning. Sometimes you will forget and your wife will remind you in no uncertain terms that you forgot to plug her car in. Just sayin....
Does this help? Let me know if I didn't explain anything well and I'll give it another shot. I am an EV enthusiast so certainly don't mind answering questions.
Cheers.
