Large Tesla Battery

pnichols wrote:

John & Angela wrote:
....and when an electric car can go 500 miles at one shot and then be filled up in 5 minutes then they will buy one...

Well ... there is another catagory of folks. ;)

I'm not hungup at all on "gas powered" personal vehicles. What I am a fan of are personal vehicles that:

1. Have a range of 400 miles on up (and way longer for RV vehicles).

2. Can be refueled everywhere in a maximum of around 15 minutes at stations with several refueling points so you don't have to wait to get at one.

3. Allow you to sit at a fast food restaurant's parking lot eating in your vehicle for 20 minutes with the air conditioning running in scorching weather when you don't feel dressed up enough or have joints well enough to want to sit inside on hard chairs around adults and kids.

4. Do the same as above in freezing weather.

5. Have a butter-smooth, well controlled ride like the large sedan we have that is at the same time versatile enough for both daily errands and long non-RV road trips.

6. Allow you to sit for hours in unexpected traffic jams with either the heat on or the air conditioning on while still having plenty of travel range left after the jam clears.

7. Can carry two or more people in the rear seats with gobbs of foot room for them, while still having a cavernous truck for 4 or more passengers' stuff.

8. Can, on an emergency basis, get quickly refueled along the road using a compact refueling source ("gas can") carried in the trunk.

9. Aren't likely to require - if one wants to keep their's for 20 years - finding and affording a large and maybe specific type of battery in a particular form factor.

General purpose electric vehicles that meet at least the requirements above are the Name of the Game before I would "go electric" for even our daily driver. Thank goodness for more and more early adopters - if that's what it's going to take to properly replace what we have available today in good-old gas fueled personal vehicles.

Yes, and its all about choices that everybody should be able to make and I certainly respect your right to choose what is right for you.
. but just a few misconceptions you may have.

I can sit in our car not just for 20 minutes but for days (exagerating a bit as no one would do that) ) with the AC on with no wear and tear on the car. We routinely leave the AC on when we are away from the car so it is cool when we get back in plus 37 weather when we have a certain person travelling with us that has some health issues. The heat pump doesn't use much power. If I get stuck in a traffic Jam in hot or cold weather I want to be in an electric vehicle. And I can preheat it or cool it in my garage with no exhaust...and while its still plugged in...and I can turn on the climate control from an app on my phone. Handy in the mall parking lot. I have waited for Angela when she was at appointments for an hour or two at a time. I just get some work done in the car while I am waiting. AC on keeping it a nice 22 degrees inside until she gets back. No worries.

We only have a short to medium range vehicle (180 KM or so) but even on longer trips it hasn't changed our travel time that much. We tend to stop every couple hours anyway (the chihuahua and my bladder) so a 20 minute stop at a fast charger doesn't change our trip length too much on a 500 KM trip (about as far as we ever go).

Our vehicle is comfortable for four adults and a chihuahua with room in the trunk for a suitcase for each. We do it every time we go to the airport.

CAA vehicles are already being adapted to provide 5 to 7 KW emergency charges for those who "run out of juice" Already on the road in California.

But yah that 400 mile (600 km) is not around yet...or at least in anything I can afford. 240 miles is though. Tesla model 3 which starts production this month. Technically so is the bolt but I don't like it and feels cramped. The tesla three looks nice though. Teslas also have more storage because they have two trunks...well technically a trunk and a Frunk (front trunk). Ant they will out accelerate and out handle anything in their gas counterparts. But yah, you will need to plan on taking a 30 to 40 minute brake at a supercharge or Chademo station every few hours. Not a problem for us but yah I get that not everybody wants to do that. Its just a matter of wether the lower operating costs are worth it to you or not. We won't be buying one anytime soon as we don't need that kind of range.



This is a non Tesla charge station. In our experience most have less chargers than this.



Kinda like this.



Here is the Tesla version



Or this one



Many of the fast chargers in our area are singles like this. Here is Angela filling up her Leaf in the little town of Salmon Arm. ONe one of our favourite sunday drives.