logoalt Hacker News

Grombobulousyesterday at 10:29 PM1 replyview on HN

Not really.

The average person in America drives about 37 miles a day.

EVs gain about 3-5 miles per hour on a household 120V charger.

You sleep for about 8 hours and are probably home away from work and errands for an about 12 hours.

Do the math: 3 miles per hour for 12 hours is 36 miles.

And even if you don’t keep up with your pace, the weekend can act as additional time to charge. Or if you drive more on the weekend, you can basically decide that you’re going to go to a fast charger every 2-4 weeks just like a gas car (or maybe even less frequently than a gas car).

Let’s say you drive 50 miles a day but you’re only able to charge up 35 miles per day at home. If your vehicle’s range is 250 miles that means you need to go to a fast charger every 15 days including a little room for reserve power.

Also, all of this is even less of a concern if you live in a country with 240V power.


Replies

stavrosyesterday at 11:26 PM

I forgot that the US uses 120 V, that's a bit less convenient, but I agree. I live in a country that uses 240V, and I ~never need to worry about charging. I'll usually intentionally not charge for days/a week because I wait for the battery to go down to 20%.