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fennecbutt • yesterday at 1:19 AM • 5 replies • view on HN

3.5kw*12=42kwh. That's like half the capacity of a fairly decent range EV.

How many people are really driving 240~ miles per day? Practically nobody...that's like 3.5 hours at motorway speeds.

Inb4 the typical response of "every American commutes 99999 miles per day!!!"

Charging at 1kw at home would be perfectly fine for average use cases.


Replies

BobbyTables2 • yesterday at 2:12 AM

Seems like it could get annoying if one wants a full charge but has to plan up to 4 days in advance, compared to a 10 minute gas station run.

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taneq • yesterday at 6:22 AM

I drive a PHEV with about 22kWh of usable battery and 80km EV only range. I typically do 50-70km a day and a 3.5kW charger covers most days handily. The stock ~1.4kW charger absolutely did not. I can always burn a little petrol if needed, though.

Faster charging gives you more options. 1kW might be fine on the average day for a small, efficient EV but it’d occasionally be limiting.

gertop • yesterday at 3:52 AM

3.5kW might be enough but you conclusion that 1kW is also enough is absurd.

12kWh is 40 miles, closer to 25-30 in cold climate.

This is absolutely not a range that the average person would be happy with. And no, this isn't range anxiety or bad faith, it's literally less than the average daily commute (30 miles round trip).

cucumber3732842 • yesterday at 10:21 AM

Typical ivory tower armchair central planner type nonsense. You can't sell a car for "average". If people are gonna take on a $30k+ purchase it needs to also handle some fraction of use cases above and beyond the "average" and handle them without many/any shenanigans.

This is why the F150 is so popular despite the amount of shaming and screeching from blathering idiots about how "you could haul that on the roof of a wagon" and "rent a truck when you need it". This is why the vast majority of EV sales have been dedicated commuter cars or sales to people who's reasonable high end use case is still comfortably within the bounds of what they can do easily. Yes you can road trip an EV (or more realistically, do a 50mi commuting day with no charging at work and then hop in and drive 100+mi somewhere on a Friday night) same as you can haul plywood on a station wagon but it takes a level of care and planning that people don't want to put in.

People.

Want.

Easy.

As the tech gets incrementally better we're seeing incremental increases in adoption, but "oh EVs are good enough now and they would be bought more than they are if people weren't stupid and/or did the math and/or were honest about what their needs are" is not a great take.

remusrm • yesterday at 2:04 AM

you do not consider most commutes in US cities are around 45 min plus and 30-45 miles one way. Also stop and go traffic drains the batter faster

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