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| Nice article, a bit similar to the New York Times (I think it was) article over a year ago, with a journalist also writing about his first time experience with EVs. I think it takes some adapted driving behavior, which American drivers are not accustomed to. It's a bit like driving a diesel car, or at least an old generation diesel car, you learn to drive much more smoothly to further increase the fuel economy of such engines. Here the driver acknowledged that he didn't change his driving behavior during the first part of the trip. Using the cruise control probably helped, but turning off the radio not so much. He didn't mention turning off the A/C, which is a big drain on fuel autonomy, so we can't tell if he had it on or not. I assume it was on by default, as the author didn't seem familiar with the car controls at all.
3 miles short, and so much trouble and so many hours before getting to the supercharger, what a frustrating experience!
I don't agree with the author's view on hybrids, they are only a temporary hack, as having both a full combustion engine, all the parts that go with it, and an electric engine and all the parts that go with it just defeats the whole purpose of EVs. Cars like the Tesla Model S or the Nissan Leaf can be designed exclusively around EV technology and so be much lighter and have parts that can be scaled down to handle a lesser weight. Range extenders like in the Chevy Volt are probably a better option, as they just burn fuel to power the battery, so they have a minimal weight and only a light and small fuel tank too. I think most people would feel less anxiety about mile range with range extenders. Maybe they can be optional, and you add one to the boot only when you want to take long trips, maybe even with 2 sizes of fuel tanks, possibly using clean LPG instead of gas. The Chevy Volt has the right technology, but the wrong design, as 30-40 miles of autonomy probably means the extender is used way too frequently. EV vehicles with range extenders should probably have a class of their own, as they are not truly hybrids nor EVs.
I don't think there is a problem with the electricity supply or the grid, EVs still develop very slowly, and natural gas and renewables are progressing much faster than the rate of EV adoption. It's still an expensive investment that is currently justified environmentally but not financially, but the impact on the environment alone is worth it for these rich early adopters, and we need them to make the technology more affordable. It does about halve the ROI of a solar panel array, as EV owners testified, but then it's only a transfer of costs if you assign these savings to the solar array and not to the car. Still, it seems to be the ideal combination of technologies. Musk's other solar companies is starting to give away used Tesla batteries at no cost to Tesla owners that are buying/renting their solar panel arrays, and they are also building photovoltaic power plants that will use a thousand or so used Tesla batteries to deliver solar energy outside of sun hours. They certainly have a smart and sound business plan. | |
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Driving a Tesla in the real world.
