I'm mostly an EV driver for my 40 mile commute as I get to charge at work and home. Fulled-up couple of times since I got the car last year, but always wondered if I'm just lugging dead weight. Want to check with the community on how do you folks handle this? Wife says I need to be more worried about the dead weight on my torso
I keep 5 20L jerry cans in the trunk just in case. It’s just not practical to carry an entire drum in the car.
I just fill up every time because it makes it possible to calculate my MPG. (I’ve only pumped 17 gal in 11,000 miles, so I’m no expert) Since gas only weighs about 6.3 lbs/gal it’s a negligible amount compared to the 4,000 car weight. If you average a half a tank full, that’s less than 0.5% of the total car weight. I also like the fact that a full tank may decrease the amount of condensation. But with our sealed and pressurized gas tank that (and my adding Stabil) may be straining at gnats. But at least it makes me happy. Trivia question of the thread: If gas only weighs 6.3 lbs/gal, how can burning it emit 20 lbs of CO2? Hint: it’s the second letter.
I have the exact commute as you. I charge once a day overnight. I keep a 5 gal can of gas mixed with Stabil at home to use with power tools, mowers, etc. and top off the tank to 1/2 full if needed, but it has not sip much petrol since last fill up in May. Full tank for a long trip of course. Stabil is cheap insurance.
I estimate it takes 10-15 minutes to fill up, counting time pulling into and out of the station, getting out, paying, pumping, and factoring in occasionally having to wait for an open pump although unless I go to Costco that isn't usually a problem. With the tiny gas tank that Clarity has it just doesn't make sense to make repeated trips to the gas station just to carry around a few pounds less of fuel. Now personally I could carry around a few less pounds but that's a different story Yeah oxygen weighs a lot more than carbon
Have not had the Clarity long enough, just filled up two times just to get use to the fuel consumption and fuel gauge.
I charge every day and gas up when the car yells at me that it will leave us on the side of the highway-not very often. That's what I have always done with ICE and hybrids.
Similar to MPower, I charge every day and fill the gas tank whenever it gets down to 1 bar or so (which can be several months). I don't believe the additional weight of a full tank makes any appreciable difference in EV range so I don't bother trying to stay at a half tank max or so.
I am old, I was taught that if you are going to keep the gas for a while have the tank/container as full as possible to reduce the amount of oxygen in with the gas. I know modern cars have controls in place but it is not like they draw a vacuum or fill the space with nitrogen. I can easily go 6 months between fill-ups, have had the dash display 'Running engine to circulate oil' three times since I have had the car. We are talking about 30 pounds between a 1/2 and a full tank.
I keep it full. When I do have a (long) trip planned, I used to have a check-list that included getting gas the night before. Now my tank is always full, and I just take off when I'm ready (of course it still takes me forever to actually get out of town but that's not the car's fault)-- but hey, it's one less thing to worry about. I couldn't reasonably manage this with my old car as it was always somewhere between full and empty. And since I liked to start a long trip with full-tank, I'd have to do my check-list item and fill up. With Clarity, I leave the gas tank full and sometimes go up to 2 months without thinking about gas, so leaving it full is completely do-able.
My commute is just long enough that I have burn gas the last few miles. If I don’t take a long trip, I fill up every few months when the gas tank is about half full. Also, I fill up the tank before a long trip.
Originally whenevers.... but then my wife took mine so it's now a 90mile/day commuter (can't charge at work) so it gets filled every weekend. Still, it will save about 10 gallons/week over the OutBack which at $2.50/gal is about $1300/yr! Gotta' love a car that can do anything at the drop of a hat.
Just not using much gas at all. In fact, it feels like it's been on just a little more than half a tank since mid-June. I watch the HV miles and they're not always the same, but it's been stuck on 175 miles for awhile now. Since we don't drive it as a main vehicle, it also has some no-travel days (though not many, since trips to the store or to the lake or to the … come up) But even when it does go out for longer trips, most everything is within 20-25 miles, and the trips pretty much are all EV. So we fill the tank when it's close to empty, but obviously, it doesn't happen too often.
Haven’t checked the towing capacity, but you should be able to hook up a trailer that will hold your drum.
I usually fill up after it runs down to 40% of the tank and then wait for it to go down to 40% again. I usually drive without A/C in the summer but my wife and kids like to drive with it on so I keep the tank medium-full just in case they use up all the EV range.
If you use a typical plastic portable container for your storage, I suggest you use the marine grade Stabil to scavenge the inevitable water that will accumulate in the gas. It’s the blue stuff.