Clarity in the range "sweet spot": Clean Technica

[Pushmi-Pullyu]

First, for long road trips, imagine refueling a car taking just twice as long, i.e., ten minutes instead of five. That would result in long lines at highway gas stations.

I don't have to "imagine" it; that's already the case for road trips using gasmobiles. On long trips with more than one person in the car, people already usually take that much time or longer. If you go to the rest room and grab a drink or snack in the convenience store, then you're already looking at more than a 10 minute stop. People driving alone usually make quicker stops, but every added passenger in the car increases the average time spending at a gas station stop.

If there really will typically be waiting lines, that means the demand isn't being met and more fast-charging stations need to be -- and will be -- built to meet that demand. That's basic supply-and-demand.

And the current charging rates are nowhere near 300 miles in five minutes.

Nor do they need to be. Once BEVs get up to an average 300 miles of highway range on an 80% charge, an extra five minutes wait -- that is, a 10-minute charge to 80% -- every 4 hours of driving is going to be a deal-breaker for almost nobody. (I'd say "nobody", but there's always one or two contrary cusses in a crowd!)

Either consumers needs to accept long lines and waits, or gas/electric stations need to expand their "pumps" by an order of magnitude or more. Neither will happen in the near future.

Well, I agree with that last sentence. Otherwise, I think the predictions stated there are pretty short-sighted. It's like predicting in the earliest years of the Model T that cross-country trips by motorcar could never be commonplace, because there were few paved highways and because the Model T wasn't reliable enough to go that far without breaking down.

Second, there exist vast segments of the potential buyer market that do not and never will have access to charging stations. Some of us have garages or at least exterior outlets that we can hook up to. Even after EV widespread adoption (i.e., say half the population), there will remain tens of millions of buyers who cannot practically charge an EV.

I am always amazed when I read predictions like this, completely ignoring the lessons of our own history. The motorcar revolution forced first-world countries to rebuild their cities and roads to accommodate motorcars, putting in paved highways, parking lots, and gas stations everywhere. The changes needed to support the EV revolution, beefing up the electrical grid and installing L2 chargers next to every place people park overnight, will be far less.

The installation of widespread EV charging infrastructure will require an investment similar to the original installation of electric distribution infrastructure over 100 years ago.

Probably correct. Providing a megawatt or more of power (perhaps 1.2-1.4 MW) to every EV ultra-fast charging spot will require a much more robust electrical grid than we have today, and many more power plants. The amount of energy the human species uses has been rising exponentially for some centuries now, and that trend will continue.

But let's not forget that by far the majority of EV charging will continue to be slow charging at home or at work. Most ultra-fast charging will be done only during long-distance road trips. So a comparison to the number of gas station pumps in use today would be misleading.

There will not be an appetite to spend the many (tens to hundreds) billions of dollars across the US to support that infrastructure.

Well of course there will. It's basic supply and demand. What you are looking at as a barrier will be seen as a new business opportunity by entrepreneurs, and quite likely opportunities for more income by local power companies.

 

[David Towle]

No offense to any Clarity PHEV owner posting here, and I have no doubt that the average percentage of EV miles for of Clarity owners reading this comment is higher than that 2/3 figure. Those who are dedicated enough to regularly participate in online EV discussions don't necessarily represent the average Clarity PHEV owner.

Wow guess I am an outlier, I do about only about 30% of my Clarity driving on EV. A lot of my drives are long ones, and even though I consider myself an environmentalist I don't see the purpose of spending almost twice as much per mile as gasoline to drive electric on the highway. So EV is local only for me. But I'm still using less than half the gas of my previous car with the 30% EV and the higher mpg.

 

[Pushmi-Pullyu]

A lot of my drives are long ones... But I'm still using less than half the gas of my previous car with the 30% EV and the higher mpg.

Then reducing your personal gasoline usage by more than half may have a bigger environmental impact than somebody who drives significantly fewer miles a year switching to a BEV. That's something that I think too often gets overlooked: The biggest impact on greenhouse gas emissions will come from changing the habits of those whose vehicles emit the most greenhouse gases.

For example, somebody who drives an average number of miles per year switching from, let's say, a Ford F150 pickup to a Clarity PHEV or a Tesla Model S, would have a much bigger impact than someone driving an equal annual distance switching from a Honda Civic to a Leaf or even a super-efficient Ioniq Electric.

As I like to say: The adage "Your Mileage May Vary" (YMMV) applies to much more than just gasmobile MPG!

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