Is this the best thread for discussion on the weekly podcast? If not, feel free to move my thoughts to the correct location.
I had some thoughts on the range discussion at the beginning of the podcast, about what is the right range?
The answer: It depends. No, seriously, I don't think there is a right answer. I'm a member on the Leaf forum (
https://www.mynissanleaf.com/) and there are constant discussions on this, where someone will post their ideal range EV, and then argue tooth and nail that others are wrong. I see this very much along the same lines as how politics have split our nation, and the urban / suburban / rural divides we have in this nation.
I currently have a 2018 Nissan Leaf, which ideally has 150 mile range. True range, with degradation, on the highway is probably about 100 miles, maybe 110. But I don't use it on the highway, my wife and I use it as a third vehicle only around our small city. For that, it works perfect. For that use case it has more range then I'll ever use in a day. We also have a Outback and an F150. Yes, I'm aware that three car household is a perfect example of American excess. Though its likely my son will take the outback as his own in a few years off to college. But I digress...
I'd love to change the truck and the Outback also to EVs, but there simply isn't anything that fits their use cases. I recently posted (on the Leaf forum) an actual trip I JUST did in our Outback, from my house to Mammoth for skiing, and then home in the evening. It is 178 miles each way, and about 6,000 ft NET elevation gain on the way up. My outback required NO refueling on the round trip, which meant I was able to leave at 4 am and be there around 7am to rent my son's gear and get an ideal parking spot. There simply isn't an EV that I can afford that can match this. A tesla model 3 can do the trip, but requires a charging stop on the way home in Bishop. The Ioniq 5 would actually require charging stops in both directions - it can technically make it to the resort, but wouldn't have enough charge to make it back to a charging station. So I would have to leave even earlier, which I don't want to do. There is no charging stations at the lodge. So using an EV in the same way as my Outback would absolutely require compromise, and time. The question is, how much compromise is one willing to accept? That's a different barrier for each person, their finances, and their lifestyle. Lets be honest, most EVs aren't affordable as is - so forget about a 500 mile EV (aka the Lucid).
In other words, for my family, I really would want a 500 mile EV to fully replace (on par with) my Outback. And my truck is even worse - I use the truck to tow a small tent trailer, but I also use it to go hiking & backpacking, and camping all over the west. I took my son camping last year traversing out through the remote areas of CA and then Nevada, ending up at Great Basin NP. Can you get to Great Basin NP in a Tesla? Sure. Can you do it the route I went? No way. There are vast swaths in the West that even a Tesla can't navigate, let alone other EVs. And forget about towing in an EV, for now. Ranges are being cut in half with even a modest trailer. Take a 300 miles range F150 lightning, tow a trailer, and you are at 150. But that's 0-100%. Realistically you won't go above 80% and I don't want to go below 20%, especially if I'm using my f150 to power my camp site. That leaves me with 90 miles of range. That's pitiful. There are parts of Nevada that are several hundred miles from the closest chargers. There are literally parts of Nevada where the closest chargers are further apart than many European countries are large, or states are large in the Eastern side of the US.
So what's the ideal range? It depends on who you are, what you do, and where you live. I constantly see city dwellers telling everyone that EVs already have more range than we need. And those folks are correct - for city dwellers. In fact, for a city dweller, a smaller, shorter range EV is going to be ideal for multiple reasons, such as cost, but also others such as parking. A city dweller's whole household might have one EV, and if they go on vacation, they rent - or they fly and then rent. But you live in a remoter area like I do, where the nearest city is 90 mile drive at 75 mph, and there is barely any charging network.... and the equation drastically changes. And in the West, even if / when charging is plentiful in the future, we have this thing called terrain and wilderness.
I'm not knocking the podcast, I just want people to open up to the fact that everyone's situation is different. Three hundred miles of range is plenty, for many, but for many others even 500 might not be enough. The US is surprisingly empty and vast and rural. We also tend to have 2, 3 vehicles. So it might work for one, but not for the other two. Practically everyone on my street has a trailer of some type. Etc... etc. If we really want EVs to succeed, we can't just tell people what the need, we actually need to meet THEIR needs. That's my two cents.
