Gen3Joe
Member
It's $121 roundtrip from San Diego to San Francisco. It takes 90 minutes. The electricity at Superchargers is .25, and minimum wage is $11/hr. The trip is 500mi each way with tons of SCs. The main route makes I-10 in West Texas seem scenic.
Obviously an EV is not saving you time, but it's not actually saving you money even if you work at McDonalds.
But? I'm not in the 'fries with that' end of the food chain anyhow. I'm not wasting 10+10 hours in a car if there are other options on the table.
The 'ICE is better at long hauls' is exactly as true as 'The BMW M3 is a better track car than the Tesla Model 3'. Both being irrelevant for most drivers. People don't drive track events often, people don't drive sedans cross country often if they can afford to fly instead.
And the same thing applies to EV range once you reach your convenience tipping point. Our tipping point is 3h30m. That's a 50/50 decision whether to fly or drive. And driving assumes non-stop at 85mph through mountains, something no BEV can do yet reliably. If it's too cold, or a headwind, it's out of range. On busy weekends, it's a flight. On normal ones, it's a drive.
You might drive everywhere you go. That's fine. Your best choice then is not a BEV if you like to go 'places' and do 'things'. No, there are not SC's everywhere yet, regardless of what you read on the web. For April 2018, ICE still holds the long-range and go-anywhere titles. But that doesn't matter for most drivers; it's a bar room debate, not a serious topic.
PS - Odd somebody from Texas would be expounding the virtues of EVs for long range travel. Did they finish support for the I-10 West yet? One of the few cross-country trips I've done a lot is California to Florida, and West Texas is a major segment. However, I am towing heavy on that run. Too big for an EV, too little for Class 8 EV.
McRat you are becoming the king of the straw man argument (I think I said red herring before but it's actually straw man... not that anyone cares). First you pose a question for an argument I never made, that the Bolt had inadequate range, now you are countering an argument that Teslas are just as convenient as ICE cars at long range travel. Nobody ever made this argument.
Allow me to restate my and other poster's position:
- The Tesla Model 3 is a far more capable long distance traveler than the Chevy Bolt. Full stop.
There you go. Now feel free to offer as many counter arguments to that statement as you wish.