Quote:
Originally Posted by Windshieldfarmer
OP experienced this in an area with widespread EV adoption and more charger options than elsewhere in the country. Like many here I have found DC chargers are often located inconvenient to my route, don’t work, are frequently congested, and more expensive than gasoline equivalent. It doesn’t take too many bad charging/traveling experiences to give people pause about EV ownership. Early EV adopters were tolerant of these situations, mainstream owners are not. I suspect slowing EV adoption rates relate to this situation. Real world range increases (in adverse conditions) would be helpful. Just last week I was returning from a trip to Oklahoma when a very strong cold front passed and changed the wind direction, forcing me to drive into a 40 mph head wind which reduced my expected range, requiring a stop. Fortunately the one DC station that was along my route, an EA station, was open and operational. At this point the best use case for EVs are suburban commuters with home chargers who seldom road trip.
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I think this is a good analysis. I really love my i5, but the range is not huge; it’s something that doesn’t impact my use of the car in any way, but I look forward to range not being a discussion as new tech rolls out. Bigger batteries is not the answer, as the weight of the current and likely next gen tech is already making these cars much heavier than their outward dimensions would suggest. I don’t hear a lot about motor efficiency, probably because they’re already pretty darn efficient, and expect we’ll need to see aero designs really shave off drag and improve miles/kWh. Lucid is doing something right here.