Quote:
Originally Posted by Efthreeoh
My E90 tells me how many miles remain until empty; I've tested it several times and found it very accurate. My E90 has 400 miles of range and recharges in 5 minutes in any town and on any road in the US. There are several gas station databases available on a smartphone or advertised on road signs if on the interstate. It's not like modern ICE vehicles throw a low fuel light and your walking 5 miles later, the E90 notifies at 61 miles, then gets persistent at 31 miles. If you do run out of fuel, a 1-gallon recharge is easy to come by and then a full recharge is 5 minutes. Right now EV does not offer that level of fast recovery.
But I do agree, the electric drivetrain is superior in torque production, torque delivery (mostly), and definitely way more efficient that ICE (that part I really like). My ideal vehicle is a ICE/EV hybrid with on-board electrical generation and at this point some small battery and mega-capacitors for peak current demand. I'd drop in a small I-6 turbo diesel to drive the generator. Cool might be an electric generator with an embedded Rotary engine; crazy would be a diesel Rotary, but apparently they are not possible because an efficient diesel combustion chamber can't be created.
I've been in a Model Y twice for low-speed in-town trips, so it's hard to judge interior noise level for the Y; but the Y is much better than the 3 based on my experience with both cars. The Model 3 I've been in serval times for high-speed trips of about an hour, it is as loud or louder than my E90 (on mostly 400,000 suspension bushings). At cruising speed you can't hear the engine in the non-M E90. The rear seats in the Model 3 are not comfortable because the footwell is shallow due to the battery placement. The Model 3 lacks detail in suspension compliance and isolation sophistication. But it's a decent car nonetheless, and I fully understand the EV drivetrain; I'm no stranger to electric motors from the first one I built out of coat hanger and wire in physics class in 1977. And no stranger to vehicle on-board battery storage from the first time I played with the Hot Wheels Sizzlers* race track set I got for Christmas in 1970. And not to mention the Electrak.
The number of households in the US that can conveniently charge at home is limited, it's hard to get a reliable estimate from the internet, but I'll peg it at 40%(?). Compared to ICE owners, any of them can recharge in 5 minutes while out running errands or commuting. I think that stat is significant to adoption. ICE is cheap, reliable, convenient, and fits most household budgets. ICE has a100+ year headstart, it's hard to turn that without artifical market forces.
That's all I'm saying.
Not anti-EV (far from it), worked for the past 14 years implementing a new disruptive nationwide transportation surveillance technology (far from a Luddite am I - listening to streamed music via a bluetooth speaker as I write this on my cell phone. Lol).
No bias; I just like to look at things with realism.
* Electric drive is way better than gravity.
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I think there are several advantages of ICE vehicles, but having to go the gas station with the idea you can fill up in 5 minutes, isn't one of them. It is an inferior experience than an EV if you have a home charger overall. I literally never have to stop, maybe 3-4 times a year how can anyone argue beating that experience? Great you can fill up in 5-8 minutes of your time, every week, sometimes more than once, enjoy doing that?
My point about the running out of "gas" was in response to real-world objections I've heard in real life. There are several cool tricks modern EV's have to guide to easily to your charging destination, including real world energy consumption and guidance down to the speed you need to go to make it. Not many people know that, or would because they don't own an EV.
It is great to have a civil discussion about this topic!
I also agree EV's are not ready for mass adoption as less than half of the population can charge at home. I thought I made that clear above. If you can't charge at home I personally think its not a great idea. When anyone can charge in less than 10 minutes I think it will really open the door to mass adoption.