Consider that we sometimes have the truck running for 6 hours a day. Between driving, keeping the cab warm or cold in extreme conditions, or lighting up a tower or location in the dark, running safety light bars on the vehicle.
Electric just doesn’t seem efficient. I also find the regenerative breaking annoying and wasteful. On a flat road I have to keep my foot on the accelerator and basically burn electric to just keep going. With a gas vehicle on the same piece of road I can leave my foot off the accelerator and coast for miles at a time. Our Tundra is rates for 16-18 MPG highway driving. I get 22. I know how to drive a gas vehicle. I have yet to see comparable endurance out of an electric vehicle. > On Nov 30, 2019, at 1:10 PM, Darin Steffl <darin.ste...@mnwifi.com> wrote: > > The brake pads in my Tesla should easily last 300k or more miles because I > rarely use them. The cars regenerative braking is so strong I basically only > drive with the throttle now. As soon as I let off, the car will use regen on > the motors and slow me down all the way to 0 now and then apply a brake hold > until I apply power again. The actual brake pedal is only used for quick or > emergency stops. > > So yes, it takes energy to climb a hill but you'll use regen the whole way > down and regain some of that lost energy. You don't get 100% of it back > because nothing is that efficient but you get nothing back from a gas vehicle > when you slow down or go down a hill. You always lose energy as long as the > engine is running. > > And range estimates on cars are exactly that, estimates. Don't take the > article literally that the car went from 50 miles of range to 8 miles. Just > as in a gas car, the estimate is not perfect. > > Moral of the story is, don't run out of gas or battery power and life will be > good. A portable generator to charge a car is not a great idea. It's easier > to get a flatbed and drop the car off at a supercharger or a 220v outlet to > charge faster. I know my car won't let me navigate somewhere without telling > me I need to charge in order to reach the destination. It's pretty idiot > proof as it should be. I have yet to run out of juice either but I've gotten > close like pulling into the garage at 1% range. Tesla does say they have a 5% > reserve on average so even if I hit 0%, I'd have around 15 miles left in the > battery before it truly stops. > > Proper planning is best for any vehicle and as more superchargers are built > and more level 2 chargers installed at restaurants and hotels, the range > anxiety will be a thing of the past. > > For wisp's, you can have chargers installed at the office or wherever the > trucks sit at night and have a full tank every morning. And it's very > doubtful you'll run dead. If you drive 200 miles or more in one day, you need > to schedule jobs more efficiently because that's over 3.5 hours of windshield > time you're paying your techs. Their time should be spent installing, not > driving. > > The corner cases like ranchers in Montana are well under 1% of drivers and > they'll eventually go electric too once big diesel trucks aren't made in 10+ > years. > > This is a train that is coming down the tracks and while it's not possible > today to produce enough batteries for EV's to replace everything overnight, > in 10 years the majority of new vehicle sales will be electric whether you > like it or not. It's simply the future and everything will get better. Better > motors, cheaper and higher density batteries, chargers everywhere including > rural towns, etc. > >> On Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 11:52 AM Mathew Howard <mhoward...@gmail.com> wrote: >> A nice side affect of regenerative braking is that my brake pads look like >> they've barely been used... and my car has almost 60k miles on it. >> >> On Sat, Nov 30, 2019, 11:16 AM Bill Prince <part15...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> Yah. Teslas are not like that. Going down a mountain generates power. >>> Slowing down (sort of braking) generates power. In aggressive throttle >>> mode, you hardly have to touch the brake as you can accelerate and slow >>> down with regenerative braking. >>> >>> >>> bp >>> <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> >>> >>> On 11/30/2019 8:58 AM, Matt Hoppes wrote: >>> > My experience with a Toyota Prius the other week was that climbing a hill >>> > I could deplete the battery but coming down would not charge it. >>> > >>> > So yes. You’ll get into a deficit. >>> > >>> >> On Nov 30, 2019, at 11:25 AM, Seth Mattinen <se...@rollernet.us> wrote: >>> >> >>> >>> On 11/30/19 5:56 AM, Chuck McCown wrote: >>> >>> Depends on distance. My car is always charged. So I always have 200 >>> >>> miles on the tank. At the end of a full day of driving yes it needs to >>> >>> be charged. Local police departments are making Teslas work. Just >>> >>> takes a different mindset. No maintenance and a truck good for a half >>> >>> million miles with no fuel costs is pretty attractive to me (I charge >>> >>> with solar). >>> >> How much do you lose climbing elevation? Let's say sea level up to 7000' >>> >> 180 miles uphill (San Fransisco to Donner Pass). It's a minimal grade >>> >> for the first 100 miles then the last 80 is nothing but uphill. Back >>> >> when Tesla was first doing their supercharger network thing they put >>> >> ones in Roseville (basically the bottom of the hill) and more in Truckee >>> >> (just past the summit) so the assumption was that the climb is hard and >>> >> you would charge before going up the hill and charge again after the >>> >> climb. Even just to go to Lake Tahoe requires crossing an 8000' summit >>> >> (Reno is around 4200'). >>> >> >>> >> I'd like to get my wife an electric car, but it seems like normal >>> >> mountain driving would eat the battery quickly and then it never gets >>> >> used except for flat driving to and from her job or shopping. I'll have >>> >> 16.3kW DC of solar panels by the end of February and the way I see it is >>> >> free "fuel" for the car. I don't care about saving the planet as much as >>> >> I am interested in technology. >>> >> >>> >> -- >>> >> AF mailing list >>> >> AF@af.afmug.com >>> >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >>> >>> -- >>> AF mailing list >>> AF@af.afmug.com >>> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >> -- >> AF mailing list >> AF@af.afmug.com >> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
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