So I take it you aren't driving an electric car and using L1 at home to
do all or most of your driving?
For us it isn't hypothetical or theoretical. And for anyone, please be
clear that a "typical day" is not a relevant metric for range requirements.
It's the outliers that you have to accommodate. Don't lose sight of that.
Your data about 10,000 miles being 40 miles per day is again getting
hung up on the average. The average is not the appropriate consideration
for range, some days will be less, some more, and a savvy (and
ultimately satisfied) EV buyer must consider the latter cases (or have
another vehicle that can handle them).
The average doesn't include trips to grandma's in the next town over, or
the emergency trip to a child's school, or an extra trip home to
retrieve a forgotten item, or going out again after work, or rushing to
a hospital, or accommodating any other part of life that may come up
occasionally that, while above the irrelevant average, are important and
maybe even critical.
Some days we might not drive at all, some days we might charge multiple
times and cover longer distances. On those days, with the 6.6kW charger,
we are back in business in an hour or so, four at the most. whereas if
we were at the mercy of slow L1, multiply that times five.
Realistically, on those days we can't wait 5-20ish hours for each
additional charge. On those days, we can't have the car be out of
service for anywhere close to that long, that would make it unusable.
If the goal here is to have electric cars be widely adopted and not just
niche vehicles, flexibility for the busier days is key. Faster charging
makes that possible. On days when it's not important, no problem. On
those days when it IS important, what a relief it is to have a usable car.
The top selling EV is the Nissan LEAF, and they get it. They offer 6.6kW
L2 charging including at home, and much faster L3 charging, both of
which make our 2013 SV usable for our situation, for everything but
longer road trips. They are also working toward longer range cars which
will also help EV adoption, as will the next round from Tesla, GM and
hopefully others.
Of course our situation is not everyone's situation, but I wouldn't
dismiss it as particularly rare either. Everyone's situation is
different and potential EV owners have to evaluate range based on their
own range needs (but not merely their average range needs).
Talk to anyone who started out with only L1 (usually to save money) but
eventually added L2. An EV with faster home charging becomes much more
flexible and useful and creates happier EV drivers, which helps
word-of-mouth promotion and growth in the EV market.
Cheers,
-Jamie
On 5/13/15 6:04 PM, Ben Goren wrote:
On May 13, 2015, at 1:44 PM, Jamie K via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org>
wrote:
I'm coming from a perspective of practical experience with an
electric car as our main vehicle.
The big factor you left out is daily driving mileage. If you're
putting 80 miles a day on the car, yes, L1 is probably borderline at
best for you. But, for most people, half that is an unusually busy
driving day. Not all people, of course, by any means...but most.
Remember: most automotive warranties are in the range of 10,000 miles
/ year, which is equal to 40 miles per day, five days a week, fifty
weeks a year; if you're doing more than that, you're probably beyond
your warranty's coverage, which most people don't do.
And, with a 250 Wh / mile vehicle (such as the LEAF), 40 miles is a
mere 10 kWh and well under 7 hours at L1 rates.
If it takes less time to charge the car for an entire day's worth of
driving than it does to get a night's sleep, any sort of argument for
faster charging as the normal mode is damned hard to make.
b&
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