Will Electric Vehicles Be Viable? When?

[hUirEYExbN]

20% of EV owners switching back to petrol...

Some folk have more money than brains. If an EV wasnt a suitable choice for their needs, they shouldn’t have bought one.

I wonder if that 20% included people who were early adopters of early generation EVs? Early ones weren't great and maybe they've been soured by the experience.

[Just_a_fan]

20% of EV owners switching back to petrol...

Some folk have more money than brains. If an EV wasnt a suitable choice for their needs, they shouldn’t have bought one.

I wonder if that 20% included people who were early adopters of early generation EVs? Early ones weren't great and maybe they've been soured by the experience.

Or they have moved to a hybrid - hybrids give the best of both worlds (along with some of the negatives of both, of course).

[RZS10]

Albert Fabrega decided (for whatever reason) to do his trip from Spain to Portugal and back in a Merc EQC - ignoring the slow charging at the hotel overnight (9h, would have been ~1h otherwise) he spent around 7 hours (!) just loading the car for a 1276km trip back home, and he still hasn't arrived (?) ... looks like he didn't take the shortest route, maybe because it didn't have enough charging stations or w/e...

Such a trip is theoretically doable in one go with one driver, easily doable with two drivers in roughly 12h if you don't drive like a twat - it really shows how most of those cars aren't viable for long journeys yet.

[Just_a_fan]

Such a trip is theoretically doable in one go with one driver, easily doable with two drivers in roughly 12h if you don't drive like a twat - it really shows how most of those cars aren't viable for long journeys yet.

Assuming one wants/needs to do the journey in one long 12 hour slog. Let's face it, most people don't.

Having done some long trips, a few hours of driving is easy enough but it gets boring after a while. Nice to stop off on the way and enjoy the local colour.

EVs aren't great for single long journeys. ICEs aren't great for urban driving. That we have used ICE for everything so far, is more luck than judgement.

[hollus]

Portugal-Spain can easily be done of foot in 1 minute.
He is going (did go by now) from the Portimao GP to the Montmelo GP in that car.
Seing that there is even a dedicated wen page to the “challenge”, this seems to be part of something bigger, an sponsorship or a story for a TV show are my guesses.
https://desafio-electrico.web.app/home
All in Spanish, but it is a “real” life story from a motorhead we all have learnt to trust and love.

1450 km is quite the detour!

I’ll try to translate and summarize later or tomorrow (after he does).

[RZS10]

Yea it's very detailed, that's how i know about the 9h charging time, because the total of 15h didn't make any sense at first glance - i first saw it on twitter though where he kept posting updates as well.

Really like the coffee counter ... lol

I also checked in maps to see the distance and was surprised to see that he basically covered all of the shortest route (~1283km), that's why i concluded that he's not taking it. Did he go via Madrid? Or the southern route?

Did a ~1266km+ trip several times, two drivers, not tiring at all, not boring - best was sub 12h with a 1.5h family visit on the way - most of that particular trip was done during the night, no traffic so you can drive a decent average speed without having to slow down and accelerate all the time which also helps with fuel economy.

Of course driving 12h in some country with ridiculously low speed limits (like the US) is very different to driving in one with reasonable speed limits.

Realistically the "local colour" will be a trashy motorway service area, not much of a scenery to take in, unless you go out of your way to get off the highway in order to find some nice place.

[Just_a_fan]

Realistically the "local colour" will be a trashy motorway service area, not much of a scenery to take in, unless you go out of your way to get off the highway in order to find some nice place.

I'm happy driving long distances, SWMBO gets bored. We both like to have a look around places on the way, so we tend to plan such trips as a maximum of half a day at a time on the road - usually no more than 4 or 5 hours - and then spend either a morning or an evening taking in the sights. More of a road trip than a long range slog. If I needed to, I would drive the 12 hours in one go except for fuel and food/pee stops. But it would be boring as it would be motorways and they are, frankly, boring.

Last such trip was down through France to northern Spain. Spent a week or so on the trip down, a few days down there and then two days doing the trip back up. Could have done either direction (about 1300km) in a very, very long day but it would have been a dull day. Easy, but dull. But we've done the trip 3 times and did a different route each time and got to see bits of France we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

[RZS10]

Sounds nice, it's more of a sightseeing road trip vacation then.
If the idea is to visit family and you only have like 8 days total you ain't gonna spend more than half of that time for the trip alone, technically 1/8 days is too much already ... hehe

[djos]

20% of EV owners switching back to petrol...

Some folk have more money than brains. If an EV wasnt a suitable choice for their needs, they shouldn’t have bought one.

I wonder if that 20% included people who were early adopters of early generation EVs? Early ones weren't great and maybe they've been soured by the experience.

True, the Nissan Leaf comes to mind as being a complete sh!t-box with abysmal support!

[djos]

Such a trip is theoretically doable in one go with one driver, easily doable with two drivers in roughly 12h if you don't drive like a twat - it really shows how most of those cars aren't viable for long journeys yet.

Assuming one wants/needs to do the journey in one long 12 hour slog. Let's face it, most people don't.

10-12 Hour drives here in Australia are considered short. That's just an easy drive from Melbourne to Adelaide (~800kms), or Melbourne to Sydney (~900kms); we do both frequently to visit family.

Try driving from Melbourne to Perth (~3,500kms), that's ~38 hours if you drove non-stop, with multiple drivers! Slightly less is Melbourne to Brisbane (~1,800kms) at "only" 18 Hours if you drove non-stop, with multiple drivers.

[Greg Locock]

Melbourne to Darwin towing a trailer? Day and a half. BTDT. Turns out it was quicker to cruise at 130 than 160 due to additional fuel stops, from memory.

[djos]

Melbourne to Darwin towing a trailer? Day and a half. BTDT. Turns out it was quicker to cruise at 130 than 160 due to additional fuel stops, from memory.

That's a very good run!

I've also found 130kph was optimal when driving from Sydney to Adelaide via the Hay Plain (the most boring bit of road in Aus that I've personally driven on). It stopped me from getting distracted but didn't cause excessive fuel consumption.

[Greg Locock]

Two or three drivers per car. Hay plain is a horror, cows are just scary as kangaroos.

[djos]

Two or three drivers per car. Hay plain is a horror, cows are just scary as kangaroos.

That is optimal for sure. True that!

I've done the Sydney to Adelaide and back trip at least 8 times that I can recall. 1,600kms of boredom. Most of those trips were by myself so I was able to do them in well under 14 hours - doing 10-20kph over the speed limit was how I amused myself and kept focused.

[hollus]

10-12 Hour drives here in Australia are considered short.

In europe, 12 hour drives are considered international travel.