Have you timed yourself getting gas? Takes 2+ minutes just to get the stupid thing to read your card! Then if you get a slow pumping line, Easily 10 minutes. Of course charging an EV will be an eternity by comparison but I don't think I've ever gotten gas in close to 2 minutes.
I have the NFC chip in my card. It read faster than you can say "blee-bloop". Any station I go to fills a gallon in about 10 seconds. Yes, I do a quick count while I'm at the pump because I'm obsessive. I don't let the car below half a tank unless I'm going long distance on a highway. 8 gallons is 1:20. Even a full tank is less than 3 minutes.
Also have the chip thing. Maybe I go to a crappy station. There's the "do you want to use store rewards?" question and also takes a strong 5 count before asking for my pin. But this stuff will happen weather charging or filling so moot. So the time it takes to pull trigger till you put the pump back in it's holder is all we worry about. If I think about it, I'll time it next time, maybe I'll be the one surprised.
Eight hours? A Tesla supercharger can charge a Model S to 50% in 20 minutes and 80% in 40 minutes. Thats good for about four or five hours of driving at interstate speeds.
Just time the gas part. As you said, the card transaction part will be a wash.
Assuming you always find a supercharger, and assuming no on is using it. At most an ICE vehicle is at the pump a few minutes. There are also enough stations around that if one is busy, you can just go to the next one (which might even be across the street in some areas). The same can't be said for supercharger stations. Increase the time to fill, and decrease the amount of places to fill, and what do you get? This is another facet of the infrastructure problem with an aggressive EV rollout. The difference is that with EV's you can create a "fill station" at home. Too bad not all fill-ups are at home.
That's brutal for the gas door hinge. Do you also flip the door lock/unlock button constantly while driving?
That's brutal for the gas door hinge. Do you also flip the door lock/unlock button constantly while driving?
2 minutes might be a slight exaggeration. Possibly it's 4 minutes TOTAL. The Fiesta's range is well over 300 miles on a 12.4 gallon tank of gas, but time to put 10 gallons in the tank to fill completely up is not long. And the card takes a few seconds to read. You must go to a place with older equipment or something.
The time to charge a $70K Model S is 97 hours at normal house 110 voltage, 12 hours at 220 volts with a special setup required, and 1.33 hours at a very dangerous 440 volts.
Competitiveness needs to be defined by usage. When used as the majority of drivers do, full electrics are competitive. At my last job I travelled 70 miles a day, 350 miles a week. That’s above the norm. Now add a couple of hundred weekend miles every week. So overnight recharging twice a week and not a second stopping to fill up for gas. Do the math, 27,500 miles a year and zero time at a gas station.
Like I said before the "diligent commuter" usage case. I could also see a scenario where you actually CAN'T recharge from home. Imagine a 70's style gas shortage, except for electricity. Sorry, you can only draw from the grid on Tuesdays. If we don't beef up our grid capacity (especially at night) this isn't that far-fetched.
Agreed. There has to be massive upgrades to the infrastructure to support a large increase in electric vehicle usage. But that is being addressed and the change will be slow in coming.
Agreed, but in some states the regulations are just plain stupid. In NY, your solar is attached to the grid sure. But if power goes out, your power goes out as well. Because they make you tie it to the grid. Net metering only works in favor of the power company. Off-grid installs are the way to go.
That is a good point on competitiveness related to time to charge - but you have to make some other assumptions.
All excellent points but I was only addressing the charging Vs. fill-up issue.
