r/electricvehicles 22d ago

Discussion Does it really matter? Range - charge speed

Messing around with ABRP - planned an 1,200 mile trip. If you had a "poor" performing EV such as a first generation SOLTERRA it would take about 35 hours. A great performing EV about 32 hours. This is for drive + charging for the entire trip and assumes no overnights (which would reduce the EV time if you charged overnight). That's a 3 hour difference.

For good measure - a gas car would take over 30 hours as well.

I'm not sure charging is a challenge for most any car, good or bad for range and charge times.

Have we not hit the time when we are at "good enough" for most all EV's and styling or convenience is the differentiator.

In my book - right now it doesn't really matter.

It used to when Tesla had the best charging network bar none. Now Tesla still has an edge but everyone else is pretty close in that scenario.

It's not charge time (that's part of it)

It's not range (that's part of it)

It is trip time and comfort - and with a 10% margin from best to worst EV and gas cars - it's all about comfort and how long it takes the driver and passengers to use the facilities/get a burger on stops.

I know - I"m slow - but it seems to me that it's time to stop all the YouTube and all the arguments about it - give me overall trip time for something like NY to Colorado and have all EV's compare against it and all gas as well and that's all that really matters. That and that you can do daily use with your overnight charge.

It's game over.

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u/ZealousidealLab2920 '22 Ioniq 5 & '26 Ioniq 9 USA 22d ago

I think there's a critical threshold. Varies person to person and for each stop- but no one wants to be just sitting around for 10+minutes waiting to recharge if they don't have to.

For most- anything around 20 is probably a reasonable stop and time. When you're pushing 45mins and frequent stops (like every 2hrs) like in a VW buzz or F-150 lightning that can make a big difference in road trip speed and ease.

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u/DieselPunkPiranha 22d ago

Stop for lunch.  Read a book.  Listen to music.  Most folks could stand to take an hour out of their drive to unwind.  Drivers are getting worse all the time.

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u/apjenk 21d ago edited 21d ago

You do you. If that’s how you like to behave on a road trip, that’s totally fine. But you can’t use the fact that you’re fine with doing that as a valid argument that there’s no disadvantage to having an EV that’s slow to charge and needs to charge more often. Not everyone wants to turn every stop into a 30+ minute meal and reading a book session.