Quote:
Originally Posted by upsidedownfunnel
I think "torpedo Tesla" is a bit of an exaggeration, but with our current infrastructure, having a compromise between range and electric efficiency is actually pretty smart.
Think about it. For most of us, we either need our cars to go 50 miles per day, for commuting to work, or 500+ miles per day for a road trip. What is the point of having a car that can go 300 miles per day? It sounds good because that's almost the range ICE cars have, but ignores the fact that gas stations are everywhere and takes no more than a few minutes to fill up. Even IF you are road tripping to places that have superchargers, they take much longer to fill up and you are at the mercy of their availability.
If you could have a car that can drive 50 miles per day on pure electric, then you would almost never need to gill up on gasoline. For all intents and purposes, you have a pure electric car. If you want to go on a 1000 mile road trip, you can use the gasoline engine to get you there. If you want extra performance, your car will use both drivetrains for that.
To be clear, this is not a PERMANENT solution. It's meant to be a stop gap. It allows BMW to make a car for people who want an ICE car, a hybrid, and a pure EV easily. Once we figure out fast charging and there are chargers in as many places as there are gas stations, we can go pure EV, sure. But we are still far away from that reality. Most of the people that have 300 mile range Teslas drive about 50 miles per day and never really need the full capacity of their 75kWh battery packs.
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That's a pretty simple perspective, albeit flawed...
The reason 200+ miles range is important (IMHO) is that it easily hits most peoples daily commute requirements and ALL THE OTHER little daily requirements that always creep in (kids, groceries, errands, etc). If you have 200+ miles range, and a 50 mile commute then you pretty much have all you need, plus plenty of buffer for life's "extras". You don't really have to give your range a second thought... No calculator necessary...
The other piece you are missing is that most families have 2+ cars. Typically, one car could be an EV and the other an ICE. Use BOTH for daily commutes and hop in the ICE for longer family trips. This is what we do. You could also simply rent an ICE for long trips depending on how often you need it. How many road trips in excess of 200 miles did YOU take last year?
Over the past 5 years, I've had 3 EV's. And over that period an EV has always been my daily driver. EV's are a permanent solution and they are only going to get better. Rivian will be releasing a 400+ mile pickup and SUV next year... The Tesla Roadster will have a 600 mil range in 2 years..
I started in a Volt (Great Car!) with a 48 mi range. I only had a 5 mile commute so it got the "daily" job done (inc groceries) pretty much without ever using any gas. But that is with a very short commute. With my 250 mi Tesla we don't even think about range (or gas) anymore. We just plug it in every night like our cell phones and we are done. ...and it doesn't matter if we forget a day (or more) to plug it in or even if I have to drive to Chicago and back (180 mi). I've never in my life ever even stopped at a public charger with any of my electric cars and I also have no idea what the current cost of gas is. Over 70% of EV owners charge their cars at home. Public chargers are a non-issue for non-EV drivers to worry about. The "Public Charging Infrastructure" is a mantra that's been fed to the Non-EV-Driving public. Personally, there simply is no way I'm gonna stop ANYWHERE for 30 minutes at a time on a trip (other than a hotel)...
You can break out your calculator and work up what you think your daily requirements might be, but 200+ miles is where its at. Its obvious we've had this technology to do this range for several years now, so why not?
The best range is the range you don't have to think about!