Featured Solid-state battery wars

Which, if you're on a road trip, is pretty useless. 2-3 days for a charge to make it to the next charger or back to the one from which you came 300 miles away.

 

I use PlugShare to map out chargers:

• Superchargers - obvious
• Tesla distribution chargers - L2 charging, free
  
• J1772 - L2 charging may or may not be free, check
• NEMA 14-50 - found at RV parks and RV friendly restaurants
• 110-120 VAC outlets - often for the asking, slow but faster than no charge

Our BMW i3-REx uses CCS-1 fast DC chargers which taught valuable lessons. One is gasoline is 1/4th the cost per mile compared to the usual, CCS-1 chargers.

Bob Wilson

 

So do I.

This is where I'm going:



One public L2, two private L2's, one 50kW CCS, no Tesla. It's 257 miles round-trip from Hays.

 

Asked this question of colleagues and others in the past and same responses here (lower threshold only ~500 miles and question was what was maximum range needed in vehicle for all needs, considering charging infrastructure as it currently exists). Included, have asked a couple condo/appt dwellers the same question.

 

Hays now has a Supercharger and to the West, there is one at Colby. The Supercharger network continues to expand.

Bob Wilson

 

Hays has had a Supercharger for a long time. I'm talking about Hutchinson. Hays' charger is the origin. Now get to Hutchinson and back.

 

As mentioned before on this forum, the average driver will not drive more than 25 miles in a day in any given year. The commuters who drive from distant suburbs to urban jobs really skew the stats. I don't have the stats at hand, but as I recall upwards of 95% of the drivers would be able to use a 25 mile battery if they could charge at home AND had the means to plug into ANY charging source mid day for a partial charge. The occasional yearly vacation trip would, of course, require a different mode of propulsion.

And that brings us back to the last few percent. They commute long distances or have widespread business dealings that require that they be on site in person. In the old days when cars were much less reliable we had planes and trains and buses to handle those trips.

 

Exactly, and that's exactly why plug-in hybrids make so much sense. You use a low-energy high-power propulsion method (batteries) for most of your trips and a high-energy low-power propulsion method (ICE/FC) for the rare long trips.

Or they go on vacations in cars. I used to take two flight-vacations a year until I realized I could visit so many more places if I stayed on the ground, plus it's way lower stress. I took a vacation a couple of years ago that visited 12 separate destinations in one trip. Hard to do on a plane especially when several of those destinations didn't even have airports. Plus, when you get there, you already have your car. No rental car hassles.

 

Ok, Salina Supercharger is ~68 miles from Hutchison KS. When visiting Mom, I put enough charge that 1/3d reaches her; 1/3d around town, and; 1/3d back to Joplin or South to Tulsa.

Bob Wilson

 

But in the wrong direction.

I think Wichita is even closer, but even further in the wrong direction.

 

70 * 3 = 210 miles … much less than my current 232 mi max charge range. But if you can sleep over with 110-120 VAC, add 35-40 miles.

Bob Wilson

 

Do you get 232 at 75mph in the winds of Kansas (the third windiest state)? I always preserve a minimum of 100 miles of range remaing for emergencies so deduct that too.

Even if that was possible, it's still both time and energy inefficient and, on an 8 hour drive, that matters a lot to me.

 

Only if driving barefoot in a blizzard uphill both ways. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson

 

Ah, so that's how you get the full-rated range in a Tesla.