Featured Nearly Half of [US] Shoppers See Public Charging as an EV Dealbreaker

The places good for wind in Texas are not the ones good for solar. Solar is growing rapidly now starting in 2021. With west Texas wind, coastal wind, and solar there is a great deal of differences in generation which helps stabalize the grid. Locally in central texas solar is not very good, but it coincides with peak air conditioning demand, and subsidies are helping to grow it. Some of the least expensive solar my utility is buying comes from new mexico, fed through dc lines put up to help move wind power long distances.

I agree that the problems in ERCOT, the texas grid, have been political, since the poor regulation stems from the governor and legislature making decisions that favored the gas industry and utilities above consumers. The warning was in 2011, and they failed. They recomended fixing the problem, but didn't have any policies to regulate or penalties to just keep the grid the same. In 2011 the population of texas was much lower, and the state imported electricity from mexico. This time the interconnects to mexico, and the other states didn't supply power because they needed it all.

I think the dc interconnects are fine, and may actually help with grid reliability. The reason they are DC in texas is because if they were AC to other states FERC would regulate. For most of ERCOTs history it was well managed, but in 2011 FERC would have forced generators and gas providers to weatherize or build new plants. Now finally over 12 years later the texas legislature approved in april a plan to build new generation which will be mostly natural gas, and weatherize natural gas wells. When things are finally built the old non weatherized natural gas and coal plants will likely be closed or mothballed. Fingers crossed that this works.

 

I would have been in deep doo doo in an emergency trip to a hospital to help a relative. It turned out to be about 60 miles more involved before it was over. The Kia Niro EV would have been out of battery, then what? Look for a charger? No problem in the Prime, relaxed. Plus the public charger rates in that area cost more than to drive the Prime on gas. More to the story is who keeps an ev fully charged all the time ready to go? So this 275 miles etc means nothing.

 

The Everyone should be driving an EV and powering everything in their homes with electricity to save the planet for sure doom and gloom to come, is what the EV lobby on the Hill is all about. Personally, I believe it's all about $ and you'll see the lobby being the first to jump ship onto any newer developments that offer a higher return on investment than the EV market is currently experiencing. YMMV and usually does.

 

This is simply false. Coming from the same people who brought you: Is this where the nickel from Prius comes from? | PriusChat

FUD is FUD. You may not have created it, but please don't spread it.

No one is saying "everyone should be driving an EV" and no one is saying that it is a silver bullet, nor that the planet is in danger.
What is in danger, is the relative calm, steady climate that has allowed our species to thrive. Our culture, and many lives are at risk. The planet is not.

 

Even if you swap "planet" for "culture and many lives" I have doubts that anything I do is going to save it. But I don't need to resolve those doubts because I've done the math and found a compelling economic case for 1) electrifying my home to the extent possible, 2) adding my own solar setup to feed it and 3) steering clear of EVs, at least until they mature some more.

Fingers crossed, with any luck at all my contractor can get my PV setup done by the end of the calendar year.

 

I respect your point of view. I used to have a very similar view myself. Reading here how that direction changes some peoples way of communicating has soured me to the hype of the early adoption crowds, fan boys or whatever stereotype you like to use in it's place.

 

I support alternative fuels for the practical reason that it will probably save money in the long run. A bunch of solar panels on the roof of my house that receives a lot of sunlight would save on power bills. And even if you don't particularly care for the environment, you have to admit that the wild weather, like the constant floods in the northeastern US and the massive heat domes and the long periods without rain in the western US are pretty awful in general and we should probably try to mitigate that.

I take the same approach to my Toyota Prius. Yes it is better for the environment than a pure gas guzzling car, but it is also very practical in that I only have to pay about half for gas that most other people will and it has a surprising amount of trunk storage.

 

i take the opposite approach. i'm shopping ev's to save the planet, and because i love electric driving.

at 43 cents/kwh, and higher insurance, it is gonna cost me big time.

 

I only drove an EV once. A 2017 Chevy Bolt test drive at a small dealership. It didn't really stand out good or bad. The regenerative braking "single pedal" mode gave me a lot of trouble.

 

One pedal driving is something like riding a bike. Once you get the hang of it, you never want to go back.
.

 

even with prius experience? i haven't driven one yet, but i would think it would be easy to adapt to after using prius pedal similarly. idk if they had it before, but now you can disable it on the bolt, and there's a paddle for even stronger regen.

 

That's one of the best features of the Bolt. Like @hill said, once you get it, you'll never want to go back. It's a little like finding the engagement point for a clutch. Best done by playing with it in a parking lot. Shouldn't take more than five minutes.

 

I remember it took me a couple of hours to teach my gf to drive stick ;-) I turn regen to low when she is driving my tesla, but I really like strong regen, one pedal driving is really nice in traffic.

 

As long as the brake lights go on, which I think they do in many cars capable of one pedal driving. I think it’s better to keep the brain active with the brake pedal at least some of the time, myself.

 

On the Bolt, they act very normal in OPD. But that's in contrast to the Ioniq 5 which has them flashing and annoying followers as it regulates speed on downslopes. On the Bolt, the brake lights come on at about 0.5 or 1.0 g of deceleration. Based on behavior, the Ioniq 5 bases the brake lights on regen force which can be pretty strong on a steep hill without any deceleration. Those are the only two models I'm familiar with and the Hyundai is based on Youtube reports.

 

Nah, the "one pedal" mode is way stronger than the Prius regenerative braking. Think of it as constantly driving in "B" mode, quickly decelerating the instant you let your foot off the pedal, and there is a lot of resistance on the pedal so my foot got tired out real quickly.

 

That’s interesting. I never noticed a difference between the resistance of the “go” pedal in a car with regenerative braking.
Was it a used Bolt? Is it possible there was a mechanical issue?

 

I wonder if there’s some kind of eco mode that increases resistance

 

My understanding is that there are paddles on the steering wheel that can be used to increase regenerative braking. However, I don't believe they are designed to add resistance to the pedal itself.

It has been a couple of years though, perhaps I should check them out again

 

Good luck finding one! I can’t even test drive until it comes in late this year