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Comment by mbloom1915 | Hacker News Reader

mbloom1915

solve the problem of making EVs useful for city livers and then we can start to talk about real adoption - suburbia has luxury of charging EVs overnight when affordable but people living in apartments/condos/etc and parking on the street every night do not have accessible EV charging infrastructure

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The biggest problem for city drivers (I'm in San Francisco) is we only need a car that goes about 45 mph, but we can only buy vehicles (electric or ICE) that are designed for 70-80 mph. They tend to weigh over 3,000 lbs, and a Tesla weighs near 5,000 lbs.

The best we can do right now are "Neighborhood Electric Vehicles", limited in the US to a top speed of only 25mph. Scoot rents one, a Twizy: http://blog.caranddriver.com/in-a-twizy-nissan-renting-elect.... They're fun to drive, but VERY rough and crude.

Perhaps we need a class of lightweight vehicles with a top speed just barely insufficient for freeway use? For pedestrian and bike safety, I'd think we need to keep vehicle mass and velocity as low as practical.

Oddly enough that is exactly what the linked report says, scroll to exhibit 11 and after: "Findings for the other seven consumer segments indicate near-term unmet demand for more basic mobility solutions (e.g., lower-range, smaller vehicles, less driving utility)."

That would be such a limited niche that I can't imagine manufacturers could sell enough to achieve economies of scale. The Nissan Leaf is super cheap and only weighs 3400 lbs so what's the problem there? From a pedestrian collision standpoint the motor vehicle weight is irrelevant; it's the speed and vehicle shape which affect injury/death rates.

electric bicycle

How about the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Fiat 500e, or the Chevy Spark EV?

I drove one of those Renault Twizy some years ago, and I can say it is not speed-limited by any means. In fact, it has a very good acceleration and top-speed around 100 km/h (at least, as I was afraid of turning it upside down on the highway!)..

Yeah, I visited Rome last month, which is a city filled with small fuel efficient cars and really expensive gasoline. I didn't see a single electric. My guess is that because people live in apartments, they haven't figured out how to get charging at street level. It seemed there were parking permits for residents, but people don't own their spaces. For now its an interesting, unsolved problem.

I saw a handful of Twizys when I was in Rome a few years ago, still not quite sure where they charged.

Apparently the best selling car in Japan at the moment is an EV which you can't plug in, but only charges via a gasoline powered generator.

http://www.carscoops.com/2016/11/nissan-note-gets-new-electr...

Interesting half-way-house for city drivers.

> people living in apartments/condos/etc and parking on the street every night do not have accessible EV charging infrastructure

DC Fast Charging mostly solves this problem -- roughly 80 miles in 30 minutes. Grab lunch while charging your car, and your battery is filled for the week. There aren't a ton of stations that support that speed yet, but more are being built every year.

> suburbia has luxury of charging EVs overnight

This is one of the few luxuries suburbia offers. Urban apartment/condo dwellers get dozens of benefits that suburban households don't, it seems only fair that suburban folks get a few things to enjoy.

That's already improving, though. I see lots of on-street charging points being installed here in London. Still not quite as convenient as having your own home charger, but certainly viable.

I agree. If you live in a condo building, it's very unlikely you can get a charging station installed.

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