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Comment by spectrum1234 | Hacker News Reader

I think the opposite is true. For Tesla owners its more like "Every day I wake up with a full tank of gas."

The percentage of trips over ~215 miles is quite small. Doing the math you are saving many hours/year on average. Of course I'm not accounting for edge cases but that's the point they are edge cases.

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THIS.

Absolutely. I love my electric car for this reason and I _hate_ it when I'm in our hybrid and the dumb yellow E comes on and I have to make an unplanned pitstop.

I also got over range anxiety pretty quickly too: I've taken our Model S from Portland to Yosemite twice. With little kids, the time to supercharge is less than the time needed to get get them all snacks, potty breaks, stretch, etc. It was great!

PS: Just noticed that the last like 10-15 comments I've made are all about Tesla. I should probably get a new hobby :P

I think it's fair to say that there is a large percentage of the population where a trip over 215 miles is a once-per-year or less event.

For myself personally, I probably take 5 or 6 trips per year where I'm covering over 400 miles in a day. The time it takes to recharge the car would be a big negative to me. It's nice to be able to jump in the car in SF early morning and be in Seattle by evening. Not sure I'd even make it half way in an electric car.

I'm sure someone will comment "well this car isn't for you" and they are correct.

You don't want a 30-min break in the middle of that 400 miles?

Your bladder/hunger control must be way better than mine

That's only 5 hours of driving at 80 mph. I sometimes drive that distance on a Friday night. Get off work, eat a quick dinner, and hit the road. I stop to gas up once and go to the bathroom at the same time. In and out in less than 10 minutes. I'm often going camping, so the fact that my vehicle is full is also important. My understanding is that a Tesla isn't fully recharged after 30 minutes. I realize this is far from average, but the OP's case isn't crazy.

You get used to having an extra 20 or 30 minutes tacked on pretty easily. I own an S. You just have to know what the good supercharger locations are with good stuff nearby (like free WiFi)! Bring a good book with you. I don't know it sounds like I'm justifying the inconvenience...I guess for me it's about the eventual environmental impact and the self driving more than the extra 30 minutes at a rest stop!

Yeah I could see getting used to that. Especially if you plan it around having dinner. Just curious, do you ever run into having to wait for a spot at the super charger? I see lots of them are 4 spots deep.

Another problem is that, depending on where you are going, it looks like you might not be able to charge anywhere on the route. I found a map of locations here: http://www.teslarati.com/map/

Like the typical route between Denver, CO to Lake City, CO (255 miles one way) has no supercharger close. Would you modify your route to swing by the location? Or would you have a friend drive a gas car instead?

Well, I'm in the Northeast. When I'm heading somewhere to camp it's usually upstate from NYC. I'm pretty lucky in that the superchargers on the Thruway are honestly really empty at this point. I'll pull in to maybe 1 car, especially if I go further north. Paramus and Tarrytown are fairly busy but further North superchargers are not.

I have a 90D so I'd be able to make that drive in one go, although it would be close!

>You don't want a 30-min break in the middle of that 400 miles?

30 minutes if you can drive right up to a charger. Do you think that will be the case once hundreds of thousands of EVs are on the road? Have you ever road-tripped in the summer and had to wait in line for gas, which takes minutes to fill? I have. Often.

You would spend a bit under 2 hours charging en route, but it'd give you time to grab breakfast in Corning, and lunch in Springfield.

That being said, having done Seattle to San Diego recently (while passing thru Gilroy), I should have spent a day in Oregon or Norcal, 13hr days are just not my jam when it comes to driving.

Exactly so. The last time I had to go out of my way to "fill up" my car was at the end of December. The next time will probably be this summer sometime. Sure, it slows me down a bit when I'm making those long trips, but it's a net win.

It's true that this is a negative for EVs, but it's also one of their great advantages.

Add to this with their fast charge you can add ~70m/100km 10min. This makes topping up quite fast if your going over the range a bit any one day. Or 80% charge in 40min, which for most people would be easy to organise around lunch break or meeting if your already doing enough driving to drain the days range.

Looking further ahead, the self driving will likely allow the car to go fuel itself while you are out of it. And generally we should see more and more parking spots with chargers.

I think you're underestimating the number of long distance trips. I have a car only for long distance trips. Short trips and commutes I can do with public transit, cross country trips I do with planes, 50-500 mile trips I do with a car. I do a trip that long almost every weekend. If I had to add 30 min to a trip from Denver to Vail and back I'd be pissed.

Most people who own a car do not use public transit for short trips and commutes.

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