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Comment by tapoxi | Hacker News Reader

I leased my first EV this past summer, a VW id4, and had a 240v/30A charger installed at home. I live in the Boston metro area.

It's really nice the majority of the time - I never need to go on a gas run, acceleration is _significantly_ better than any previous car I've had, there's much less maintenance involved.

Range on longer trips is an issue, with us going to Maine for vacation or to see in-laws in Connecticut we needed to plan around chargers. I was really surprised by the amount of range lost in the winter, going from ~260 miles to ~200.

I'm still very happy with the decision, but it feels like we're in early adopter territory for at least five more years.

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…but it feels like we're in early adopter territory for at least five more years.

You’re probably right, but as an owner of one of the first Nissan Leafs to roll off the line (still have it), my spouse and I view the current market as a luxury of choices and any number of which could easily be our only car. Some of it is perspective: folks will comment on the need to find a charger on a road trip, but never mention that they haven’t had to go out of their way on the way home to find gas since…well, since they bought their EV. Some of it is legitimate, since chargers aren’t as common as gas stations.

But c’mon, even a 200 mile range on a trip is more “minor inconvenience to find a charger on the map on the dashboard that will route me there” rather than “early adopter”, and that’s just once in a while.

I think of it as more 'late stage early adopter' compared to a decade ago with the Leaf. When talking to in-laws about our car we need to bring up "long trips are fine, we just need to stop at a Walmart in New London for 45 minutes on our way back" and that does not make an EV sound appealing to them. This is something that will be eventually solved with more and faster chargers, but we're not there quite yet.

That’s probably a better way of putting it than my meager attempt. I mean, I don’t want to get all “uphill in the snow, both ways”, but having to stop at a fast charger for a bit is inconvenient but not like a pioneer pulling arrows out of one’s back. Still, as your comment illustrates, it’s a blocker for some.

Not really on-topic but relevant, I’d also argue that if one stops for gas once per week, a once-per-month long trip in an EV that involves a 45 minute stop at a WalMart is still a net time savings. Go ahead, those that still have an ICE, time your next gas stop. Took a lot longer than you thought, didn’t it?

The early Nissan Leafs had abysmal range at around 80 miles of range total, but they seemed like the perfect "in town" car. A former manager of mine had a 2012 Leaf and he LOVED it. I always wanted to see how an EV's value would hold up when there was next-generation battery technology that could potentially be retrofit into an older car like the early-model Leaf.

The early Nissan Leafs had abysmal range at around 80 miles of range total

Which is still better than any EV produced at the time. And we could easily get more than that by staying off the freeway. Even 100 mile range isn't going to get you to Portland from Seattle, though.

I always wanted to see how an EV's value would hold up when there was next-generation battery technology that could potentially be retrofit into an older car like the early-model Leaf.

It's still an eleven-year-old car based on Nissan's low-end Versa, with no driving assistance whatsoever. It's a nice little car for what it is, but we're not talking used BMW here, new battery pack or not. So I kind of wonder what the l'il Nissan's ultimate fate will be when we get our next EV. Scrap yard, or renewed battery pack?

I drive a 2019 Toyota Plug-in Prius. This past summer I was getting about 30 miles of electric range. This morning, it was down to 23 miles.

In my case, running out of electric range isn't catastrophic, since it automatically switches to gas when the battery is out. The difference in acceleration performance between gas and electric modes is noticeable. After all, it's a Prius so I'm not winning any drag races, but in electric mode it is very responsive.

I'm pretty happy about this car, I feel like I'm getting the best of both worlds. The majority of my driving is electric, without the range anxiety. If my daily commute were longer (mine is about 12 miles each way), that might tip the balance into driving full electric with a longer range or just falling back to gas entirely.

> Range on longer trips is an issue, with us going to Maine for vacation or to see in-laws in Connecticut we needed to plan around chargers.

Is renting a car for these types of excursions possible?

Imo any new EV contract should come with rental car points for this sort of thing

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