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Comment by mikestew | Hacker News Reader

…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.

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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?

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