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Comment by Faaak | Hacker News Reader

> we keep ... gasoline ... for generators Well, can't you charge your EV with a generator ?

Picked a random generator off home depot: https://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-8000-Watt-Electric-Start-...

11 hours runtime at 4kW == 44kWh capacity. 44/7.5 gallon tank == 5.8 kWh per gallon. Lets say your EV has average efficiency of 3.5 miles per kWh, so that’s about 20 mpg off the generator. Apply a 13% efficiency loss while charging (https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a36062942/evs-explaine...) and it reduces to 18mpg. Better than a lot of cars still on the road.

In a crisis, an ev is probably a pretty big waste of a generator, you need to keep your fridge and freezer on for literally as long as possible.

Yep, freezer and fridge get the power and the car is mostly used to get more gasoline and pickup water from the national guard.

Wouldn't a decent ev be able to keep a fridge and freezer going for weeks and have plenty left for short trips?

I thought the ev issue was for those who wish to evacuate long distances without having to recharge to reach the destination.

That's a fair point however if you needed to go anywhere to fetch supplies anyone left at home wouldn't have power until you return. Gasoline just stores so much more energy than modern batteries and it can be pumped from the station without power I think it's more durable in an emergency.

Say you had to live in Kyiv for whatever reason right now. With the rolling outages would you rather have a plug-in hybrid or an EV?

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