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Comment by deelowe | Hacker News Reader

I think it would be easier to simply get EVs to the point where they have over 300mi of range on a charge and build out quick charge infrastructure. Waiting 20-30 minutes to quick charge after close to 300 miles of driving doesn't really seem that big of a headache to me. That's basically equivalent to stopping for food, gas, and a bathroom break which I'd do on long trips anyways.

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That's nice for you that your 20 minute poop breaks are enough time to charge your car.

On the other hand, every time I have traveled by car between the bay area and LA (~400 miles, 5-6 hours one way) , I/we never* made any stops longer than 10 minutes.

*I say never, but there have actually been a couple times when I set out not well rested and on the return leg I needed to stop in the middle somewhere to catch some shut eye. But the vast majority of trips are on the road the entire time except one stop for 5 minutes to fill gas and empty bladder.

I'd love to find a good number on the daily mileage of the median passenger car in the US. The average looks to be around 30-35mi/day but the median is probably a small fraction of that. Why would you want your battery pack to be 10x oversized for your typical day?

I think a more efficient solution would be series-hybrids with small onboard generators for range extension. Minimize weight/cost of the battery pack while maintaining the ability to drive cross-country without frequent charging stops.

My understanding is that hybrids are more costly than simply putting in a larger pack. It's certainly an order of magnitude more complex.

PHEVs are certainly more complex, but a series hybrid like the BMW i3 only involves finding space for a small genset and some additional control software/electronics. I'm having trouble finding good numbers but this[0] article says the option added only ~$4k to the price.

[0] https://insideevs.com/news/317236/first-bmw-i3-electric-car-...

One of the economies of battery scale is durability, no? What you gain in cost savings up front you lose by needing to replace the batteries more frequently than N times the larger battery pack size.

That's pretty much how road trips in a Tesla play out today. After depleting the battery you want to get out and stretch your legs, use the bathroom, and get a snack.

Most fast chargers are located near or at amenities. This is how it should be. I could see rest stops on the highway being outfitted with fast chargers in the future.

Only issue is that rest stops kind of suck for resting. :-)

The ones in Arizona are pretty horrific but Georgia's are pretty decent.

Make it a destination, like Buc-ee's in Texas:

https://sbj.net/uploads/original/20220125-114518-Bucees.jpg

The charge stations just need a bathroom and maybe some vending machines and a waiting area. Fancier ones can be more like the big road trip gas stations you sometimes run into

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