Whole my kids were growing up we had a big people-mover vehicle. They grew up, we stopped using it, send I sold it. Recently I had a group visit and we wanted to see the sights. I simply rented (a much more modern and nicer) people mover for a week. Renting local, away from the airport, was really cheap.
My daily drive is negligible. For road trips I'll just rent a car. I can also rent a truck if I need to carry stuff, or something with a towbar to drag stuff.
Being "cheap " 350 days a year leaves a big budget for renting the edge case.
I do suspect we'll start to see lower priced EVs in the used market in coming years however.
If you're going to spend $30k you can get an excellent ice or an entry level ev.
Chevy Blazer: $35,400. Chevy Blazer EV: $56,715. https://www.chevrolet.com/
Subaru Outback: $29K. Subaru Solterra: $45K.
No one makes a direct Sedan comparison that I am aware of, but:
Tesla Model 3: From $39K. Subaru Impreza $23K.
All the Subaru Solterras at the local Subaru dealer were going for north of $66,000.00 when I was down that way a few months ago.
Sincerely: Hell naw.
I don't pay fuel. I don't pay insurance. I don't have to finance a car.
When I need to move something big or heavy I rent a full size van or a box truck for about $100 for the day. Most people pay more than that just for car insurance in a month. And then I get a vehicle that is exactly what I need, including a lift gate when suitable. I rent a nice sedan when picking up my in-laws at the airport and a big station wagon when going on holidays with the family.
And I'm still ahead thousands of dollars every year compared to the average car payment which is more than $500 per month even for a used car.
Even when my son was swimming competitively and we had to Uber him around to 6 training sessions a week plus often competitions many miles away, I only briefly averaged 400GBP/month in total transport costs (though with the caveat that I work from home; had I commuted full time it'd have added ~200/month to get in to the centre of London, but then again I'd likely have spent that even if I had a car because commuting in to the centre with a car is a nightmare)
And I got to sit and relax and read or talk to my son or listen to music and not have to pay attention to the road.
I get that some enjoy the actual act of driving and/or driving a comfy, fancy car, but for many, it's a really expensive enjoyment and I suspect a lot of people have not considered just how much they could "paper over" edge cases and issues with public transport (yes, I know this is not a viable options for huge parts of the US) or choices like yours with Uber or rentals.
Uber in the UK must be awfully cheap?
Six trips a week (round trip makes 12) plus a few far-away competitions, so at least ~50 trips a month. For 400GBP?
I rarely use Lyft/Uber but even the shortest trips I've made (just a few miles) are at least $30.
Most of his trips would be to local leisure centres within about a two mile radius that would have been walkable in 20m-40m if not for the lack of time to finish up work, get him ready after school etc.. Normally I'd prefer to walk, and that's a large part of the reason my transport costs are very low.
EDIT: Just checked my most recent few trips, and I paid 16 pounds for a trip Google Maps tells me is 7.4 miles driving distance, and 20 pounds for the return the same distance. The last few trips to my local station have been between 6.50 and 8 pounds, so definitely gone up.
There wouldn’t be much point to an Alaskan road trip with a rental. Again, just fly and rent a car I guess, but we could get up to Prince George maybe.
Imho renting via a car share is great for the occasional city truck need but for recreation it’s much better to own.
They recharged out of their accomodation while they weren't out driving. We don't even have electricity 24 hours/day here due to our ongoing generation crisis, so I'm surprised you wouldn't be able to do something similar in the USA or are those two parks just really that remote? Or is it the 120V AC that's the issue?
[1] https://mybroadband.co.za/news/motoring/504858-i-drove-an-el...
Three phase 16-25A outlets are available (common in buildings/houses) in Europe (230V each phase to neutral, 400V phase to phase). Charging Li-Ion is not a linear process at all, but at so low power (0.02C, compared to the target's battery one) it'd be, as it'd be limited by the source instead.
This is not as impressive as you might think, to be honest. What they did is the ideal situation for using EVs: drive short distances and charge overnight.
>> over the course of our 4-night stay, despite driving over 100km per day in the park.
Their needed range was 100km/day, over four days, with overnight charging for each 100km drive.
To get there, they drove for 3 hours, then stopped for 1.5 hours to charge.
Honestly, the story makes it clear that range is an issue, not that range is doable in an EV.
Not sure what argument you think I'm making, but OP already owns the car, I'm not making a claim about anything being impressive or trying to convince anybody to buy one.
I shared somebody's detailed log book for a potentially similar kind of trip in a similar vehicle in a more challenging charging environment. I've never been to the US parks in question, and I don't know how much driving one does on those trips, so I made some caveats.
> Honestly, the story makes it clear that range is an issue, not that range is doable in an EV.
How is it an issue? They had a great trip and found that the animal viewing was especially enjoyable in an EV, and the experience was significantly different from driving an ICE. If it doesn't work in OPs particular scenario, that's fine, but I don't know why you're making generalised statements about a specific trip.
> How is it an issue? They had a great trip and found that the animal viewing was especially enjoyable in an EV, and the experience was significantly different from driving an ICE.
That's not relevant to "range is an issue".
> If it doesn't work in OPs particular scenario, that's fine, but I don't know why you're making generalised statements about a specific trip.
Because it is being presented as newsworthy when it really isn't - 100km/day is not what people refer to when they say "range anxiety". A long trip in which 50% of the trip duration is spent waiting for charge is also not newsworthy.
Can you clarify what the point of your comment was? I'm just a little bit confused about the point of responding to a range-anxiety post with a link to a news article that demonstrates 100km/day range.
It's my understanding that no one is discussing and/or concerned about a range of 100km off a full charge, so my interpretation of your initial post was that it was an attempt to alleviate fears about range, so ... I (naturally) thought that you were presenting the 100km/day range as something new that I (and others) might not have know about.
[PS. Hi from another South African :-)]
And road trip? Between 500-1000 a day on travel days.
North America is big.
The world is big no matter where you are, but that just sounds like bragging how wasteful you can be.
Is that really relevant? If someone is prepared to drive 600+km one-way, it sounds like they are going whether or not anyone wants to go with them.
> The world is big no matter where you are, but that just sounds like bragging how wasteful you can be.
Someone prepared to drive long distances for a specific $SOMETHING isn't bragging.
You might argue that they must modify their entertainment preferences to suit your morals, but your morals are irrelevant.
It's not really an issue they were just extremely cautious, something you'd expect in South Africa if you know anything about their power grid. I believe the author was actually trying to show it is actually feasible and range is not a concern.
I'd also like to know how fast charging a lot but only from 20% to 80% works out cost wise over time. i.e. more stops to fast charge on a long journey but spending less time at each stop.
I have a feeling that if the car companies could get battery leasing and fast charging costs under control then a good charging network would cure a lot of range anxiety.
I've done long journeys in someone else's EV in the UK. Fast charging at motorway stops we'd make anyway really wasn't a problem but I don't know how that affects the cost depreciation.
(I still have the same old diesel car I've had from new for the last 10 years. I'd buy an electric car but I don't really drive much and I don't really like the current offerings).
I don't think that even the most anti-EV person is going to think that range is a concern for doing 100km off a full charge.
In a discussion where almost all of us are open to being convinced, it's even more pointless to link to a practical range of 100km/day.
(Also South African, so ... Hi? :-))
I am fascinated by this comment, because I don't consider a 3 hour trip to be particularly long. Certainly not long enough to require a half hour break in the middle of it.
That said, "range anxiety" isn't the reason that I won't buy an EV at all. Most of my driving would be well covered by EV ranges, and I'd be fine renting a car or using other transportation methods for the occasional long trip.
That’s a fantastic drive by the way. Pack a camera!