Hacker News Reader

Comment by LUmBULtERA | Hacker News Reader

> Norwegians pay higher taxes on cars they purchase that pollute, and lower ones on low and zero-emission cars. The country also taxes bigger cars more than smaller ones. EV drivers often pay lower parking fees and can use bus lanes, too.

The first two sentences make sense! Not the last one though. After driving an EV for a few thousand miles, ive realized they are so superior to ICE for my use case. I hate driving ICE vehicles in the occasions I still do now.

View on HN

In Oslo, the bus lanes on the highways are only accidentally available to EVs currently.

They were open for years as a means to foster EV adoption. But once sales took off, the local government tightened the screws — you needed an EV and also at least two people in the car to get access to the bus lane.

But! When they printed the new signs, somehow a double negative slipped through, and the text on the (many) signs said that you could only use the bus lane if you were driving alone in an EV. Obviously not the intent.

But currently, all the signs have the double negative condition crossed out, and all EVs continue to be able to use the bus lanes.

Ha, that’s funny! That’s similar where I am in the US too, early on there were EV exemptions to some carpool lanes, but that’s phasing out as EVs are normalized.

So, replacing erroneous signs is beyond the current state of technology ? As is proofreading before committing to metal ?

> So, replacing erroneous signs is beyond the current state of technology ?

From the GGP:

>>> But currently, all the signs have the double negative condition crossed out

If they crossed out both, they are back where they started.

I'm pretty sure that's not what was meant. (Do you really think it was, or are you just being snarky?)

Welllllllll.

>After driving an EV for a few thousand miles, ive realized they are so superior to ICE for my use case

I vastly prefer my low-ish end EV (Hyundai Kona) to every ICE vehicle I've ever driven. Even if I wasn't saving ~$100/month in fuel costs, and even if I the environmental effects were a complete wash, I don't think I'd ever buy an ICE again.

I think the only reason I'd ever go to an ICE vehicle is if I needed something larger. Right now, if you need a "family transport" vehicle with space for adults, kids, luggage, etc, the EV world is pretty limited. I had high hopes for the VW Buzz, but it's total range is a bit borderline for me, although I still need to calculate out how it would compare for my typical long distance drive. The Kona has greater range, but a much slower max charge rate, and it might turn out that those balance each other out, and the Kona has been fine for the 10 hour road trips I've done so far.

> a much slower max charge rate

Max charge rate is such a poor metric, as actual charge rate as a function of SOC varies so much between cars.

I'd like to see some standardized figure which is max average charge rate over 15 min, or perhaps minimum charge time for 30 kWh (~150 km range) or something along those lines.

My car has 120 kW peak IIRC, but I've never reached it. Once it's past 20% it has dropped to like 70 kW or something like that. And since I try my best to keep it above 20%, that 120 kW number doesn't mean much to me.

My sister has an ID.4 and it's the same story there. However I do know there are cars that are much better at this, able to sustain quite high charging rate up to or above 50% SOC.