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Comment by ec109685 | Hacker News Reader

Car dealerships are so useless. Imagine making a profit but offering this level of service:

> Range Anxiety: Yes, it's overblown, but no, it's not non-existent. The day I bought my used EV, the dealership (which doesn't sell many EVs, even new) didn't have a 'Level 3' DC fast charger—and they had only charged it to about 16%. Letting it top off at L2 while I was dealing with finance, we got to 23%. I wasn't quite sure I'd make it home off the lot! Luckily I did, with 12 miles of range remaining.

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I also thought this was a pretty silly way of bringing up range anxiety. It's like a dealership selling you a gas car with an empty tank. Obviously the very first thing you would do is to refill it before driving home.

They should fill the tank up with gasoline before putting it on the lot.

This shouldn't really big a big deal in most metro areas, at least. The car dealer doesn't have a big tank of gasoline on site, either, they just drive the car to the station and fill it up while you're signing the papers. They could just drive to the local fast charger with the EV and do exactly the same thing.

EVs lose energy just sitting there, so if you are going to sell EVs, it’s a cost of doing business

Never heard of a Tesla going home with 12% battery.

> EVs lose energy just sitting there

Depends on the EV. My Tesla can chew on a lot of battery with Sentry mode. My Lightning, on the other hand, goes into deep sleep and loses essentially zero energy while parked. It can sit for months without a meaningful loss of charge.

> This shouldn't really big a big deal in most metro areas

Not sure which areas you're referring to but in the Northeast EV infrastructure around the metro areas is not the best. In my experience, I would have to plan out my stops if I was driving between Philly and NYC if I didn't have a 90+% charge and even then I would be worried that there would be a line or chargers would be out of order.

Taking a look at an EV map, there's only half a dozen stations around NYC with 100+ kW chargers and almost all of those chargers are in-use at 2 pm on a Saturday. Sure you can go to a slower charger or just wait, but it's a pain in the ass if you are trying to plan out a trip and show up on time.

> there's only half a dozen stations around NYC with 100+ kW chargers

That seems low. Even looking only at Tesla Superchargers, there are something like a dozen just right around NYC itself. Not including EA or any other providers.

Heck, even sleeping Portland, Oregon has 10 Tesla Superchargers in the metro area.

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