u/Amperture

Availability

Most, perhaps even all (but don't hold me to that) EVs have a setting where when you're plugged in, you can actually wait to charge until after 10 or 11pm, when the rest of the grid is using a lot less electricity, specifically for this use case, as well as because many electric companies charge less monies per angry pixie they send to your car.

price

Here's some napkin math:

• A Honda Civic on gas gets rated for ~36 mi/gal
• My Bolt is rated for ~3.97 mi/kWh, so I'll use that number, but I should mention I regularly get between 4.1 and 4.5
• National average gas price today sits at 4.33 $/gal (I don't see it in my area lower than $5, but we'll use the average)

Using the above, electricity would need to cost 0.48 $/kWh for me to be at roughly the same price in Dollars Per Mile Driven, just on gas vs. electricity cost alone, nevermind the drastic reduction in maintenence costs.

To restate: electricity would need to cost 0.48 $/kWh to cost the same as gas in a Civic.

My electricity costs 0.15 $/kWh at the house. My local park where I like to get walks in has a charger that gives me 0.10 $/kWh

Another way to look at it, my "gas" costs somewhere between 0.91 and 1.36 dollars per gallon when compared against a Civic.

"But Amperture, what about hybrids!?" I'm glad you asked, Hybrids are real efficient. Luckily the math still works out.

Same calcs put the Prius at roughly 57 mpg, same assumptions otherwise.

Electricity would need to cost 0.30 $/kWh for a 1st Gen Bolt to lose to a Prius

I'm in Chicago, and can't charge at home, but electricity costs are around 15c/kWh in my area.

There's a nature trail near me where I can get some fresh air and cardio in for the day when I need it that has an L2 charge within walking distance for 10c/kWh (2 hour limit, $3/hr fee after that).

An hour walk gets me 13% battery, and if I wanna stick around for another hour I've got Fermata Auto and can watch stuff from my home Jellyfish server (unlimited data)

Why does it look like it wants to vacuum my driveway?

An SS trim.

I have a condo with outdoor reserved space parking in the back alley, there's not even an electrical outlet close enough to do Level 1 within reason.

I have asked about the potential to have a charger installed at my spot.

My HOA president asked "Are you willing to pay for the install?" Certainly, it's my spot, it'll be my charger, I'll pay for it.

A week of silence, then "Actually we'll also need to consult the HOA's legal team, are you willing to pay those legal fees?"

I got the signal, I'm public charging only now.

If that's the route, I'd also add on that productivity could also be served by a trackball.

It never will be. Fortnite doesn't use it so no other game dev will use it either because if Epic doesn't have faith in their own anti-cheat, why should you?

A Toyota I think Civic? tried to drag on my 2019 Bolt other day at two redlights and got thoroughly embarrassed.

"Damn those electric things got some power, huh?"

I don't go full-to-empty like that, I tend to keep topped up to 80% once I hit 50%.

My Odometer shows that I've averaged 4.8 mi/kWh for the last 400 miles though so :shrug:

If I'm road tripping like I will in a few weeks for QuakeCon I certainly won't actually hit that. On a road trip I get 3.5-ish mpkwh.

City driving, lots of slow traffic below 45mph, lots of start-stop to maximize regen, very little time on the highway.

I average about 4.5 mpkwh.

"recent driving history" defined as the previous five minutes

Noted, I'll try turning off write for Crono->GHealthConnect

Dang, well I'm not ready to give up just yet.

I'm too used to the muscle memory of foot completely coming off the gas to even begin the process of slowing down. Feathering the gas to slow down "properly" in one-pedal mode just feels awkward.

I've also noticed my driving tends to be more efficient due to high usage of coasting for regen when I turned off one-pedal mode.

There is one area where OPD is a Godsent though, and that's in bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go traffic during shit like rush hour.

Hot take: Level 2 becomes the better option when you reach higher saturation.

The more spots in my daily commute include a level 2, the less I would ever need a level 3.

The grocery store, the local park when I wanna go for a walk and get fresh air, the movie theatre, the restaraunt. If I go to these four places in a day and can charge at only one of them, the more I'll need that charger to be DCFC. If I can charge at all of them, then I only need AC Level 2.

You will still need DCFC along major travel corridors for road trips, but you can mitigate non-road-trip need for DCFC by just increasing Level 2 saturation.

That said, based on location alone there are a few places where DCFC is the clear winner, as well as places where Level 2 is. Hotels, for example, would never make sense to have DCFC, and gas station/rest stops that want to get into electricity will always prefer DCFC.

Navidrome + Tailscale + Symfonium, brother.

Also an unlimited data plan but those are actually getting kinda cheap if you know where to look.

This made me realize this should also be combined with battery preconditioning.

Your filters are going to be your best friend on PlugShare.

Common ones are:

• Hide Tesla-only
  
• Hide Dealerships
  
• Hide Restricted Access
• Hide Coming Soon (not much worse than going to a charge spot that doesn't exist yet.
• Filter by PlugScore (community rating system)
• Filter by Charging Speed (Don't want to be on a road trip and show up at an L1)

Probably the biggest problem do deal with as an EV owner without home charging is competing with the Uber and Lyft Drivers.

In my particular part of town it's rather common to see the one public charging spot that has reasonable prices but only two stalls have about 3 Model Ys with the Uber sticker in the corner waiting in line.