Electric Vehicles

[Pete]

Great article with some interesting graphics from Motor Trend:

Electric Vehicles Are Way, Way More Energy-Efficient Than Internal Combustion Vehicles

[Plutonic Panda]

I’m leaning towards an electric mini like what Travelers had for city driving as it seems small and east to navigate in larger cities like LA or OKC but I want a four door. I’m also considering Fiat 500e if I go the cheaper route. I rented a Tesla and it was fun but for the price idk

[okatty]

Rivian and other premium electric vehicle makers were scrambling last week to sell or at least get binding contracts in place before The Inflation Reduction Act is signed into law. I got an email from Rivian asking for a signed agreement and a $100 non-refundable deposit ($900 refundable) to preserve the $7,500 tax credit.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/p...den-signs-bill

[kukblue1]

I would love to go electric but I make a few long trips in a year and not sure I'm ready to plan those trips around charging stations and time it takes to charge. I like the ideal of having two cars one gas for the long haul trips and one electric just for driving around town. My current gas one is paid off and only 7 years old so I could do something like that but I know many Americans probably wouldn't be able too.

[Laramie]

Oklahoma will receive $27 million in federal funding intended to help schools and other organizations acquire electric buses.--Journal Record--October 27, 2022

[Soonerinfiniti]

I am beginning to see more and more Francis Energy chargers around town. First saw one in Davis, OK on I-35, saw one in MWC on Douglas in a strip shopping center and then another one a few miles north at the Crest on Douglas. I believe the Oncue at SE 29th and Douglas also have chargers. I don't own an EV but I wonder how the price to charge varies between different chargers....

[David]

Oklahoma will receive $27 million in federal funding intended to help schools and other organizations acquire electric buses.--Journal Record--October 27, 2022

This is excellent news. Big vehicle fleets like school buses that nearly always drive a fixed, knowable route are really good choices for an electric transition. You still need some long-range busses for out of town trips, but that's only ever going to be a subset of the total fleet.

[Pete]

^

They also sit from late afternoon until early morning, allowing plenty of time to recharge.

Really, most local transit and delivery vehicles could easily be EV's. You'd think Amazon, UPS, Kroger, etc.... Basically any vehicles that are owned by the company doing local delivery (as opposed to gig-drivers that use their own cars).

[Jersey Boss]

This is excellent news. Big vehicle fleets like school buses that nearly always drive a fixed, knowable route are really good choices for an electric transition. You still need some long-range busses for out of town trips, but that's only ever going to be a subset of the total fleet.

Factoring maintaince and such it would be cost efficient to just charter with a private bus company for those infrequent long trips.

[David]

^

They also sit from late afternoon until early morning, allowing plenty of time to recharge.

Really, most local transit and delivery vehicles could easily be EV's. You'd think Amazon, UPS, Kroger, etc.... Basically any vehicles that are owned by the company doing local delivery (as opposed to gig-drivers that use their own cars).

I know that Walmart is all over that idea, and I seem to recall seeing information along those lines about Amazon as well.

Factoring maintaince and such it would be cost efficient to just charter with a private bus company for those infrequent long trips.

I'm thinking stuff like Friday night football trips, enough busses to transport the team, the cheerleaders, the band, etc. every other week might be more cost effective to still have a half dozen ICE vehicles.

[TheTravellers]

I am beginning to see more and more Francis Energy chargers around town. First saw one in Davis, OK on I-35, saw one in MWC on Douglas in a strip shopping center and then another one a few miles north at the Crest on Douglas. I believe the Oncue at SE 29th and Douglas also have chargers. I don't own an EV but I wonder how the price to charge varies between different chargers....

I should've kept track on our way down to Dallas, the app keeps track though, so I'll go back in and see. Used their chargers in Davis (twice), at the Border Casino (twice) and once in Purcell. Used EA chargers for free in Denton Wal-Mart parking lot the other two times we charged. Have to say that their tech support was great, even if their chargers didn't always work (just switched to the one next to it and it usually worked).

[Pete]

I should've kept track on our way down to Dallas, the app keeps track though, so I'll go back in and see. Used their chargers in Davis (twice), at the Border Casino (twice) and once in Purcell. Used EA chargers for free in Denton Wal-Mart parking lot the other two times we charged. Have to say that their tech support was great, even if their chargers didn't always work (just switched to the one next to it and it usually worked).

How many times did you have to charge your car per round trip?

[FighttheGoodFight]

I had a model y for a few trips from South OKC to Dallas. Just fast charged once in OKC and once in Dallas. Sort of an outlier though since it is a long range version. Pleasant experience but honestly would hate to do super long road trips.

[TheTravellers]

How many times did you have to charge your car per round trip?

It's a MINI, shortest range (but also cheapest) EV, so lots. Not gonna do that again, too much range anxiety (especially since we were on a deadline going to see Roxy Music that night). Supposed to get 105-120 miles on a full battery, but since you don't really want to be down to 20 miles and the nearest charger be 30 miles away, I erred on the side of caution. Stopped at Davis, Border Casino, and Denton on the way down, same on the way back, but adding Purcell in since we detoured around the construction and that would have gotten us home with 5-6 miles left - way too close for comfort.

Other EVs should be able to make it down there without recharging or maybe only once (as mentioned above). I didn't want to have to deal with charging in Dallas proper, so I wanted to make sure I had enough to get in and out of it before charging again.

[Martin]

It's a MINI, shortest range (but also cheapest) EV, so lots. Not gonna do that again, too much range anxiety (especially since we were on a deadline going to see Roxy Music that night). Supposed to get 105-120 miles on a full battery, but since you don't really want to be down to 20 miles and the nearest charger be 30 miles away, I erred on the side of caution. Stopped at Davis, Border Casino, and Denton on the way down, same on the way back, but adding Purcell in since we detoured around the construction and that would have gotten us home with 5-6 miles left - way too close for comfort.

Other EVs should be able to make it down there without recharging or maybe only once (as mentioned above). I didn't want to have to deal with charging in Dallas proper, so I wanted to make sure I had enough to get in and out of it before charging again.

how long did it take you per charge? personally, i'm curious about buying an ev for my next vehicle (in a few years) and want to understand the ownership experience.

[FighttheGoodFight]

Charging varies wildly based on the charger, batt temperature, etc. On a fast charger like DCFC under good conditions you can go from 30% to 80% in about 30 minutes. Level 2 charging at home from 30% to 80% is close to 5 hours.

In reality you charge every night when you get home and never really think about it. The DCFC are there for road trips and are usually at destinations you can burn 30 minutes or so.

[TheTravellers]

how long did it take you per charge? personally, i'm curious about buying an ev for my next vehicle (in a few years) and want to understand the ownership experience.

The MINI EV is the only one I have ever driven or have experience with and it's kind of an outlier, so bear that in mind. MINI basically says it's meant for a second car to run around the city, and I agree with them. It has a smaller battery than every other EV, which means shorter charging times, but also shorter range.

To go from almost empty to almost full takes about 45-50 minutes. We didn't ever really charge to 100% because when it gets close to full, it starts ramping down the charging and that last 5-8% can take another 15 mins and we didn't need to be at 100% because we charged more often than we needed to.

As for the previous question about cost - turns out the Francis Energy app doesn't keep track of the prices, but doing some calculations, it looks like I paid between $0.50 and close to $1 per kWh, but I charged during the day every time. I think it goes down at night, and there was a $1 session fee too.

As mentioned above, I charge at night using my level 2 charger normally, as I'd imagine most EV owners do. *Our* charging places on that trip weren't great - basically Chickasaw Travel Stops (gas stations with a food place). Got to sit inside at one that had an A&W and eat, and one at Davis was at the Chickasaw Welcome Center where we shopped a bit. The one in Purcell was in an empty parking lot.

[Soonerinfiniti]

The MINI EV is the only one I have ever driven or have experience with and it's kind of an outlier, so bear that in mind. MINI basically says it's meant for a second car to run around the city, and I agree with them. It has a smaller battery than every other EV, which means shorter charging times, but also shorter range.

To go from almost empty to almost full takes about 45-50 minutes. We didn't ever really charge to 100% because when it gets close to full, it starts ramping down the charging and that last 5-8% can take another 15 mins and we didn't need to be at 100% because we charged more often than we needed to.

As for the previous question about cost - turns out the Francis Energy app doesn't keep track of the prices, but doing some calculations, it looks like I paid between $0.50 and close to $1 per kWh, but I charged during the day every time. I think it goes down at night, and there was a $1 session fee too.

As mentioned above, I charge at night using my level 2 charger normally, as I'd imagine most EV owners do. *Our* charging places on that trip weren't great - basically Chickasaw Travel Stops (gas stations with a food place). Got to sit inside at one that had an A&W and eat, and one at Davis was at the Chickasaw Welcome Center where we shopped a bit. The one in Purcell was in an empty parking lot.

But what was the total fee to charge? I understand differing battery capacities, but how much generally does it cost to charge your Mini Cooper EV?

[okatty]

Rivian released lots of new delivery date estimates yesterday and general consensus is they are much longer than prior expectations. For example their prior “expected ‘23 delivery dates” are now a wide window of Jan.-Dec ‘24.

[Plutonic Panda]

^

They also sit from late afternoon until early morning, allowing plenty of time to recharge.

Really, most local transit and delivery vehicles could easily be EV's. You'd think Amazon, UPS, Kroger, etc.... Basically any vehicles that are owned by the company doing local delivery (as opposed to gig-drivers that use their own cars).

I’m seeing tons of FedEx EVs around LA.

[TheTravellers]

But what was the total fee to charge? I understand differing battery capacities, but how much generally does it cost to charge your Mini Cooper EV?

The only times I've ever used DC Fast Chargers were on this trip to Dallas, and the only ones that I had to pay at were the Francis Energy ones, and here's the breakdown (MINI battery capacity is ~32kWh):

$5.74 - 9.22 kWh
$15.93 - 18.06kWh
$10.92 - 11.02kWh
$13.18 - 12.43kWh
$3.30 - 3.87kWh
$2.74 - 2.71kWh
$3.11 - 3.39kWh
$18.85 - 24.92kWh

All of these included a $1 session fee, and the smaller ones were from a faulty charger that kept disconnecting (I moved to the one next to it eventually).

[Martin]

The MINI EV is the only one I have ever driven or have experience with and it's kind of an outlier, so bear that in mind. MINI basically says it's meant for a second car to run around the city, and I agree with them. It has a smaller battery than every other EV, which means shorter charging times, but also shorter range.

To go from almost empty to almost full takes about 45-50 minutes. We didn't ever really charge to 100% because when it gets close to full, it starts ramping down the charging and that last 5-8% can take another 15 mins and we didn't need to be at 100% because we charged more often than we needed to.

As for the previous question about cost - turns out the Francis Energy app doesn't keep track of the prices, but doing some calculations, it looks like I paid between $0.50 and close to $1 per kWh, but I charged during the day every time. I think it goes down at night, and there was a $1 session fee too.

As mentioned above, I charge at night using my level 2 charger normally, as I'd imagine most EV owners do. *Our* charging places on that trip weren't great - basically Chickasaw Travel Stops (gas stations with a food place). Got to sit inside at one that had an A&W and eat, and one at Davis was at the Chickasaw Welcome Center where we shopped a bit. The one in Purcell was in an empty parking lot.

thanks for the info!

[Teo9969]

The only times I've ever used DC Fast Chargers were on this trip to Dallas, and the only ones that I had to pay at were the Francis Energy ones, and here's the breakdown (MINI battery capacity is ~32kWh):

$5.74 - 9.22 kWh
$15.93 - 18.06kWh
$10.92 - 11.02kWh
$13.18 - 12.43kWh
$3.30 - 3.87kWh
$2.74 - 2.71kWh
$3.11 - 3.39kWh
$18.85 - 24.92kWh

All of these included a $1 session fee, and the smaller ones were from a faulty charger that kept disconnecting (I moved to the one next to it eventually).

How many total stops did you have for charging?

[TheTravellers]

How many total stops did you have for charging?

7 - 3 on the way down (Davis, Border Casino, Denton) and 4 on the way back (those, plus Purcell). But again - smallest battery and MINI's guess-o-meter (range estimate) is conservative, but I was even more conservative.

[Jersey Boss]

7 - 3 on the way down (Davis, Border Casino, Denton) and 4 on the way back (those, plus Purcell). But again - smallest battery and MINI's guess-o-meter (range estimate) is conservative, but I was even more conservative.

It sounds like this is not a good choice for a primary vehicle.
I went to Dallas yesterday from Norman in a Accord(V6).
44 bucks round trip with no fuel stops.