It’s really the only reason I haven’t bought one, as I regularly travel across Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and especially in the wintertime I understand the range is even less because of the cold.
In: 165
300? I think 400-450 is more accurate, at least highway miles.
It’s also the same reason I won’t buy an electric car.
Wake me up when I can charge from nearly empty to full in under 5 minutes and the batteries don’t degrade to the point 100% charged is really only 80% charged.
I love the instant torque but the range & battery degradation are deal breakers for me.
That and almost all electric cars are fuckin ugly.
Breath in.
Ah, that’s better, oxygen, sweet lovely oxygen.
Sweet highly reactive, high potential energy oxygen.
How convenient that we are surrounded by an abundance of it. We can just scoop it up, and oxidise a whole host of fuels and not need to carry a single gram of it around.
Not only that but when you burn fuel with it, it produces water and carbon dioxide, and you can just dump that back into the air. Double win!
By contrast, electric cars needs to carry their own oxidiser for their “fuel”, and worse still, they need to carry the products with them, as well as the storage for it. Every single gram of it.
These facts contribute to a much higher weight for the same amount of energy storage. By no means the only reason however, but enough for you to get started.
From what I understand, it’s easy to make a battery that has this power–at first. So brand new you’ll be able to go that far. Looking at most EVs they say they have a 250-300 mile range.
The issue is that batteries degrade over time and so that range doesn’t last. In the same way that a phone might last a full day but doesn’t after a couple years. Considering cars are expected to last for a decade or more to be a decent investment, this presents an issue because over that amount of time 300 mile ranges can easily turn into 60 mile ranges, and make them not feasible for a car based country like the US
Batteries are like an insanely heavy gas tank that also takes a long time to fill. If you want more range you need more batteries or less vehicle to move.
The next problem is more batteries also equals more vehicle to move, both from the weight of the batteries and making the space in the car to put them.
Short answer, the tech isn’t quite there yet.
It’s not difficult it’s expensive. That’s the answer. Seeing tons of answers here completely ignoring this. They make a truck now with 450 mile range . It’s $70k base .
I think the problem with batteries is the recharge time. Until we can pull up to a filling station, top off the charge in 5min, we’re going to be a long way from total adoption of electric cars and trucks.
Have you done a cost per mile comparison between an electric and combustion engine? Even with reduced range, it might make it more compelling to look at electric vehicles.
Looking at this [list](https://insideevs.com/news/565883/electric-car-prices-us/), the 2023 Chevy Bolt are the cheapest EV’s with a respectable range of about 250 miles. According to Car & Driver, a similar gasoline vehicle would be the VW Jetta Sport, which a 13.2 gallon gas tank, a 40 highway mpg, giving it a maximum range of 540 miles. Average price of gas in Pennsylvania is $3.81. One full tank of gas would then be worth $50.29.
The Chevy bolt charges at a rate 11.5 kWh and will charge fully in 5.5 hours, for a total of 63.25 kWh. In Pennsylvania, power costs $0.17/kWh. To fully charge the EV (at home) would cost $10.75. Even if we double that for two full battery charges, that is still half the cost of a full tank of gas on the Jetta.
That being said, the Chevy Bolt will get approximately 66% of it’s range in temperatures ranging 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. So that range decreases to 165 on a full battery. The Jetta’s 540 mile range on a highway on a full tank of gas is roughly 3.25x greater, but the cost of the Bolt’s full battery more than compensates for.
Unfortunately, the distance from Pittsburgh to Philly is greater than the Bolt’s maximum range. Looking back over that list for a vehicle that can make that trip, the cheapest is the Tesla Model Y, but assuming the same kind of drop off in efficiency in cold weather, likewise would fall short.
The only vehicle that could in fact make the trip even in cold weather, assuming a similar decrease in efficiency, is the Lucid Air Grand Touring AWD, which costs more than 5 times the Chevy Bolt.
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