Not harsh at all. I realize people have questions. Keep them coming.
Before I answer your questions, let me say you aren't being harsh at all, but I notice every post you write on an EV thread is rather "negative" on EV's. You have plenty of company on this forum in that regard. 2 Examples: you've mentioned the environmental conscious credentials. From my experience, I would say 90% of Tesla owners couldn't care less about those credentials. We buy and drive them because they are better vehicles. Yes they don't stink. But the emissions part is neither here nor there. The same 90% don't buy them to say "look at my glamorous car" either. I would drive a go kart down the street if it could do what my cars do. My point is: I think several here can't possibly accept that Tesla's are better vehicles than ICE's, and attribute their popularity to ego or some other equally negative attribute of the owner.
First, thank you for taking the time to answer. It's good to hear from real experience, rather than hype.
Yes, I've been questioning all the claims as to why I should buy an EV. I really would love to be convinced. That will happen when these questions are resolved. Instead I usually get run-arounds, half-answers and overly rosy estimates.
I'm a practical guy. Fad and fashion won't sway me, and yes, I do think that's a factor for many EV buyers. Maybe I don't know as many Tesla owners as you, but I'd put that 90/10 split exactly opposite to where you put it.
I want to do right for the environment, but reality requires me to stick to a budget. The way EVs will go mainstream is when they can meet the needs of the majority.
Can you actually go 325? You could if you started at 100% state of charge and drove it to 0%. Only a crazy person would try that. Just like riding from full to empty in an ICE car. It depends on your needs. If you don't need 325, charge to 80% and recharge by 20%. If you need more range then fill to 100%. It's all up to you.
My ICE car can easily go 350+ miles. No craziness required. I know I'll be able to find a gas station within 10 miles of that 350-mile limit. And be back on the road in another 5 minutes, although admittedly at that point I'd stop for 15-30 minutes, just for a break.
AC takes very little energy. Seat heaters the same. Using the heater consumes much more. If I lived in ice country I might not have a Tesla. I don't know.
That's interesting. I don't know much about auto air conditioning, but a comparable boat air conditioner (12-15,000 BTU) will probably pull about 10 Amps at 120VAC, or 1,200 Watts. So I would have guessed running AC has a real impact on range. It would be interesting to see the specs on the Tesla AC system.
Traffic jams have no effect. Moving slow in EV's actually increases range.
ICE mileage standards are broken into "highway" and "city" values. City implies some stop-and-go traffic, and those numbers are always far worse. But traffic jams, which are pure stop-and-go, often for long periods, running the heat or AC, are even worse. I assume it would be the same for an EV. In my experience, moving slowly is extremely rare on US roads. It's mostly highway or stop-and-go.
What if there are no charging stations? Please consult the Supercharger map. As of March 2020 Tesla had 993 charging stations in North America. In 2019 they had 24,000 destination charging stations worldwide. Destination chargers are located at hotels, restaurants, shopping districts and such. The point of these is to drive to your destination, plug in and charge while you eat/shop. That's how I do it. No "waiting" involved.
Right. I think the current technology is perfect for that kind of driving. If that's all I did, and the economics worked, I'd have an EV today. I do, however, suspect the number of gas stations is significantly higher than charging stations. And they're much more likely to be found wherever I happen to need one.
For anyone out in the wilderness, perhaps a Tesla isn't for you. Simple. They certainly sell better in city locations.
But there's a lot of demand in between those two extremes. Frankly, people living in the city often don't really even need a car. And very few people live in the wilderness.
I hope someone found this helpful.
I do. Thank you.