Couple Tries Electric Truck and Had to Stop Every 100 Miles

[MechAg94]

Couple Tries Electric Truck and Had to Stop Every 100 Miles
https://ehlinelaw.com/blog/couple-tries-electric-truck-stops-every-100-miles

Overall, the couple’s all-electric pickup truck expedition amounted to 2,700 miles and no less than 27 charging stops

When using their all-electric pickup truck, the couple towed four-wheels, their Ford Mustang Shelby GT, in a flat car hauler trailer. The total weight was 14,260 pounds while the trailer was 6,000 pounds, and this is standard weight.

https://tfltruck.com/2021/11/rivian-r1t-tows-a-sports-car-cross-country-stops-at-every-walmart/

They report stoping at many Electrify America fast chargers that are generally installed in a Walmart parking lot or at a shopping center. They report stopping at many Walmart stores along the way. Some charging stops were less successful than others. They report one charger with a low output of just 30 kW. Assuming most fast chargers are capable of charging at 150 kW or even 350 kW – 30 kW is slow indeed.

First time I saw a real life towing example with an electric vehicle.  On the plus side, it was able to pull that 6000 lb trailer. 

I have heard people say that hydrogen fueled vehicles are expected to hit the heavier vehicle niche where pure electric falls off.  I haven't seen any detail on that. 

[Brad Johnson]

I have heard people say that hydrogen fueled vehicles are expected to hit the heavier vehicle niche where pure electric falls off.  I haven't seen any detail on that. 

https://www.volvotrucks.com/en-en/news-stories/press-releases/2022/jun/volvo-trucks-showcases-new-zero-emissions-truck.html

Brad

[Fly320s]

A youtube car review channel did a similar test in Colorado.  Similar results, too. 

Here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zce-wC__kkU

[Ben]

Sort of a tangent, but while on Google maps last week, I saw an "EV charging stations" button that wasn't there before. When I hit it, it showed all the charging stations in that map region with Google reviews.

Some of the reviews were... interesting. While a few stations got five star reviews for quality and speed, most of them were getting knocked for being too slow. I guess the EV driver speak is "miles per hour of charge" for what's good or bad. It seemed like 500 miles per hour was decent, but most of them weren't charging at that rate.

Then of course what caught my eye was that most of the reviews focused on amenities in the area, mostly restaurants, as people were getting a meal as they waited for a charge.

Note that I was only perusing Idaho and Utah. More urban states might have different results.

[HankB]

Electric cars are one way fed.gov can limit people's mobility. 

My next door neighbor recently bought a Hyundai electric car. She likes it, says it charges from "just regular house current" but I guess they installed a "special plug" in her garage for overnight charging.

She mostly drives around the Austin, TX metro area - fairly short trips - and hasn't had any range or other issues in the couple of months she's had it, and hasn't noticed if use of A/C affects range. So it seems to meet her needs, which are basically just local transportation for errands, shopping, etc.

[AZRedhawk44]

From what I have seen so far, electric trucks are best used in urban fleets where the top speed rarely breaks 45mph, range between work related stops is low, and manual labor at the destination site is high.  Think furniture delivery, warehouse distribution to sales outlets, things like that.

Best configuration is extremely high and aggressive regenerative braking so that the instant your foot is off the throttle, e-braking is applied.  It takes a learning curve to get good at it, but the goal is to avoid using the disc brakes at all.  Wind resistance becomes brutal to vehicle efficiency past 45mph, so surface street travel is more energy efficient than highway as long as e-braking is your dominant means of coming to a stop at intersections.

Harvey and Florence, living their retirement dream with a fifth wheel, are not going to be well served by an electric rig at all.

[Perd Hapley]

Sort of a tangent, but while on Google maps last week, I saw an "EV charging stations" button that wasn't there before. When I hit it, it showed all the charging stations in that map region with Google reviews.

Just for funsies, I decided to give that a try. St Louis to Chicago is a common trip for people in my neck of the woods, so I plugged that in. The longest gap was about 120 miles, between Edwardsville and Atlanta. Illinois' capital city lies between those 2 points, and one would presumably find a charging station there. One presumes...

[Bogie]

Was chatting with a Tesla customer the other day... He stopped about halfway between STL and Chicago to boost it.
 
He was heading to Springfield, MO, so was getting a charge in STL, and another one about halfway down I-44...

[lee n. field]

Just for funsies, I decided to give that a try. St Louis to Chicago is a common trip for people in my neck of the woods, so I plugged that in. The longest gap was about 120 miles, between Edwardsville and Atlanta. Illinois' capital city lies between those 2 points, and one would presumably find a charging station there. One presumes...

I was in Springfield 3-4 years ago (the last iGold rally I went to).  There were charging stations, at the IL state capitol building.  They were in the same outlying lot that the bus we rode had parked in.

[Perd Hapley]

This story was making the rounds a while back:

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/electric-car-four-day-trip-more-time-charging-sleeping

[RocketMan]

I have heard people say that hydrogen fueled vehicles are expected to hit the heavier vehicle niche where pure electric falls off.  I haven't seen any detail on that.

If these are hydrogen ICE vehicles, I wonder if they will still be banned in CA and other states that follow CARB regulations?  Given that CA politicians and bureaucrats are not blessed with an overabundance of common sense, I suspect they might be despite producing only water as their exhaust.

[T.O.M.]

A friend at work has an electric car.  He tipped me off on an issue I hadn't considered.  People will unplug a charging car, use the charger, and the original user then comes back to an incomplete charge, lengthening their down time.

I would consider an EV for my commute.  It's about 10 miles each way, so there would be no need to charge during the day.  There are no chargers at work, despite assurances they were coming in early 2021.  Last I looked, there are 10 people on the wait list for the five planned charger spots.

However, for anything other than this, forget it.  I'll take a 10 minute gas break over a multi-hour stop anytime.

[Ben]

A friend at work has an electric car.  He tipped me off on an issue I hadn't considered.  People will unplug a charging car, use the charger, and the original user then comes back to an incomplete charge, lengthening their down time.

Do EV chargers work the same as gas pumps? That is,  I can fill my truck with gas, then take the nozzle out and fill a couple of five gallon cans without restarting a transaction.

If EV chargers work the same, what's to keep someone (while you're having an hour long lunch) from grabbing the nozzle and stealing 30 minutes worth of charge from you?

[dogmush]

Do EV chargers work the same as gas pumps? That is,  I can fill my truck with gas, then take the nozzle out and fill a couple of five gallon cans without restarting a transaction.

If EV chargers work the same, what's to keep someone (while you're having an hour long lunch) from grabbing the nozzle and stealing 30 minutes worth of charge from you?

My understanding is that when you lock the doors on a Tesla, it locks the charging cable into the charge port, for just this reason.  At least on superchargers.

No idea if that functionality exists on the other brands plugs.

[Fly320s]

My understanding is that when you lock the doors on a Tesla, it locks the charging cable into the charge port, for just this reason.  At least on superchargers.

No idea if that functionality exists on the other brands plugs.

Yes, the Tesla charger locks in place.  I haven't tested the other brands, but I bet they don't because they need an adapter to work.  The adapter probably locks to the car, but the power cord probably doesn't lock to the adapter.

[Ben]

Yes, the Tesla charger locks in place.  I haven't tested the other brands, but I bet they don't because they need an adapter to work.  The adapter probably locks to the car, but the power cord probably doesn't lock to the adapter.

One of the reason I wondered about "stealing juice" is that I recall reading about EV drivers complaining that they would come out of a restaurant or wherever and see that someone had unplugged them, I guess at busy stations where people were waiting in line for a charge.

[Perd Hapley]

One of the reason I wondered about "stealing juice" is that I recall reading about EV drivers complaining that they would come out of a restaurant or wherever and see that someone had unplugged them, I guess at busy stations where people were waiting in line for a charge.

Or some people just like messing with EV drivers.

[Declaration Day]

According to the article, they were hauling 14,260 pounds.  Electric trucks are good enough for everyday use, but to buy one intending to haul that much weight cross-country suggests that this couple has more money than brains.

[Perd Hapley]

According to the article, they were hauling 14,260 pounds.  Electric trucks are good enough for everyday use, but to buy one intending to haul that much weight cross-country suggests that this couple has more money than brains.

They bought a pick-up, intending to use it as a pick-up, so...?

[Declaration Day]

They bought a pick-up, intending to use it as a pick-up, so...?

But the fizzix are still a thing.  More money than brains.

[Perd Hapley]

But the fizzix are still a thing.  More money than brains.

What I was getting at is that someone made a "truck," and sold it as a truck, even though it can't do what people expect a truck to do.

Having now looked at the specs for the R1T, it appears it only promises to tow 11,000 lbs, not the 14,000 plus the owners tried to tow with it.

So point taken.

[MechAg94]

If these are hydrogen ICE vehicles, I wonder if they will still be banned in CA and other states that follow CARB regulations?  Given that CA politicians and bureaucrats are not blessed with an overabundance of common sense, I suspect they might be despite producing only water as their exhaust.

Most of the hydrogen I know of is made from natural gas in steam methane reformers.  My employer has a facility in Canada that uses electricity to split water (I forget the term) and supposedly the power comes from wind and solar sources. 

The "Inflation Reduction" Act recently passed has some substantial tax credits for producing hydrogen.  At least part of the credit has a sliding scale so the credit is larger if the carbon ratio is lower.  With that in place, I figure there will be people trying to invest in hydrogen production. 

[HeroHog]

Look, Trains are electric driven and haul tremendous loads thousands of miles! Sure, each engine is powered by honking huge V12 Diesel engines but hey, Electric!

[sumpnz]

Class 8 BEVs require about 15,000lbs of batteries to make a realistic 400-500mi range.

For scale purposes, an entire Kenworth T680 diesel tractor with a mid-size sleeper weighs … 15,000 lbs.  The diesel drivetrain, fuel tanks, etc weight about 4000lbs.  Might be a little more than that but not much.

[MillCreek]

^^^Not asking you to violate any NDAs or reveal proprietary information, but is Kenworth looking at electric or other alternative energy drivetrains for semis?