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In the middle of the road

4686 Views 32 Replies 21 Participants Last post by  TFPDrive
My friend was laughing on me and asked what if I would suddenly stop w/o battery charge in the middle of the road, what would I do.

I got it as a joke, but than realized - not quite.

Only option I see is to be towed to FastDC or other places to charge.

Any other options?
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This battery dying nonsense is just people projecting their own experience on an activity they've never done. Folks tend to map batteries to their cell phones. So the panic of an EV cutting out in the middle of the road is about the same as their cell phone cutting out in the middle of the day.
Maybe in your use case (and mine) where you don't go on trips. The only relevance of the phone comparison is that you're fine when you're able to plug in every night or so. Everyone can upvote that, but it's ignoring the elephant in the room.

If a cell phone runs out, you're not up sh*t creek. You plug it in just about anywhere, including in the car, then fill it quick while using it immediately, or you can bring a 10AH power brick to bridge days long gaps.

The EV is going to land you in hot water when you're dutifully using ABRP, discover the EA or other charger you found along highway 50 is out of order, you have 10% left, the next charger is 50 miles away and is also EA, and now your choices are to call for a tow, stay overnight at a motel with the 120V charger, or -- since those are terrible options -- just go for it and maybe end up in the middle of the road.

Same thing with battery replacment. They've had to replace batteries on their phones, so won't they need to replace batteries on their EV?
There is the small matter of the car battery costing 500x more and generating 1000lb of waste. That an expense comparable to an ICE vehicle having to replace the engine every 5 years (even that costs a lot less to do). The phone battery is 3.5% the cost of the phone, not 40%.
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And that's about 50 cycles a year and 500 cycles a decade. Old tech Li-Ion battery lasts 500 cycles. Newer lasts longer. Plus, lower depth of discharge increases life by multiples.
Time also matters, not just number of cycles. Batteries degrade just sitting there, especially in the heat of a garage (whatever alkalines I have in the garage invariably leak, but not those kept inside). If it's like any of my cell phones' batteries, I'd expect performance to be seriously degraded after 4-5 years, regardless of use pattern.

The problem isn't big with cell phones (although some would disagree). It's not as big a problem, not so bulky, not a huge investment, phones break for many other reasons, and changing technology obsoletes them fast anyway.

I kept my Corolla for 10 years, BMW for 19 years, truck for 11 years so far. Most people I know find the car they want and keep it as long as possible. I really wish I'd leased the Bolt, because the technology is changing as fast as phones. Nobody will replace the battery in their Bolt; when the time comes, they'll get rid of the Bolt.
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