How far can you go with EVs in Canada? A closer look at range, battery life
How far can you go with EVs in Canada? A closer look at range, battery life
While 'range anxiety' used to be a factor in purchasing an electric vehicle years ago, consumers have less to worry about when it comes to how far their EV can go, experts say.
While 'range anxiety' used to be a factor in purchasing an electric vehicle years ago, consumers have less to worry about when it comes to how far their EV can go, experts say.
I've owned an EV for two years now, have over 50,000km on it, and have never once needed a DC fast charger simply because I don't go on road trips longer than a few hundred kilometers. Even my in-laws are 250km away, and its fairly easy to level 1 charge overnight with a standard wall socket before driving home at the end of the weekend. Uses about 60% of my battery on that trip.
I'm not worried about needing a faster charger if I do go on a longer trip, they seem to be on all the highways near me in any direction.
I'm at 167,000km, give or take. My local travel is completely transformed. I never need to visit gas stations, ever. Range anxiety isn't a thing. I get 420km+ in the summer, and 300km+ in the winter. Yea, sure, in very cold days the range is lower, but the range is always higher than I need for my in province driving. Range anxiety is not a thing because years of driving has taught me that a full battery is always more than ill reasonably use in a day, even with a 110km daily round trip commute.
Long range trips, which I make several a year (510km each way) do need a charge stop. But yea, there are chargers all over. I use the DC fast sometimes, but mostly I use the slower lvl 2 chargers. Why, what kind of lunatic am I? The kind that enjoys parking his car in a small city or town, visiting the unique shops and restaurants and breweries and not feeling rushed. Catch me in the library in a small-town playing board games with my kids instead of rushing through life as fast as I can.
It's never been about range for me. It's cost.
I bike most of my trips, so it's easy to justify a $2000 gas guzzling beater if I just need something kicking around in the driveway. My insurance is nearly "free" and gas station visits might be once per quarter.
If I was forced to spend 10x that amount for an EV, then I'd probably drive more often. It would give the complete opposite effect of why I bike. 🤔
I bet safe and seperated bike lanes in every major city would reduce carbon emissions a lot more than EVs in every major city.
Yes, I believe another article posted recently said this to be true.
It’s actually more efficient (in terms of energy) to drive an EV over a regular bike based on what food you eat.
Now E bikes are the best.
"Experts say range anxiety is over!"
Me, needing 500km of range to get to my parents in BF nowhere: ...
Like, I'm happy for the big city dwellers and all, but "Canada" is a lot bigger than the major metropolitan areas.
An earlier commenter says their parents are 250km away and it only uses 60% of the battery to get there and back
It takes, what, about five minutes to fuel up a gasoline powered vehicle. Optimistically, in ten years time on a fast charger, 20 minutes for an electric? So theoretically, to maintain the current flow rates on highly trafficked routes (like the 401 from Montreal to Toronto), during peak hours, vehicles need to be stopped at a service station for at least four times as long as they currently are now. It's also slightly over a 500km long drive, so unless you're really playing chicken with range you will need to stop at least once (I could be wrong, but I believe most gas powered vehicles can do around 600km range at 120km/h?). I wonder what the land-use requirements will be to charge those vehicles -- Walmart parking lots beside the highway may begin to make a killing if they lean into it.
For me, unless my landlord suddenly decides to spend a tonne of money to furnish the first-come, first-serve outdoor parking lot at my building with electric chargers, it'll be a hybrid after that date (unless I'm rennovicted before then). I wonder if someone is liable for the tripping hazard of extension cords running out the front door and across the sidewalk to street parking.
Obviously I'm being a bit silly and sarcastic here, but the wholly electric by 2035 scheme seems half-baked based on the assumption everyone lives in single family homes and that the amount of intercity travel will decrease in aggregate by then. Rather than say, increasing taxes year on year for gasoline powered ownership and then some heavy investment into things like high speed rail, cycling infrastructure, trams, etc. The solution to cars are too polluting doesn't have to be the same number or more cars . . .
“Range has improved,” said Mark Marmer, the owner and founder of energy consultant Signature Electric. “Now most cars and trucks have at least about a 300- to 350-kilometre range, which is a reasonably comfortable thing.”
When on a longer trip, a charge to give an extra 150 kilometres or so will take about 15 to 20 minutes, but that also depends on the speed of the charger, according to Marmer.
Unfortunately, that's a pretty hard sell when your work day requires more mileage than that, and you want to get home asap.
I'd argue that people who travel 300-350km / day are outliers. For those people, maybe an EV isn't an option yet.
What percentage of people realistically drive more than 300km per day? We're talking 2.5-3h on the road per day, not taking traffic into account. Extrapolating 300km per day, over 49 weeks a year, 5 days a week, that's just shy of 74000km. Who drives that, outside people whose job it is to drive stuff lol?
a couple of thousand dollars
That's like "a couple of more minutes," or that famous movie sequel, "a few dollars of more".
I hope they didn't pay the temp agency a lot for this editor.