For good or for ill, a majority of people in the English-speaking world still use miles. If this was a German-language blog then I’d understand your confusion on why the post didn’t state range in Kilometers instead.
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The last remaining drawback to electric vehicles: required time to “gas-up”. That is, how long to a full recharge? hours and hours. And the obvious answer to that remains: standardize the batteries, engineer them to be automate-dly swappable, and, design a ‘gas station’ which swaps depleted batteries for charged up ones that go around an endless chain of recharging at the station. So why no motion in that direction to date? (“cuz standardization is an anti-capitalistic process you @#$! you”)
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In the end, I was being facetious. I had hoped to be mischievous rather than grumpy, if it helps.
Editing to add that it didn’t help that I spent the evening browsing a subreddit called “Shit Americans say” which had primed my snark.
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There have been business efforts in that direction but they haven’t really gained much traction.
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Discontinued? Since when? Are you thinking of the Volt, by any chance?
Yes, but this problem is less severe than often imagined by people who haven’t lived with an EV. Most EV owners typically charge them overnight in their driveways, garages, etc, start the day with a full battery, and find that’s more than sufficient for a day’s driving. So the effective time to “gas-up” is nil (since it’s when the car would be parked anyway).
The two (quite valid) criticisms of this are people who don’t have dedicated parking (e.g. apartment dwellers) and road trips. To the first, yes, it’s a problem, imperfectly solved at present. To the second, DCFC doesn’t take “hours and hours” for a charge, it ordinarily takes more like 15-45 minutes, depending. In many cases, it takes no longer than a trip to the bathroom and the snack bar. And in any case, it’s getting better and even at current speeds, the tradeoff between “zero time” refueling at home and somewhat slower refueling on a road trip, is a win for many drivers (me!) who take only occasional road trips. I mean, EVs aren’t for everyone (yet), there are plenty of edge cases they can’t handle – but I assert that even with current limitations they’re a better set of tradeoffs for the majority of drivers.
The battery swap thing was actually trialed by Tesla. They had a swap station between SF and LA. The take rate was very low and they closed it.
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Eh. Those will come eventually. It is inevitable. For instance, next year’s all-electric Volvo XC40 will satisfy a lot of people looking in that segment.
Of course, whether they carry spare tires is a totally different matter. Lots of new ICE vehicles have dropped the spare tire too.
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I do seem to have had more than my fair share of flats, but that is not the point.
The can of foam option is simply no good in either of the two scenarios it is designed for.
- shredded tyre or otherwise beyond foam - need to wait for someone to find and bring a spare wheel or come and tow you to a tyre shop. A spare would get you going (even a skinny) and you can stop to buy your new tyre at - to some extent - your convenience
- puncture - foam will get you going but render your puncture unrepairable, and it must be replaced as per foam usage guidelines. So what was a £20 repair comes to (in my case) over £100
It is not about what’s best for the car owner, it is all about reducing weight so manufacturers can claim lower ICE emissions or greater battery range.
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Is too small, - well, short - load length-wise. And it won’t have a spare - not even a skinny.
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Not only that but they reduce their cost of goods, but of course they don’t reduce the price they charge you, cha-ching! But it’s not all bad, you do claw back some additional cargo volume – the well the spare t[iy]re sat in is now available for whatever you like. And of course, as @Aloisius points out, spare-less cars are hardly unique to the EV segment, it’s been going on with ICEs for a long time now.
I suppose there are always run-flats if that’s your thing. Or you can still buy a spare and toss it in the trunk (boot, etc).
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Eating into my ‘wardrobe’ space. 
(and being generally very grubby too).
I’ve had skinny spares for years. Fine.
My friend has had zero-spare cars for years and on each of the three occasions they had a flat the can of foam solution would not work and they had to wait an hour or two for a tow to a tyre centre.
I want a skinny under the floor in the back and would happily give up the amount of range I’d lose by that volume of battery being replaced with a wheel well. No manufacturer offers it.
Mitsubishi Outlander has an under-floor external cage holding a spare. Outlander PHEV only offers a can of foam. Surely they could offer an undercarriage spare on a PHEV too? Weight/range is the likley reason why they do not, not the space to provide one.
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required time to “gas-up”. That is, how long to a full recharge? hours and hours.
Yeah… but you can do it at home or at a ton of parking lots and most of the time is spent charging the last 20%.
Getting to 80% on a rapid charger is usually about 40-45 mins for something like a Tesla or a BMW i3. Getting to 50% can be half that.
Of course, it would be nice if they all used wireless power.
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Everyone is that one person who drives 4-500 miles every day carrying an entire artillery base. There are already electric cargo vehicles, and there will be more as EVs get more market share.The overwhelming majority of drivers don’t need and aren’t willing to pay for that capacity, so the manufacturers are starting off with what will get them the most customers the quickest. That means a roughly 200 mile range in a regular passenger car.
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Umm…out of curiosity, is that right? Maybe for a super-tailored set of “the English-speaking world”?
I mean, a person could argue that everyone uses both kilometres and miles if they have any dealings with countries that use them, but most of the English speaking world is also arguably outside the handful of countries that use miles primarily.
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I plug my car in when I get home and only have to charge it during the day if I’m on a long trip. If I’m on a long trip it means I’ve already gone about 200 miles and could probably use the break anyway. Next you’ll be complaining that without engine noise and an RPM gauge to redline you aren’t “really” driving.
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Fine. (Assuming you mean carrying capacity.) Which is why I won’t have one yet. And why your statement that ICE cars are on their way out (which is where we started) may be true eventually, but is why they will not be fully replaced until all sectors are catered for, not just the mass / lowest common denominator market.
Large cars able to carry weight/volume use too much battery - or so think the mfrs, so they do not offer them. Yet.
Once the mass market is sufficiently converted I trust the mfrs will by them realise (and have the improved technology) to meet needs like mine.
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What I find funny about people talking crap about EV is that they assume the worse part is that it’s electric. The worse part really comes down to batteries and that may eventually be a resolved issue if recent developments with them turn into commercial successes. But the actual electric motors and associated controls for them are in some ways simpler than their ICE counterparts. Less mechanical parts to fail so long as the solid state ones aren’t made poorly.
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We have a 2018 Nissan Leaf at our disposal up in Joshua Tree. It’s very peppy, and handles nice on mountain roads. My neighbor got transferred and wants to sell it to us for $20k, I’m seriously thinking of buying it. It helps that we got to test drive it for 6 months, free’ola.
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How curious … i wasn’t “complaining”. I’ve brought up this seemingly basic question in other venues and there too was a “I don’t need any means to charge up away from my house - so you go to hell!” attitude. Several folks I know would acquire electric vehicles quite soon if they didn’t have to park their cars some distance away from where they sleep (so charging would become quite the burden for them). Hence my humble question about modernizing charging stations along major commuter routes.
