Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
The DC fast charge contributes to battery degradation, and I can't be bothered with even a 20min charge on a trip...
EV's won't replace primary vehicles for a long time, but they are a smart choice for multi-vehicle families.
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Let the myths flow forth. Saying that DC fast charging contributes to battery degradation is just as valid as saying that running an engine at varying loads and speeds wears it out faster. They both beg the point, which is getting maximum utility for your buck. Consider the following NREL studies, the first in which two LEAFs were exclusively fast-charged at 50 kW and two others only slow-charged at 3.3 kW, but driven the same. They found a negligible effect, less than 3% more degradation under this most extreme scenario, made more extreme by the use of 2012 LEAFs, which have no battery cooling system and had a heat-vulnerable chemistry.
Idaho National Laboratory: DC Quick Charging a Nissan LEAF Doesn't Kill The Battery - High Temps Do
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/63700.pdf
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy15osti/63531.pdf
In most families with an EV, it quickly becomes the primary vehicle; that being the vehicle which makes the most trips and covers the most miles per year. Taking the van to Yellowstone in summer and to Granny's for Christmas does not re-qualify it as the primary vehicle. Occasional roads trips are a secondary use more easily filled by a rental than daily driving.
All of this pales next to the following fact: all fuel-fired cars use more electricity than all current EVs, due to the average 8 kWh used to refine a gallon of gasoline. (The ethanol energy balance being worse, diesel a bit better.) An EV can drive 24 to 32 miles on that 8 kWh, before the gas is even burned! And usually it is a direct comparison, because refineries pull from the same power grid as EV charging for that region, so Seattle's Bellingham-refined gas is 82% hydro-powered, but Midwestern and Southern gasoline is mainly coal-powered. Refiners are smart, so they won't use marketable petroleum to power their processes if cheaper grid electricity and natural gas are available. You may recall the reports of massive amounts of natural gas being burned to extract bitumen from Alberta's tar sands; more so than if the natural gas was used directly in CNG vehicles or to generate electricity for EVs. The issues are actually simple when refined down to basics. A 20 minute fast charge may sometimes be inconvenient, but I can't be bothered with oil changes, timing belts, brake jobs before 100,000 miles, coolant flushing, pcv valves, mufflers, spark plug and wire replacement, tranny rebuilds, diesel exhaust fluid or plugged catalytic converters, topping off fluids, greasy and burnt fingers, engine air or oil filters, screaming power steering pumps, refueling, noise and odor, and what else? Oh yeah, paying $0.024 per mile or less for domestic, clean energy rather than sending up to ten times that to fat cats and terrorists.
--rant off--
I ain't holy and I still enjoy wrenching on engines from time to time, but for everyday use, EVs are so much better in so many ways.