[Isaac Zackary]

Pros and cons!

Objective:

An economical way to go with only one car, an EV.

Challenges:

I live in the worst place in the world to pull it off, with running out of charge a very likely scenario on most trips.

Options thus far discussed:

Upgrade EVSE to Level 2 capacity

Pros:

• This is a no brainer. It will help in many circumstances, including with some ideas below.

Cons:

• Won't help if I don't have a 240V generator and I don't make it to somewhere I can plug into 240V.

Aero mods

Pros:

• Can be cheap. (The Aero Civic only took $400 to complete?!)

• Can extend range without needing more fuel or electricity.

Cons:

• Time consuming (The Aero Civic took several hundred hours to complete).

Renting a car for out of town trips:

Pros:

• No ICE maintenance.

• No modding necessary.

• No EV hacking.

• Can rent the type of vehicle necessary for the trip.

• Cheap (about $35 per day for an economy car).

Cons:

• Having to deal with the car rental and their hours (9:00am to 1:00pm)

• Can't take my vehicle anywhere.

• Can't cross the boarder into another country (this really applies to me).

Generator in trunk

Pros:

• Cheap (can be less than $1,000 inicial, plus fuel).

• Inconspicuous for outside, except when charging from it.

• If small enough, it would be for emergencies, making me look for charging stations first and keep my EV mostly an EV.

Cons:

• Most inverter generators don't offer a lot of power, meaning I'd have a long charging time using it. (What if the next town's charging station isn't working? A 3 hour trip in an ICE would no longer be a 7 hour trip in an EV. It would be a 24 hour trip!)

• For Level 2 charging I'd need a large, heavy and expensive (+$4,000) generator.

• Fuel smell in the car unless I use a propane gen set, which would take up more space.

• High emissions.

Pusher or generator trailer.

Pros:

• Fastest way to travel long distances in an EV.

• Could be done for not much more than a gen set, possibly for as little as $1,000.

Cons:

• Even with a road-approved motorcycle or scooter engine, the emissions would be very high when compared to an actual car engine.

• Retrofiting a front clip of a newer ICE car would be rather time consuming and expensive if I were looking for best emissions. In such a case, might as well as keep an ICE car instead.

• A generator trailer would involve hacking into the EV electrical traction system.

• A pusher trailer could affect handling and control.

40kW turbine gen set trailer

Pros:

• High efficiency.

• Low emissions.

• Low maintenance.

• Absolutely cool!

Cons:

• Could be very expensive in the end.

• A bit overkill.

Adding more chargers

Pros:

• Would make charging faster at Level 2 charging stations.

Cons:

• Expensive.

• Requires hacking into EV electrical system.

Battery trailer.

Pros:

• Keep it 100% EV!

• The battery trailer could have other uses, such as for collecting solar energy at home for night charging my EV.

Cons:

• Expenses could be very high.

• Requieres hacking into EV electrical system.

Portable solar charger

Pros:

• Charge anywhere!

• Keep it 100% EV!

Cons:

• Expensive.

• Would likely not charge very fast, unless made very expensive.

• Can be very heavy, unless lightweight panels are used, which are even more expensive.

• Would either have to be towed on a trailer, or require lots of assembling.

• Wouldn't work at night, and wouldn't work well in bad weather.

Other ideas could be:

• Fuel cell generator trailer.

• Liquid air engine trailer.

• Steam or stirling engine generator/pusher trailer.