EVs Are Great Around Town, But.......

[RedDevil]

Plenty in and around Albuquerque, none in or near Roswell...
"We're not gonna charge those aliens"? Or are they there alright but 'classified'?

Apparently you can avoid the chargers! (Vaughn - Roswell - Lovington - Brownsfield - Post - Guthrie - etc. But 400 miles?

Then there's 2 public charge points close by where I live but PlugShare does not show them until I zoom in to insane levels, like 1-10.000 (one cm = 100 meter, or say 1 inch = 800 foot) ???

[Angel And The Wolf]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Practically it will reduce your options for parking and the speed you're allowed to travel at: 130 km/h without, 80 with a trailer.
In my case, with our legislation and charging points everywhere, a pusher trailer would not be useful at all.

I can see that. What about a bumper mounter generator, or bumper mounted Lithium Ion battery pack? Not being a trailer, you could keep your 130 pm/h, and leave the pack in your garage when not needed.

[oil pan 4]

You don't want an expensive battery pack wasting away not using it.
There is currently no known way to tie generator power into a leaf. I already have a 17.5kw generator trailer ready when some one figures it out.

[Angel And The Wolf]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

There is currently no known way to tie generator power into a leaf.

Will it not allow charging through the charging port while in operation? Can you not change that?

[Angel And The Wolf]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

I already have a 17.5kw generator trailer ready when some one figures it out.

Is 17.5 kw enough power to drive your car on alone? can you install an A/B switch so that when your battery is low, you can switch to generator power? Have you heard of the rear wheelmotor experiments at Middle Tennessee State?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOA_i2qAQq0

You could use one of their motors, and hook it to your generator.
If you don't want to alter your car. you could put the motor on your trailor wheel.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Angel And The Wolf

Is 17.5 kw enough power to drive your car on alone?

That's about 23.5 horsepower. Keep the Leaf below about 70 MPH on the freeway and it could perhaps slowly charge the battery and power the car.

The problem is EVs don't allow the vehicle to be in drive mode while charging. That's why there aren't any stories of people driving off and ripping the chargers off the wall.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

If you go on a long trip you plan the stops at charge points.
You need breaks anyway. You only lose time when you need more charge than you need for your own convenience.

So you can charge your EV in 15 minutes?

want a trailer on a road trip. I have taken a road trip with a motorbike on a trailer. It tired the hell out of me.
Practically it will reduce your options for parking and the speed you're allowed to travel at: 130 km/h without, 80 with a trailer.

Only if you travel in states or countries with really stupid traffic laws :-) Forcing vehicles to travel at different speeds is about the worst thing you can do for road safety.

As for pulling a trailer tiring you out, perhaps there was a mechanical problem with the trailer? I've driven a good many miles pulling trailers (including some with a motorcycle pulling the trailer), and my only problem was occasionally forgetting it was there.

[RedDevil]

A trailer on a straight road is just fine. Take it to the mountains, through a mix of curves, slopes, changing road conditions and unpredictable traffic and wet roads... Hell.

I take half an hour out after 2 hours of driving, typically. And I don't like to drive more than 4 hours a day anyway over here. I've been to the States. I can see myself drive all day in Nevada. But here, with our busy and constantly changing and merging roads it would tire me down.

Oddly enough I could ride a bike all day for weeks on end... To Portugal, to Corsica, to the west of France, to the Alps. But somehow a motorbike immerses you and leaves no room for anything else.
I never get the feeling of becoming one with a car. Somehow it wears me down faster.

But even if you'd like to take just a quarter of an hour after 4 hours of driving you could get to 80% at a supercharger with less than half an hour extra. Two stops like that would cost you less than an hour extra per day. The third stop would be the overnight stay.
I cannot see how that would be a bigger problem than going through all the effort and cost of building and maintaining a pusher trailer.
Especially if you'd only use it a couple of times per year.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

even if you'd like to take just a quarter of an hour after 4 hours of driving you could get to 80% at a supercharger with less than half an hour extra. Two stops like that would cost you less than an hour extra per day. The third stop would be the overnight stay.
I cannot see how that would be a bigger problem than going through all the effort and cost of building and maintaining a pusher trailer.
Especially if you'd only use it a couple of times per year.

The reality is often less optimistic for EV charging. Take the 240 mile range Bolt. It can charge at a max rate of 45 kW. At 55% SoC it tapers off. Assuming you begin charging at 5% SoC, you get 45 kW for 40 minutes, adding roughly 100 miles of range.

A typical long distance trip for me is 1000 miles, stopping every 3 hrs for 12 minutes. That's 15 hrs of driving and 1 hr refueling/bathroom/grabbing a sandwich to go.

So with an EV, that same trip I would need to stop every 90 minutes for 40 minutes to recharge. That's 6 stops times 40 minutes, or 4 hours. 3 more hours than if I were in a gasser. Best case scenario, my 16 hr trip is now 20, assuming I can find chargers ideally located, they work, and they aren't in use by others.

EVs are not good for long trips unless you have lots of free time and don't consider your time very valuable, or normally travel at a leisurely pace. I get 3 weeks vacation per year, and I intend to spend as little of it as possible driving, and certainly wouldn't subject my family to the extra delays.

The point about a pusher is a good one though. I wouldn't road trip in an EV to begin with, and I certainly wouldn't build a pusher just to make it more convenient. Kudos to those with the interest in taking on such adventures though. I'm not disparaging people that take on the challenge.

[RedDevil]

I don't think EV's are the perfect tools for long road trips, but neither are pusher trailers. A simple gasser or hybrid would be best for that.
So why not hire that for road trips and buy a low range EV for your commutes?