canyonwalker | (Reply)

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I've been thinking about EVs, too. I've been thinking about them for years, actually. The problem has long been range anxiety.

The first EVs from many manufacturers in the 21st century had ranges of 70 miles or less on a full charge. That's enough for many people's daily job commute, or a day of running errands around town... but not enough for long commutes and definitely not enough for longer drives like one might take on even a weekend trip. Thus if you bought an EV you also needed a second car for everything that wasn't strictly local travel. That left them in the domain of the wealthy, who could afford owning multiple cars.

Tesla shook up that equation several years with its Model S. With a range of ~250 miles it could go way farther than anything else on the market... and with the Tesla Supercharger network they built out boldly attacked the chicken-and-egg problem of infrastructure.

Teslas are not cheap, though. And even with high sticker prices the company is losing money. That's why other makers are struggling to catch up with the vehicle technology. But soon, maybe, 250+ mile ranges will be available in volume priced cars.

We'll also need to see charging infrastructure get built out further. Today people can go on long roadtrips with EVs... though it takes significant planning. How, and how soon, can electrical recharging be as easy as pulling in to a roadside gas station?