LOYAL AG said:
1agswitchin4lanes said:
Quote:
Y'all never drive more than 150 miles at a stretch before refilling the big Yeti and draining the little yeti. Especially if you've got the dog and the kids with you.
I agree 100% with that, fuel stop with bathroom break, 10 min max.
EV recharge stop with DCFC is 40 min.
I took the lightning to NOLA last year for a work trip. Wasnt bad because I had meetings and calls along the way, but a straight shot would be miserable.
We try to daisy chain our vacation trip stops to Sam's Club and Costco....I drop the rib and kids off at front, drive to gas line, she gets kids to bathroom and then orders lunch, I fill up Maxpedition and park, go in, hit restroom, eat and back on the road. Clean bathrooms, cheap lunch, and fuel.... We can have this down to 35-40 min these days.....
I'm a bit confused here. Your typical stop takes 40 minutes because there's a lot to stopping with a family. I get it. Then you noted that 40 minutes to charge an EV is too long. When I stop to charge I plug in and go inside the store to do all those things you mentioned. No need to pump my gas or stay with the car when it's charging. It charges while I'm in the store and the app notifies me when it's almost finished so I can head to the register and back to the car.
Now as I said I'm not traveling with kids anymore and just not in a hurry so for me it works. Just wanted to point out that your 40 minute stop when you fill the tank and your wife has to do everything else could be the same 40 minutes with the car charging and you helping her inside the store with everything else just my $.02. Ultimately their best use case is still daily driver versus road trip.
Let me clarify...
When I am traveling for work alone, my stops are 10 min max on a ICE vehicle. Gas, bathroom, coffee, go. I usually stop for fuel once, and once at a rest stop for bathroom.
Driving EV long distance, I'm usually 180-200 miles before I need to stop, 40 min to DCFC and then get back on the road, not to mention having to make sure (via Plugshare or another app) that my destination actually has a working charger when I arrive, or I need to charge sooner to allow myself to get there, handle my business, and then find another charger on the way back. 40 min is not too long, but having to charge 4 times from NOLA to Houston at 40 min each adds more to the day vs one fuel/lunch stop and one bathroom stop at the TX/LA border.
When I'm with the family, its one 40 min if we stop to eat, and my kids are all old enough that we can make it through a tank of fuel before they need to stop for a bathroom break, so fuel/bathroom stops where we DONT eat are 10 min in and out, and we purposely avoid Buccees to prevent kids from wandering....