EV owners of today and tomorrow

[Gale Hawkins]

GM Kills Its Cruise Robotaxi Business After Spending $10 Billion (UPDATED) - The Autopian

If you ask Elon Musk, the future of autonomous driving technology is through robotaxis like the Tesla Cybercab. Up until recently, General Motors might have said the same thing. Not anymore, GM announced today it is no longer going to fund robotaxi development work. “GM is committed to...

www.theautopian.com

Tesla's FSD version 13 in the last few weeks have woken up the automotive industry and especially Wall Street that the self-driving approach that others have been using did not work out.

After wrestling personally with Tesla's FSD the past two years my alpha software testing experience leads me to expect in a couple years FSD version 15+ will be leasable by OEMs like GM for much less than 10 billion $$$.

 

[Grumpycat]

After wrestling personally with Tesla's FSD the past two years my alpha software testing experience leads me to expect in a couple years FSD version 15+ will be leasable by OEMs like GM for much less than 10 billion $$$.

I expect the end user will be the one paying the subscription direct to Tesla. Same as today.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I expect the end user will be the one paying the subscription direct to Tesla. Same as today.

I could see that being the case. The oems will have to spend a lot of money for the hardware and redesigning their cars to work with Teslas full self-driving hardware and software so they may wind up just farming out most of the car to Tesla. It all started with the little old charging port.

I was surprised that the old guys just could not muster the talent and know-how to successfully and profitably build EVS hence are continuing to cut their ICE lineup as they bring out more of their EVS.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

This $1,000 solution to add EV charging without doing any home wiring modifications would be of interest to me if I still had my 100 amp service. I would be interested in if they came out with the solution for a 200 amp service because it would give me a dedicated EV power source for up to 48 amps in my driveway. At this point it has only been approved in the state of Vermont but other state approvals are in progress. I expect most utilities would be glad to get the additional profits of EV charging.

 

[LouNY]

Well heck I guess I'll need to start following this thread.
We (well actually my wife) has gotten an EV, she is driving a 2025 Chevy Equinox EV. It is a pretty little thing a nice 4 door sedan, even if GM calls it an SUV to me it's a sedan.
Here she is sitting on her nice new studded snow tires;

As I mentioned in the Good Morning thread we took it for a drive last night.
Speaking of her car got a bit of a surprise and an education yesterday with it. With the estimated range of 280 miles finding out the actual usable range will actually be quite a bit less. With GM recommending to charge to 80% for best battery life. I have been charging to 85% in the colder weather. A person is only using 60% to 65% of the battery. Even if a person uses 20% battery life as an empty tank you would only have 60% battery to use without cutting into your "reserve/emergency" fuel. I am coming from a lifetime of under a quarter of a tank of fuel is the same as empty. We used 58% of the complete battery last night going from 85% down to 27% on a 130 mile round trip drive, we went a grand daughters Christmas show at school. This was an easy drive about 2/3's on the interstate doing 70 mph the other 1/3 on rural roads at 45-55 mph, cold but no snow, slush or rain.So as far as I'm concerned her car has a realist range in the winter of 150 - 170 miles leaving just a bit of battery for emergencies.

I will say that our current cost of 20 cents kwh the round trip cost was about $9.86 for fuel, in my pickup which gets 16-18 mpg at $3.15/gallon the trips fuel cost would have been $25.60.

I have always taken all this hype on the electric vehicles with a large grain of salt and this does confirm that thinking to me. While it can be a usable form of transportation for many people it has a long way to go to exceed or even come close to the capabilities of petroleum vehicles.
That said I think it will be a good vehicle for her driving, mostly sort trips and low mileage drives. Most of her round trips are 15-45 miles so it will be good for those.

 

[WinterDeere]

With the estimated range of 280 miles finding out the actual usable range will actually be quite a bit less. With GM recommending to charge to 80% for best battery life. I have been charging to 85% in the colder weather. A person is only using 60% to 65% of the battery.

Nice car, LouNY!

And going the full 100% to 0% on occasion, when you really need it, isn't going to do any real harm. The 20% to 80% rule is just a guideline for daily use, to avoid unnecessary aging of the batteries in a day in / day out basis, when you consider the thing might see 3500 charge/discharge cycles over the course of 10 years.

 

[lman]

Well heck I guess I'll need to start following this thread.
We (well actually my wife) has gotten an EV, she is driving a 2015 Chevy Equinox EV. It is a pretty little thing a nice 4 door sedan, even if GM calls it an SUV to me it's a sedan.
Here she is sitting on her nice new studded snow tires;
View attachment 2017001

As I mentioned in the Good Morning thread we took it for a drive last night.
Speaking of her car got a bit of a surprise and an education yesterday with it. With the estimated range of 280 miles finding out the actual usable range will actually be quite a bit less. With GM recommending to charge to 80% for best battery life. I have been charging to 85% in the colder weather. A person is only using 60% to 65% of the battery. Even if a person uses 20% battery life as an empty tank you would only have 60% battery to use without cutting into your "reserve/emergency" fuel. I am coming from a lifetime of under a quarter of a tank of fuel is the same as empty. We used 58% of the complete battery last night going from 85% down to 27% on a 130 mile round trip drive, we went a grand daughters Christmas show at school. This was an easy drive about 2/3's on the interstate doing 70 mph the other 1/3 on rural roads at 45-55 mph, cold but no snow, slush or rain.So as far as I'm concerned her car has a realist range in the winter of 150 - 170 miles leaving just a bit of battery for emergencies.

I will say that our current cost of 20 cents kwh the round trip cost was about $9.86 for fuel, in my pickup which gets 16-18 mpg at $3.15/gallon the trips fuel cost would have been $25.60.

I have always taken all this hype on the electric vehicles with a large grain of salt and this does confirm that thinking to me. While it can be a usable form of transportation for many people it has a long way to go to exceed or even come close to the capabilities of petroleum vehicles.
That said I think it will be a good vehicle for her driving, mostly sort trips and low mileage drives. Most of her round trips are 15-45 miles so it will be good for those.

Is that a 2015 or 2025?

 

[LouNY]

Is that a 2015 or 2025?

Corrected it 2025

 

[LouNY]

Nice car, LouNY!

And going the full 100% to 0% on occasion, when you really need it, isn't going to do any real harm. The 20% to 80% rule is just a guideline for daily use, to avoid unnecessary aging of the batteries in a day in / day out basis, when you consider the thing might see 3500 charge/discharge cycles over the course of 10 years.

Yes, I'll likely take it to 95% that will leave room for regenerative braking in the first mile of driving if we plan on taking it on a longer trip. As far as going below 20% I look at that like my pickup is under a quarter full time to fill up and in the winter time it doesn't even get that low. In over 55 years of licensed driving I've only run out of fuel one time. I'm not about to take a chance in the winter of accidents, detours or even just a stuck vehicle in the way and sitting idle for 20 minutes with lights and heat on.
I have know people that continually ran out of fuel and could never comprehend the mentality of not taking care of yourself.

 

[Grumpycat]

What poorly informed consumers don’t seem to understand is that the point of a long range battery is to be able to add 100 miles of charge faster than for a smaller battery. Space charge stations 125 miles apart one will make a 500 mile day faster in a 300 mile EV than in a 200 mile EV, stopping every 125 miles.

LouNY, thank you for your honest impression and experiences with your wife’s new car. While it says it has a 280 mile battery if I was driving the first thing I would want to know is how well those 280 miles match the way I drive? Then I’ll know better what to expect of it. At modest temperatures, say down to 50°, my Model Y rated range is very close to my 155 mile trip tomorrow. Expecting colder temperatures so I’ve bumped the charge a bit today.