My dad lives in Colorado and I'm pitching him on getting an EV. But he does a lot of road-tripping and correctly points out EVs are not as convenient as gas-powered cars on road trips. So far, in 2025. He agrees that that will change, but maybe not in the expected 5-year lifespan of his next car.
We'll resolve this based on my dad's and other similar road-trippers' opinions. I'll be very transparent about my thinking in the comments.
Note my personal bias: I want EVs to win and am betting in this market. But, again, I'm committed to making the resolution fair. Hopefully this will not be a tricky judgment call but if it is, I won't make it unilaterally. Ask clarifying questions in the comments!
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I've got an EV (2020 Kona) and it's really no less convenient and much cheaper for the several times I've made 400km trips in it. What makes your dad doubt it?
It adds about 30 minutes to a 4 hour trip, so in practice you just charge while you stop for a meal.
My own Dad drives 4 or 5 hours in one go so likes his ICE car for that.
@Mad Well, he plans to do a lot of road-tripping. I agree about timing your meals to coincide with charging, but there's still planning and hassle involved. Realistically, in 2025 in the US, it seems like you're occasionally going to have to make awkward detours to hit charging spots and end up waiting around on road trips.
I made this market because I anticipate this changing soon enough that buying a gas car today is a bad idea.
@dreev I went down on a long weekend and would have had to wait half an hour to get a charger so I just went an hour to the next one, but that was as far as I could go. I can only imagine that the USA has better charging access than Western Australia,
Looking at ABRP they seem pretty well spaced in colarado on all the major and minor highways so idk....
@Mad like as long as he has an adapter for a normal power point he'll be able to charge overnight at his destination, no matter how remote, unless he's camping more than 2 hours away from a charger I guess?
@Mad Hmm, how far does one typically go per day of road-tripping? Charging overnight is great but I imagine it being an additional hassle, making sure the hotel you book has overnight charging spots available, and then what if they're all taken, etc. Again, for now. At some point it will be a non-issue.
I should also point out that EVs are already a huge win any time you're not road-tripping. You can do pretty much any amount of day-to-day driving and end up back home to charge overnight and never think about fuel for your car at all.
@dreev overnight charging is just any power point, but they're not universally supplied. In similar situations I've just charged in my destination city or close to it. I don't have plans for a multi day trip, most of mine are 2-6 hours which is easy to do in a day.