You bring up a lot of useful considerations, Ben.
I'll just quibble somewhat with your conclusion below about BEVs as a
"second car."
"...for families that are going to have two cars anyway..."
Actually a lot of folks are reporting that what becomes the "second car"
is the ICE, not the BEV.
That's our experience, too. We drive the electric car on the vast
majority of our trips, while the ICE car is used rarely.
Of course YMMV.
With current tech, something like the Volt makes sense for a single car
family when usage patterns (and budget) requires some percentage of long
trips beyond affordable electric range and/or fast charging.
But for a two car family the possibilities open up a bit more, and
that's where trip length statistics favor the BEV as being the "first
car" covering most of the trips. Maybe unexpectedly so, for some folks.
The Volt can be a good second car in that scenario.
So, bottom line, it's good to have choices right now. People have
different needs to meet. As you pointed out, all the options we're
discussing help transfer miles to electric.
As the battery tech and charging infrastructure continue to develop, the
BEV configuration becomes more and more applicable to more and more
driving patterns.
Cheers,
-Jamie
On 8/29/14 4:43 PM, Ben Goren via EV wrote:
On Aug 29, 2014, at 3:03 PM, Peri Hartman via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org>
wrote:
I think one could argue that if you take a 100 mile trip once every
6 weeks, an EV for everything else might work. Renting once every
6 weeks would be reasonable, perhaps.
For some, perhaps. It's definitely much less convenient than
get-in-the-car-and-go -- you've got to make reservations, get to the
rental place during business hours, deal with all the paperwork,
return the car during business hours, make sure you drop it off with
a full tank...especially if you were looking to get an early start or
come back late at night, that starts to turn into either or both a
major inconvenience or significant additional expense. Possibly
_very_ significant if you have to take time off work to pick up and /
or return the car and pay for an additional day or two of rental
fees.
Basically, unless you're already renting for longer trips, switching
to renting probably isn't going to be something you consider. Most
people who rent cars do so after flying to their destination, and
only small percentages do so in lieu of driving their own cars. BEVs
aren't going to change the mental dynamics of that situation.
But there's a larger problem. If everybody who currently drives their
own vehicle for 80+ mile trips now needs to rent a car, those car
rental companies need to dramatically expand and add huge numbers of
gasoline cars to their fleets -- and have that much more parking
space capacity both for their own vehicles and those of their
clients, and all the rest. That cuts an awful lot into expected
environmental gains as an whole -- you've still got huge numbers of
gasoline cars being made and driven, plus being dumped onto the used
car market after a year.
Again, contrast that with the Volt and presumed future PHEVs with
similar specs: they're pure electric BEVs for Dennis's 85% of trips,
and they're 40% electric for 100-mile trips. And all this in a single
vehicle, with no need for a second one.
It'll be fantastic when BEVs can compete with that...but that day is
a looooooong time coming.
In the mean time, BEVs as a great possibility for the second car for
families that're going to have two cars anyway, and PHEVs in place of
pure gasoline cars for all the rest. And, please, let's not pretend
otherwise!
Cheers,
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