Wol

There's another thing that people ignore, too. One of the issues that is always brought up is the fact that with an ICE you can refuel whenever you want too, whereas an EV does require some planning if travelling over say 500Km.

However, if and when EVs get to a tipping point of ownership obviously the demand for gas decreases, and I thing many filling stations will become non-viable. Then the equation changes - more charging stations, fewer gas pumps, in an exponential curve.

GarryP

I'm actually guessing that many shopping centres will convert many of their parking bays to automated recharging stops. Reasoning goes thus :

1. As robotaxies increase and online ordering/delivery increases with it, your conventional bricks and mortar stores will continue to fade away - with less cars parking in consequence.
2. In an effort to draw people in, and make some money off the land, owners will put in automated recharging and waiting areas for robotaxies (why not use that space).
3. It won't be 4c off per litre, shops will try things like "free charge whilst you shop", so the longer you are there, the more charge your car gets.
4. Similarly, train stations will look to build out charging infrastructure in their car parks.
5. In short, where you see a car park today, it will either become a charging spot in future, or if the land is too valuable, it will be built on.

One of the things we haven't see yet, but I expect before too soon, is the charging coming up from the ground to the base of the vehicle, rather than aping the fuel filler cap. Someone needs to define a standard.

Amazulu

I'll say they're spinning it. Heating and cooling the inside of a car is going to take energy - a car AC can use up to just under 8kW at full blast. That's a lot

Any electrical system - including a battery - is affected by cold and heat. So if a car traction battery is going to be useful across all temperature ranges, then it will need to be cooled/warmed - which again, takes energy

In our Australian context, on a 42C afternoon, an EV is going to have its range seriously chopped. Add to this hills, wind, stop/start and that 400km range is now 300kms - or less

We're just not there yet

Wol

The heating/cooling of the battery is part of the "vampire" energy loss - I certainly wouldn't leave an EV at the airport for a month's vacation!

If you go onto the Tesla site and "order" a car (just don't press the "go ahead" button <g>) you can enter the battery size, wheels etc and look at the predicted range with different outside temperatures, speed, a/c on/off etc. According to owners on the Tesla club sites the numbers are pretty accurate - and as I said previously no EV seller will if he's got any sense exaggerate the figures if it leads to their wheels being constantly seen by the side of the road miles from an electrical socket.

Shard

Sounds like the financial markets (short sellers to be precise) are out to crush Tesla. That would be a shame if they do. Hope Elon is able to rebound this.