christmasoompa

I don't ever frequent an 'urban area' (shudder). Our village school, library and shop all have free chargers. In fact I suspect that free ones are less frequent in urban areas, I'm sure I'd have to pay if I went in to a town or city. Odd that there's such a gap on the map for free chargers where you are, but a beautiful part of the world so I can see why.

If you work in the automotive/manufacturer sector then you may well have come across Mr Christmasoompa, and possibly had a lively debate with him on the merits of EV's!

scrubbedexpat091

This is what electric charging map shows for my city, not many options. Now Kelowna across the lake has more, but I am not driving 30 minutes each way to charge a car.

The BC Hydro location charges 0.21 cents per minute to charge, but I haven't a clue how long it takes to charge a car. Tesla ones are free but I don't know if they work with non-Tesla cars?

BC Hydro is Level 3 charger.

The Charge Point Is Level 2 charger, but located at a winery so unsure of how accessible it is for general public.

I'd prefer electric, but the big barriers at the moment is upfront cost is still rather high, and charging since it cannot be done at home for us since we rent and live in an apartment, and well our building doesn't even have parking, street parking only.

At least with the 21 cent per minute fee at BC Hydro station may eliminate the, park my car here for 10 hours that people were doing. When I worked at Vancouver Airport the employee lot had 2 charging stations, but considering shifts for airline jobs tend to be 10-12 hours long, well the chance of it being available when you arrive for work is pretty slim.

okonumiyaki

From the map you posted - I know that area well (parents have lived there for 35 years or so) In their village, I would estimate 90% could charge at home. They deliberately though didn't choose a rural house, but a village, as wanted amenities. Rural - isolated farmhouse, 80 houses is already a hamlet or a village.

R I C H

Nationally c25% of homes don't have off road parking, so your figures are meaningless regarding a wider perspective. I can only speak for my own location, your parents situation and choice of property is irrelevant really. Many villages have no amenities, even what might be considered basic provision like street lighting isn't provided where I live. What's likely to happen over time is ICE vehicles will attract more and more punitive tax to discourage their use, which is all well and good if the alternative products are affordable and fit for purpose. At the moment, for a sizeable proportion of the population, they're patently not.

You appear to be suggesting a village or hamlet can't be defined as rural, however remote from amenities, which feels illogical, and is certainly at odds with most normal definitions, including the government's own: The Rural Classification is used to distinguish rural and urban areas. The Classification defines areas as rural if they fall outside of settlements with more than 10,000 resident population. Rural and isolated can be one in the same, or quite different. I've no bus service nearby, so if I didn't drive I could feel isolated.

Danny B

We are getting fed up with paying $80 per tank to travel 450km in our juicy V6, thinking about buying a RAV4 Hybrid as most of our journeys are around town. However, this particular model is as rare as rocking horse shit right now, and dealers are selling for above MSRP.

Thank goodness I still have my trusty old VW TDI for highway trips. $45 for 900kms

scrubbedexpat091

$80 doesn't seem so bad for that, our Mazda 2 costs around $60 but can only make it maybe 250-300km in typical day to day driving, I got it up to 350km though almost on the US interstate 5 on my way to California a couple years ago, but yes its a pain, we don't even fill it up anymore I don't think we have been above 1/2 tank in months, just put in a bit of money when we can, simply too expensive, gotten to the point where even doing things like Instacart or door dash really isn't viable with prices so high.

R I C H

It's about £60 ($105 CAD) in diesel to cover similar mileage here @ 50mpg or 4.75 l/100 kms

A timely and interesting video on hydrogen internal combusion engines developed by JCB:

Danny B

very interesting video, I watched James May talk about his new Toyota hydrogen fuel cell car the other day. Just wish BC had more pumps as it’s definitely an alternative to pure EV.

Danny B

That mpg on your car. doesn’t sound right at all, you should try and clean the MAF sensor. Should be getting more than 16mpg on that small engine

caretaker

On the highway I get about 33mpg with my 3.8L V6 2002 Windstar, and it's always loaded. The trip calculator on the GasBuddy app works very well.

OrangeMango

I think regarding electric vehicles is very much deceiving.

What should also be factored in is the manufacturing, the battery, where the electricity comes from and how the vehicle is then recycled once it's no longer used. Electric vehicle battery manufacture and recycle make the electric vehicle not as green as politicians like to position and sell it. And then there is the issue of limited range. 500 km is not very much, especially in a country like Canada, but also driving across Europe seems impossible with this range. I'd say 900 km range, whatever the weather, hot or freezing cold, is the minimum if I was to consider going electric.

scrubbedexpat091

I shall look into that. Never crossed my mind it could be something faulty like a sensor. I also never did the math to figure the MPG, onto to google to figure out what a MAF sensor is.

scrubbedexpat091

How do electrics perform if sitting on the street in -10 or -20 or -30 all night?

Just curious how extreme temperatures (even on the hot side, but cold is more relevant to Canada) affect their ability range wise.

R I C H

It f**** ‘em up. Think of your phone battery and how it responds to a day out skiing. Driving range is considerably reduced in cold temperatures.

dbd33

The difference between electric and non-electric cars in terms of recycling just comes down to the battery. Cars have seats and wheels and whatnot regardless of the power plant. Batteries are getting better but certainly are a cost at the moment.

The importance of range depends on the intended usage. Pre-pandemic I used to commute 30 miles each way, Given a charger in the garage at home 300 miles is easily enough range to go to and from work and to pick up a curry on the way back. An electric commuter vehicle could easily replace my hybrid. An electric Ranger could replace the commuter car and the truck.