Giving these funds to states to distribute was a huge mistake. Asking each state to evaluate proposals and become knowledgeable enough to make the right decisions in this complicated area doomed the NEVI program from the start.
It means that the states most desperately in need of more EV charging infrastructure are the least likely to move forward because they're run by the party that doesn't care because most of their constituents don't care. But the minority who live there who need it, and the people who need to drive through the state pay the price. Huge screw up as with almost everything EV related that the government has done.
The train left the tracks when the government failed to establish uniform mechanical form factors and interface protocols for swappable batteries. It should be easier and quicker to refuel an EV than an ICE-based vehicle, not the other way around.
Charging makes a lot more sense at scale than battery swapping. Nio is doing it successfully in China, but they haven't been able to replicate it in Europe, to say nothing of the US. A battery swap in a Nio takes 5-6 minutes but requires you to be in the car the whole time so if you want to use a restroom, get food/drinks, walk around, etc. you have to actually do that in addition to the battery swap. Charging allows you to multitask, and modern EVs can add a hundred or more miles of range in 15 minutes.
> Charging allows you to multitask, and modern EVs can add a hundred or more miles of range in 15 minutes.
Requires a complete mindset change to be ok with the trade off of 75% less range in 3x the time. I can get 380 miles of range in less than 5 mins and 90% of the time I don’t want to multitask during that time but if I really needed a restroom and a drink, etc…I could do it within that same <5 min timeframe. So I don’t really buy in to this as a “benefit” when I hear people touting it. It just seems to be EV apologetics.
Are you talking about filling a gas car in 5 minutes? That's not what we were talking about, we were talking about battery swaps. You should read the thread before replying.
I would never tell someone that road tripping in an EV today is as easy as it is in an ICE car for a number of reasons, the main one being infrastructure. And that's not what we were talking about.
If you really want to talk about ICE refueling vs. BEV charging stops. In the real world, going to the restroom and/or getting food/beverage will take longer than 5 minutes most of the time. You end up waiting in line a lot, if you're done refueling, you have to move your car to a parking space, etc. In the real world the difference in the length of time you're stopped for is not much if anything. What is different is the frequency of stops since an ICE car can take on 300+ miles of range much faster. So then it's a question if are you someone who stops only when you have to in order to refuel? In that case of course an ICE vehicle is still faster to road trip. But if you're someone who wants to stop every ~2-2.5 hours (which a lot of people are) then you're not gonna lose any additional time driving an EV. But you will have the annoyance of infrastructure being far, far less common and in the case of CCS vehicles far, far less reliable.
I'm getting more and more concerned that the US can't roll out any new infrastructure despite throwing billions of dollars at a problem. It's just embarrassing. California's handling of the high speed rail (especially the well documented corruption) was embarrassing. NYC's inability to stop shitwater from flooding their streets is embarrassing. Even more, nobody even attempts to correct the issue. The largest fire in california (2018 Camp Fire) killed about 100 people and was purely a result of mismanagement. Large parts of Texas are just crumbling and in "poor condition" according to white house assessments.
The worst part, for me? Nobody cares, nobody looks into it, and no one is held accountable. It's just a slow, gradual decline while we imagine things that would be nice, skim money off the economy to fund them, and then throw our hands up in the air and act surprised when the money catches on fire.
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[ 15.9 ms ] story [ 1674 ms ] threadIt means that the states most desperately in need of more EV charging infrastructure are the least likely to move forward because they're run by the party that doesn't care because most of their constituents don't care. But the minority who live there who need it, and the people who need to drive through the state pay the price. Huge screw up as with almost everything EV related that the government has done.
Requires a complete mindset change to be ok with the trade off of 75% less range in 3x the time. I can get 380 miles of range in less than 5 mins and 90% of the time I don’t want to multitask during that time but if I really needed a restroom and a drink, etc…I could do it within that same <5 min timeframe. So I don’t really buy in to this as a “benefit” when I hear people touting it. It just seems to be EV apologetics.
I would never tell someone that road tripping in an EV today is as easy as it is in an ICE car for a number of reasons, the main one being infrastructure. And that's not what we were talking about.
If you really want to talk about ICE refueling vs. BEV charging stops. In the real world, going to the restroom and/or getting food/beverage will take longer than 5 minutes most of the time. You end up waiting in line a lot, if you're done refueling, you have to move your car to a parking space, etc. In the real world the difference in the length of time you're stopped for is not much if anything. What is different is the frequency of stops since an ICE car can take on 300+ miles of range much faster. So then it's a question if are you someone who stops only when you have to in order to refuel? In that case of course an ICE vehicle is still faster to road trip. But if you're someone who wants to stop every ~2-2.5 hours (which a lot of people are) then you're not gonna lose any additional time driving an EV. But you will have the annoyance of infrastructure being far, far less common and in the case of CCS vehicles far, far less reliable.
The worst part, for me? Nobody cares, nobody looks into it, and no one is held accountable. It's just a slow, gradual decline while we imagine things that would be nice, skim money off the economy to fund them, and then throw our hands up in the air and act surprised when the money catches on fire.
The usual playbook:
Issue press release announcing new Federal support for X (in this case, charging stations).
Move on.
Repeat as necessary.