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US to announce sharply lower vehicle fuel economy requirements (www.reuters.com)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 11 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I hope for my next vehicle to be an EV, but I won't take anything less that 300 miles range. I know that 90% of my driving can be comfortably done in under 200 range, but I do go on longer trips. I know that recharging has come a long way, and I have no problem hanging out for 15+ min at a station, but I won't do it every 2-3 hours because that's all I've got.

I'm hoping to get many more years out of my current ride before it dies or becomes too costly to repair vs replace. That gives ample time for battery tech to further improve, and hopefully more and cheaper EVs to the market.

I'm not a car snob by any means, but currently the only EV that really piques my interest is the ionic 5 n, but it's range is just way too low. I've been driving a WRX for a little over 6 years now, and love pretty much everything about it. I hope to someday have an EV equivalent of it.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 day ago* (1 child)

    Range anxiety is partially what pushed us to go PHEV. We really only use gas if we leave our immediate area, and on longer trips it’s the same as a full ICE car (just with much better efficiency).

    I too hope for better batteries and cheaper EVs before my next purchase! Would love to see Chinese cars in the American market to humble these MSRPs.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    But if you leave the electrical zone, it's even less efficient than gas only, no?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    Not necessarily. My PHEV (a RAV4) reserves a portion of its battery to use in the same way that a non-plugin hybrid does. The vehicle maintains a charge in that portion through regenerative braking and the motion of the engine, so the battery can never truly go dead.

    Even if I never charged mine, I could still drive it as if it were a standard hybrid and continue to get ~39MPG highway. But in reality I do charge it and most of my miles per month are all electric (most PHEVs also have pressurized fuel tanks to keep gas from going stale when it’s unused for lengths of time).

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago* (1 child)

    I drive a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross PHEV. Highway fuel economy is roughly 6L/100Km (about 30mpg) when driving on a depleted battery. Much better than the 9.5L/100Km (24mpg) from the i30 it replaced.

    Not as efficient as a Toyota hybrid, but on daily commutes it uses zero fuel and roughly 20kW/100Km.

    So the okay fuel economy is offset by the ability to run on electric for 90% of my driving with no range anxiety.

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  • [–] 2 points 23 hours ago (1 child)

    On long driving trips it is reccomended to stop every 2-3 hours for 10 minutes anyways so I don't see the stopping to charge as an issue tbh.

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  • [–] 1 point 23 hours ago

    I usually push 4 hours or about 400 miles when I can on longer trips. I rarely drive late nights anymore, so most of that travel takes place during the light if day. It's about 4 hours for me to visit my friends in an adjacent state, and I can do that comfortably now under a single tank of gas. That could result a couple of stops on a lower range EV if I didn't want to push the limits. That's just something I'm not willing to do right now.

    Again, I hope that I can get by without purchasing a new vehicle for many years to come. EVs are getting better and battery tech is improving as well. I think the market will probably meet my needs by the time I'm ready to transition.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    have no problem hanging out for 15+ min at a station, but I won't do it every 2-3 hours because that's all I've got.

    And there's me planning a 2000mi road trip in my '22 Bolt next month lmao. It'll add several hours to my trip as each stop is 30min-1hr

    (The old model Bolts charge pretty slow compared to most modern EVs - 50kw max.)

    If I had a Hyundai or something similarly fast charging it would cut my trip by ~5 hours each way. But I almost never take trips over 300mi by car. A few times a decade, maybe.

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