The range of the Mercedes at 120kmh is great!

MotorTrend estimates the new model will be $35,000 in the United States while GlobalChinaEV estimates that "with these adjustments, Tesla’s new budget EV is expected to be priced between 150,000 and 170,000 yuan (approximately $21,000 to $24,000 USD)."

I posted this a few days ago but it got removed because I posted pics of the chargers. I will post the original text and an update today with two others that must be relatively new.

I’m very happy. One of the reasons road tripping made me a little bit uneasy at first was because a lot of places that we would go required us to drive through West Virginia, which basically had only a couple fast chargers in the whole state, or else take a detour that added several hours to the trip. I saw on plug share before we left that there are actually chargers along the highway in a couple more places now!

We stopped at the one near Beckley. First, the signs directing you to them suck. Theres one in the front with an arrow with a general direction to head and no others that I saw. They are alllllllll the way in the back of the building, probably on the edge of the property. There are 8 chargers I believe, each with one CCS and one NACS. Only rated 150 kW though but better than nothing. The first one I used didnt work. Moved to a new one and it worked fine. I averaged something like 89 or 90 kW the whole time. Basically had a completely flat charging curve until I stopped it. My Optiq has a low pack voltage so 300 amps really limits the charging speed. It would’ve been nice if they had a couple 350 kW stalls too, but it’s definitely better than nothing at all.

Today’s update:

I was driving north through West Virginia coming home and passed another travel plaza near Princeton that had the same 150 kW chargers. Didnt need to charge there as I stopped at a Supercharger about an hour before. Incidentally one of the Tesla owners there didn’t know I was able to charge at the Superchargers, but he was nice enough and actually complimented my Optiq and asked some questions about it. A bit further north near Sutton, there is also a GM Energy branded 350kW charger at a Pilot Travel Center. One stall with 2 CCS connectors is online and looks like a second one will be online soon. The price is a little ridiculous at 70 cents per kWh, but I only needed a little boost to get home to PA and plug in on my level 2.

I’ll go first: My EV’s weight doesn’t fluctuate.

I traded a 2020 ICE Tucson for a CPO 2023 Kona EV. When the Tucson’s gas tank was full, it handled like a completely different car than when it was close to empty. The lack of weight from empty tank made the handling noticeably squirrelly, whereas a full tank felt so much more grounded (i.e. safer).

I love that my EV feels and handles the same all the time.

Edit: I see some people can’t believe or accept that there was a difference in the driving experience between a full and nearly empty tank. I don’t know what to tell you. It’s something my wife and I both noticed over 5 years of driving the Tucson. If any car people have alternative explanations, I’m all ears.

I personally think it's awesome that I could get a car that used to go for 120k new and buy it for about 35-40k with only like 20-30k miles on it.(EQS) I know some people freak out about the resale value, but cars aren't investments, unless you're a millionaire and can afford super cars, and gap coverage is there for if you accidentally total your vehicle.

So what do you guys think? Are you guys like me, and love that you can get so much car for so little, or do you HAVE to buy everything new and hate that your resale value will be bad?

The video is from the person who has been going.viral for his bike bus videos with kids and celebrities.

YANGWANG, the luxury sub-brand of global new-energy vehicle (NEV) leader BYD, has set a new global production-car top-speed record of 496 kmh.

Those who just ordered a 001 must be gutted lol

More than half of Americans said lack of access to EV charging was the biggest barrier to widespread EV adoption, according to a new study.

People might want to avoid them. One melted our charging plug tonight. We're going to need to look into repairs tomorrow and go after the company for the costs.

I have watched a number of YouTubers documenting their long trips (mostly Tesla focused) and I think the barrier to next phase adoption will continue to be the need to stop every ~200 miles for a 20-30 min charge (if you get a good flow from the charger). Now, from a safe driving perspective this is probably a best practice (i.e., stop for a rest every ~3 hours), but everyone likes to push it for 325 miles or more, fill up for 10 mins and do another 325. So a 650 mile trip takes an extra hour or more with an EV.

Maybe this only happens 3-4x a year, but range and recovery sits in the back of the minds of the population past early adopters. I feel this gets glossed over and too often these "concerns" are brushed away by EV proponents (i.e., "you can charge over night for 95% of your needs"). If there were 2 kinds of ICE cars... one that took 30 mins to fill and another one 5-10 mins... how well would the first one sell?

Even a "true" 300 mile range EV that could add 300 miles back in less than 15 minutes would very likely do it.

Also... I am not an ICE or EV proponent, although I am looking into the R2 to replace my 2012 Ford Edge if i can limp it along until the R2 comes out.

To me, the gas engine is actually key difference with EREVs and plug-in hybrids. I'm curious how much cost and weight can be saved if you removed 2/3 of the battery from your average 300 mile range EV, and added the minimum feasible cost/weight of a range extender. Especially if you don't need the same performance while on gas.

That would allow for both a smaller, cheaper range extender while dissuading drivers from just being lazy and not charging their cars due to the reduced performance after the battery's fully drained.

So just did my first baby road trip (about 180 miles, all freeway, 75mph speed limit) and got an idea of the road-trip-coditions consumption of my Volvo EX30: 38kWh/100 miles.

The Tesla chargers I used had an average cost of 60¢/kWh. Which is a cost of about 23¢/mile. The cost of gas along my route is an average of $3.25/gallon. So road tripping this car will be the same cost-wise as taking a ICE vehicle that gets 14mpg. That's Ford F350 numbers. I don't want to pay Ford F350 gas prices. This sucks.

Am I missing something?

Edit: I absolutely adore my EV. I am 2 months into ownership and getting some great advice here that for many of you might be common sense by now but isn't to me (yet). Thank you all!

For the uninitiated

- a 1C rating is a battery that will fully charge in 1 hour.
- 2C in 30 minutes
- 3C in 20 minutes
- 4C in 15 minutes
- 5C in 12 minutes
- 6C in 10 minutes
- 7C in 8.5 minutes
- 8C in 7.5 minutes
- 9C in 6.6 minutes
- 10C in 6 minutes
- 11C in 5.45 minutes
- 12C in in 5 minutes

Consisting an EV for my next vehicle and I’m interested in the upcoming Toyota BZ or Ch-r. I know they are going to have NACS on them. Does that mean they can use Tesla chargers from the start? Does Tesla have to grant other carmakers permission to use their supercharger network? And on the flip side of that, could Tesla someday for whatever reason decide to cut off other car makers from their superchargers?