🔋 The Extended Battery Decision (Poll: Which battery option suits you best?)

[sodamo]

Sharing what A-not-I has to say about something that you haven't or can't independently confirm is never the right choice.

Agree

 

[thommeigh]

I don't think that pencils out.

Most of the thousands of dollars you'll spend on the Extended Battery option will not be recoverable at resale.

Noted! Thanks for that info, that’s helpful. I wasn’t necessarily thinking of it in the context of making back my investment, but more generally that a future buyer could be unwilling to consider a used Slate with the standard battery pack.

 

[metroshot]

I am not of the belief that all EVs need 250/300+ mile range. This is what people are used to from driving an ICE vehicle, and I think that's a big part of why this becomes the benchmark.

150 miles would be just fine for my needs... but I acknowledge that I would be able to setup the charging infrastructure at home, and that we'd have a 2nd car that could be used for longer trips, if I wouldn't want to be bothered with charging. And I know that isn't the case for everyone.

If I did go for the bigger battery, it would probably only be for potential resale benefits - but this will definitely depend on the cost of the larger pack, too.

Agree, as a commuter vehicle, 150 mile range is fine.

I have a base standard range EV w/ 70kW battery I use daily and find that I only need to charge once a week at Tesla Supercharger.

Sometimes for weekend trips, I will charge at home.

Always believed in charging to 100% which is not truly 100% since there's an SOC buffer....

 

[AZFox]

Noted! Thanks for that info, that’s helpful. I wasn’t necessarily thinking of it in the context of making back my investment, but more generally that a future buyer could be unwilling to consider a used Slate with the standard battery pack.

I would've thought that originally because I'm an EV n00b (unless you count a golf cart NEV as an EV).

I went from thinking I'd opt for extended all the way to thinking it's a complete waste of money for my use purpose.

I've learned from EV-experienced people posting here that long-term EV owners are not too worried about it.

Obviously some people actually do need extra range, but that number is far fewer than you'd expect.

 

[thommeigh]

I'm probably not sharing a resource that this group doesn't already know about, but I just found some comfort from playing around with https://abetterrouteplanner.com/. Plugging in some frequent longer drives we take and getting a better sense for the time that would need to be spent charging is making me think that the 150-mile range is an even lesser deal than I was already believing it to be. On this one drive in particular, we normally stop halfway through for about 15-20 minutes to pee, walk the dog, etc., and according to this website, that would be all the charging I'd need for the rest of the trip.

 

[KevinRS]

I'm probably not sharing a resource that this group doesn't already know about, but I just found some comfort from playing around with https://abetterrouteplanner.com/. Plugging in some frequent longer drives we take and getting a better sense for the time that would need to be spent charging is making me think that the 150-mile range is an even lesser deal than I was already believing it to be. On this one drive in particular, we normally stop halfway through for about 15-20 minutes to pee, walk the dog, etc., and according to this website, that would be all the charging I'd need for the rest of the trip.

I found the same, with the ~120 mile trip that is my longest, it calculated by default for some reduction in range, and showed I'd need a 5 minute charge somewhere in the trip. I figure on my couple of times a year doing that trip, I can stop for lunch, and get more charge than that site plans for.

Many people in my area would probably use a trip to Vegas as their benchmark though, and that would require 2 charging stops, which is a bit much for the trip. That's where I figure the reasonable cutoff needs to be. If you make a trip regularly that needs 2 stops to charge, you probably need something with a bigger battery. Luckily I have no desire to make that trip.