News: Slate exploring different battery supplier. SUV kit price to be $5000 range

[sodamo]

In the rare event of that happening I'll just drive the other car.

The ultimate fallback

 

[Garbone]

I think it’s inevitable that folks will need to drive the Slate at or near its limits from time to time. You will find out soon enough. Your so-called “routine” is not fixed.

As you already know, there will always be the little unplanned trips to the grocery store, pharmacy, emergencies, and chores that inevitably arise from home, work, school etc. And many other spontaneous trips that pop up. Then you get home and realize, you need to go ‘out’ again. All of these situations are range killers for your regular routine.

I challenge anyone to spontaneously know their SOC (or fuel level in your ICE vehicle) before actually jumping in or checking your app first. Then you notice you’re well below 20% (but you were going to charge tonight). Life happens.

Eh, Started the week with both at about 90%. Thursday wife was down to 54 myself to 60ish. She charged Thursday to 90 and I did Friday night from 59 to 100 as she wanted to take my car on a trip Saturday. Trips canceled so we will use the top of the battery this weekend running to get it back below 90 by Monday.

Keeping in mind during the week we are around towning an usually getting 4mile/kw or better and both of us drive a minimum of 12 miles a day with her roaming around shopping and doing social butterfly stuff most days so she drives more. Sometimes I get home and her car is plugged in, indicating a longer trip to moms house or some such (120miles) was taken.

Time spent at a gas station getting pan handled within 150 miles of the house since 2022- 0 minutes.

 

[E90400K]

Total capacity does make a difference on charge time due to charge curve. Took a 330 mile trip in our EV rated at 230ish miles per charge. Stopped twice for 20 to 30 minutes each stop to get back to 80% and the curve drop. Wanting to get to the destination with enough to tool around town and not worry about charging.

150 miles would make that 3 or even 4 stops. Taking a 5 hour gas car trip, 6 hour meh range EV trip and turning it into a 6.5 to 7 hour charge fest.

Day to day we keep 100 miles as our lowest range before charging as we have elderly loved ones that we want to be prepared to visit. Only charge once a week or so.

It the range starts lower than 200 I think it moves the truck into commercial fleet and domestic curiosity range as it will just be annoying.

I think your trip is the essence of why in the US EV take up has slowed. A 330-mile trip in most ICEV is a one (1) stop 5-minute recharge event. Any of my four ICEV can make 330 miles on a single tank of gasoline, even the truck that gets 14 MPG.

 

[Doug T]

Eh, Started the week with both at about 90%. Thursday wife was down to 54 myself to 60ish. She charged Thursday to 90 and I did Friday night from 59 to 100 as she wanted to take my car on a trip Saturday. Trips canceled so we will use the top of the battery this weekend running to get it back below 90 by Monday.

Keeping in mind during the week we are around towning an usually getting 4mile/kw or better and both of us drive a minimum of 12 miles a day with her roaming around shopping and doing social butterfly stuff most days so she drives more. Sometimes I get home and her car is plugged in, indicating a longer trip to moms house or some such (120miles) was taken.

Time spent at a gas station getting pan handled within 150 miles of the house since 2022- 0 minutes.

This is the same charging routine that I use: 90% most of the time, 100% when a trip is planned. Don't really worry about it but the car is typically at 50-60% when I charge. The result is that I have not yet had any issue with range in over a year when driving locally. As a backup, there is a DC charging station within a few miles of my house but I have never used it.

In addition to the convenience of charging at home, cost is another nice benefit. I kept a detailed record over the month of July. I averaged the equivalent to 92 miles per gallon. I do charge at night taking advantage of off-peak rates.

 

[KevinRS]

I think your trip is the essence of why in the US EV take up has slowed. A 330-mile trip in most ICEV is a one (1) stop 5-minute recharge event. Any of my four ICEV can make 330 miles on a single tank of gasoline, even the truck that gets 14 MPG.

The problem is people need to take a look at what trips they actually take, and how often. The vast majority have their daily drive round trip well within Slate's standard battery range. Over half probably are under half that range. For a once a year, or even a couple of times a year trip that's 300 miles or more, it may be cheaper to just rent a car for that weekend or week trip or whatever than to buy more range, or even just fly.
That is all assuming that the Slate is the only vehicle in the household. For a multi-car household that makes more long trips it may make sense to have 1 vehicle that has more range, but use the slate or similar for shorter travel, and extend the life of that 1 vehicle.

For example for me, I could drive the hour plus to Los Angeles if needed on the Slate's range, just need to charge before returning. I could drive to my sister's needing just a very short charge somewhere on the way. Las Vegas would be a 2 charge trip, but I'm unlikely to go there. My parents at one point rented a car to drive there before there were EVs. I have aunts and uncles in Montana and Idaho, far faster just to fly there.

 

[GaRailroader]

I think your trip is the essence of why in the US EV take up has slowed. A 330-mile trip in most ICEV is a one (1) stop 5-minute recharge event. Any of my four ICEV can make 330 miles on a single tank of gasoline, even the truck that gets 14 MPG.

This week I am riding my bike across Missouri on the Katy Trail. I drove my Tesla with a bike rack from Atlanta to St. Charles, MO a distance of almost 600 miles. The Tesla route planner planned 3 charging stops.(I have a 2018 Model 3 LR with a range of about 256 miles when charged 100%, it was 309 miles when new but has deteriorated) Tesla planned the first charging stop for 30 minutes, the 2nd stop at 16 minutes and the last at 9 minutes. I extended each charging stop due to not being ready to leave so my actuals were 33 minutes, 19 minutes and 22 minutes. I was not ready due to still eating, bio break, making tea, etc. If I had a 330 mile range vehicle, even though I would only spend 5 minutes fueling on a 600 mile trip, I would still spend a good hour stopped for non-fueling reasons. With an EV, all of these non-fueling reasons to stop are performed while charging. When you are charging you are able to do other things that you are unable to do when fueling an ICE vehicle. For me an ICE vehicle is not going to yield faster trip times due to the limiting factor being me and not the charging speed.

 

[atreis]

I think your trip is the essence of why in the US EV take up has slowed. A 330-mile trip in most ICEV is a one (1) stop 5-minute recharge event. Any of my four ICEV can make 330 miles on a single tank of gasoline, even the truck that gets 14 MPG.

There is always a distance at which you're just over what the car can do on a single charge. Even if the car could go 600 miles, that 620 mile trip would require a stop. Aside from that, most people need a bio break before 300 miles anyway.

 

[sodamo]

The longest trip I’m planning is 80 mi one way.
bio break and a coffee