this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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Commissions on EV sales for legacy automakers are dismal. None of the legacy automakers are making EVs at scale so they are losing 10s of thousands of dollars per EV they sell. Sales personnel aren’t moving them because they have no incentive to do so. Then these companies complain about how there is no demand while the EV sector is growing exponentially.
Tesla got to scale while legacy automakers were all laughing at them and now they have to compete by gaslighting the marketplace about how there is no demand.
I’ve been in an EV since 2020 and am never going back. When people start to wake up to how convenient and comfortable EVs are and stop buying into all of the negative media, it’s only going to snowball from there.
Are you able to take it for road trips, or do you primarily use it locally?
Not OP, but middle America resident here. Family vacationed in my Bolt EUV 2023 to Florida and had to plan activities at most of my charge stops because of how slow it DC fast charges (50kw). Mostly meals, but locating museums and other stuff wasn't to hard. CCS network is not good, but it's good enough with the right planning. Yeah road trips aren't ideal in the Bolt, but since Ford didn't make but 15 base model F-150 Lightnings and I wasn't paying $30,000 over MSRP for 1 of 3 trucks in stock East of the Mississippi, I bought the Bolt instead planning to put my daughter in it when she's ready to drive. I would've preferred utility and faster DC charging, but had to make do with what was available. Road tripping in a Tesla would be much easier and quicker.
Before you ask, no you can't buy the base model Lightning direct from Ford. You can all other trims though.
I drove it about 60-80 miles a day on a Houston commute for about 2 years. Now I took it on the road and am trying out the digital nomad lifestyle. Just drove 1000miles in 2 days, from sea level to 10,000ft. I haven’t had a problem finding chargers or with anything else.
If you’re road-tripping, there are apps to plan the optimal route based on whether you want to arrive in the shortest time or don’t mind stopping for a while longer at parks, restaurants, or shopping places. I generally drive about 2 1/2-3 hrs, then stop for a half hour or so, give or take 10 minutes if I’m in a rush or want to stop for lunch or something. When im in a hotel, I just search for hotels that have EV chargers and charge overnighit… those are usually free. When I’m in a new area renting a place, I haven’t had an issue finding a plug to slow charge or a grocery store or something that has a fast charger.
I guess to answer your question, I primarily take it on road trips, but use it locally in the destinations I land in.
I guess my concern was charging time. Granted, I haven't really done any research, but I had it in my head that it would take a long time to charge (slow charging?). Overnight would be fine, but I was picturing driving for a few hours, and then charging for a few hours, over and over again.
Yeah. A lot of people don’t have first hand experience and there is a lot of misinformation out there.
It does take about an hour to charge if you go from empty to full, but it charges slower as you get closer to 100%. That’s why they say it takes about half an hour to get an 80% charge.
I usually try to plan my routes where I charge after getting under 10% and only save my longer charges for places that have some kind of point of interest, like a park, or a meal break. The apps strategize all of that stuff and make the route, you just have the option of optimizing if you want to adjust the route.
It does seem to break up a drive a bit nicer and leave you with more energy when you hit your destination, but would be more irritating if I was under a time crunch and didn’t plan the time accordingly.