Hello,
I've just lent my Bolt EV to my daughter until she sorts out the near-comatose mechanical issues her truck is having. Her commute is right at the edge of what Level 1, 120V, charging can deliver, where she runs a deficit while charging on weekdays that catches up through the weekend of being plugged in. 240V charging is out of the question with the rental housing she is in.
Last night, for some reason, she didn't seat the J-1772 plug and the car didn't charge - I instructed her this morning to listen for the connector click and for the car's little beep that charging has commenced. A round-trip today without last night's charge is a massive deficit to where she'll have to public charge to get caught up.
Users at the edge of weekly use, like her, can rest assured that battery energy (range) is improving, but Wh come at a cost, currently around $100/Wh for NMC and somewhere around $70 for LFP chemistries. When the pack capacity runs out, it still means having to charge for an hour or so.
Chevy fixed some of this in the newly released Bolt, which has a starting MSP around $27k. It's still out of reach for the $20/hour masses, and affordable used EVs don't deliver the range for >60 mile commutes that charge 10 hours a day on a wall plug.
Bigger, cheaper, batteries are the long term solution, as is faster charging - both are in the works, and, with the brain trust and market pressures of today, we'll see signicant changes that we can look back on and laugh at in a decade or so.
Meanwhile, there are those who need more range who can't be bothered to charge, or just cannot for various reasons. Automakers have responded with the Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV), one that has an (inefficient) onboard ICE that charges a smaller EV pack. Murray discusses the imminent crop of EREV in the link, below.
The problem with EREV is that the range-lacking battery my daughter has a problem with now gets chopped in capacity to almost half in many cases, lowering pure-EV range, meaning the vehicle essentially runs on its ICE a lot longer than merely making up for the original pack-size's deficit in range. ICE is heavy, it contributes to rolling resistance and is less efficient and more polluting than a coal generating plant. EREV architecture doesn't just "drop the ICE into the frunk area" - the exhaust and fuel systems need to be plumbed to crash-safe and gasses-safe locations elsewhere.
EREV is merely a psychological bandaid for marketing electric vehicles to the 50% of EV-reluctant people, to the ones who have fast-charge access issues, or to the folks that have the need to tow a boat a few times a year beyond 200 miles.
Because EREV will eventually become obsolete due to charging speed, lower battery costs, and higher battery capacity (range), it's a flash in the pan tech that may last a decade, tops.
And, maybe, that's OK.
-andyT
