A Business Insider reporter learned how “brutal” a road trip in an electric vehicle (EV) can be when he was forced to bundle up instead of using the heater in his car to try to maximize his range. After the trip he commented, “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t curse these silly electric cars under my breath once or twice.”
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Business Insider’s Tim Levin drove the new Toyota bZ4X electric SUV from New York City to Washington, DC and back, and discovered that he was forced to spend roughly a quarter of his time charging his electric vehicle. But it got worse from there.
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“I hit the road back to New York on a chilly morning with 176 miles of range. When I went to turn on the heat, the indicated range plummeted to 125 miles,” Levin wrote.
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.Therefore, Levin had to make a decision: stay warm and charge twice, or turn off the heat — given the effect that it has on the vehicle’s battery life and range — and deal with the cold. He chose the latter.
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Levin said he “bundled up and relied mostly on the seat and steering-wheel warmers” in order to “make things almost bearable.”
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“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t curse these silly electric cars under my breath once or twice,” he added.
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The bZ4X’s battery can charge at a maximum rate of 100 kilowatts, a rate which Levin referred to as “uncompetitive.” But he never saw the battery charge that quickly, despite charging it three times during his trip.
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“You don’t always achieve that max charge rate due to the charger, the temperature of the battery, or, in my case, settings built into the vehicle itself,” Levin explained. “During my trip, the car never got close to 100 kW, leading to some excruciating charging times.”
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Levin ended up making the round-trip in 9 hours, but needed another three hours to charge his battery — so a total of 12 hours were dedicated to the trip.
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The Insider writer suggested that the problem could have had more to do with the car itself, pointing out that “many vehicles beat the Toyota’s so-so 222-mile range, cutting down the frequency and urgency of pit stops.”
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“Teslas charge quickly and benefit from an expansive, private charging network. Some Hyundai batteries can charge to nearly full in the time it takes to find a bathroom and grab some beef jerky,” he said.
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In an apparent attempt to make light of the situation, Levin pointed out that one does not necessarily need to sit in their car and wait while their EV charges, and mentioned that he did some sight-seeing while charging his bZ4X.
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