jwong77

As an owner of a PHEV for the last two years, I am pretty happy with the ownership experience. I reduced my trips to the gas station to roughly once every month to month and a half, and its really nice having access to the commuter lanes for free. And a lot of times, charging stations are located near the front of the parking lot I'm going to, so I often get the "good" parking spot too. And I have no range anxiety because I can simply put in more gas if I'm on a long trip.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

jwong is the PHEV the bmw 530e?

Toys4RJill

Great post 👍

jwong77

Yes, thats right, and to be fair it has a very modest EV capability of 17 miles on pure electric. Luckily where I live, the charging infrastructure is fairly good. For instance, there are charging stations at my local supermarket, at my daughter's daycare and my work provides free charging. But for the most part I simply charge the car overnight on my 110V outlet, and treat the 17 miles of EV I get as free mileage.

My commute to the office is roughly 25 miles, so that means there are roughly 8 miles of gas only driving on my daily commute. The car does 30MPG when running on the gas motor only, combined with the 17 miles of EV mileage and plus any other mileage I gain from the regenerative breaking, makes for very low fuel consumption (according to my computer its right now a 63.8MPG).

As far as performance, its no rocket ship, but still does a respectable 0-60 time of 6 seconds (5.8 if you get the xDrive model).

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Thanks for all the info! Very helpful, and interesting.

JDR76

We seem to have quite a few charging stations around here.

There's a Tesla station at our local Fred Meyer (local grocery chain). Now that the Model 3s are out in large numbers there is often a line. They have 10 chargers there. I noticed recently that they put up signs indicating a 40 minute time limit. Not sure if that is typical or not.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

left coast vs. right coast.

riredale

I don't want to have to plug in a cable. That's moving backwards.

The only practical solution in my view is where the battery pack is bolted on and can be exchanged in a matter of a few minutes from below with machinery you drive over.

You won't pay for the battery pack. You will pay for the energy inside.

The packs can be slowly recharged from the mains and from solar and wind during the daytime.

Toys4RJill

I like BMWs wireless solution where you drive over the charger.

SW17LS

Tesla has already implemented/is working on this exact tech.

-J-P-L-

The market will somehow have to choose the technological path if we are to phase out ICE automobiles. The system you bring up has been an explored concept but would take quite the massive undertaking to accomplish. An infrastructure to change out millions of battery packs a day, probably by replacing gas stations with such setups. Then there would have to be a standard that all automakers would adhere to - perhaps the biggest hurdle. Basically a size standard with maybe 3 sizes - small for smaller cars, medium for mid-sized vehicles and large packs for large SUV's and trucks. Not sure how this would work to differentiate vehicles by performance levels. Even Tesla alone makes multiple sizes based on models, trims and how much you want to pay. How could a Toyota Camry use the same pack as an AMG Mercedes? This is why I don't see this path taking place and individualized packs continuing on where we'll still have to charge. Wireless charging is certainly an option.

Freds430

Your BMW should be the wave of the future. Over time they will improve the mileage range. The ideal scenario would be to own an electric car for everyday trips and a plug-in hybrid for longer trips. I would buy the first Lexus plug-in hybrid. These make the most sense even over EV. You give me and I think most people a 50 mile range then I would at least 80% of the time not need to use any gas. Then a long trip no problem needing to find a charging station because once one runs out of electric power would convert to the hybrid system getting 35-40 mpg. I would fill up with gas about every two months.

jwong77

Indeed, I would upgrade our RX350 to a PHEV RX if one existed.

Sulu

I would rather plug in my EV than swap the battery.

To swap the battery, it would be complicated.

I would have to find a shop that is able to swap out the battery on my particular EV (yes, this may change with the standardization of battery sizes, battery capacities, battery status reporting methodology, etc. but I don't believe that standardization will come any time soon).

I may have to make an appointment with the shop. I would have to drive to the shop and then wait in line. This is too time consuming. And what if I run out of charge before I can make it to the shop?

The only commercial, aftermarket company (that I am aware of) offering battery swapping -- Better Place -- went out of business a few years back. Perhaps it was an idea that was too early for the market but I am not aware of any other company currently pursuing the concept.

Yes, EV-makers are investigating the concept. Tesla was looking at it but put it on hold to install more Superchargers.

Rather than swapping, I think using a wireless, inductive charger is a better idea if you don't want to plug in. Wireless chargers could even be installed in the roadbed of major roadways / highways to charge as you go.

LeX2K

Inductive charging has about a 15% loss so unless electricity becomes super cheap we won't see it used on a BEV anytime soon.