bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

No thanks.

Reviewer loves the bmw ix but says it's hard to recommend ev's with an experience like this.

https://youtu.be/XUHyQREPxRc

ABC

I watched the vid and i agree. Imagine if he had a family with him (significant other, kid(s), etc.). There's no way that would work.

If we buy an EV anytime soon, it'll be for commuter/around town duties mostly. We could not be an 'only-ev" house anytime soon. The MDX would be our trip mobile.

703

Just hire a car for long trips. No need to have a car just for that occasional trip. Just like how I wouldn’t buy a 9 seater for that one in a year big combined family trip.

SW17LS

Honestly, how often do you drive a car on a trip that long? In thinking about it I have never driven a car on a trip longer than 400 miles or so one way. Maybe once or twice when I was very young. If its longer than 6 hours I fly.

I take several long road trips a year, the longest of which is coming up at about 390 miles to Albany, NY. And THAT I would fly if it werent for wanting to have toys and stuff for the kids.

geko29

Agreed. I take 3-4 longish trips per year at a minimum, thanks to taking my son to club sports tournaments. But the farthest we've been so far are Minneapolis and Cleveland, both of which are about 380 miles from home. This summer he will have one outside of Wilmington, which is 775 miles. Currently debating driving vs. flying with all his equipment.

That aside, looking back at the 20 years my wife and I have been married, there have been exactly two drives over 400 miles one-way:

1) Branson, 550 miles
2) From National Harbor, 775 miles

But the second one doesn't really count, because it was in a rental car. We were fleeing a hurricane that was heading up the east coast, and knew our return flight was going to be cancelled anyway (which it was, when we were about halfway home).

So when you get down to it, just ONE time in two decades have we driven a vehicle we owned farther than the range of most of the non-economy EVs. Certainly not going to make a half-dozen or more vehicle purchase decisions on the basis of an event that may occur at most 2 or 3 times before I'm no longer fit to drive.

Margate330

That's what I would do.
If I had an EV last thing I want to do is go looking for plugs.
Honestly at the age of my RX330 I may do that next year anyway since I'm getting at high mileage so this applies to EV's and ICE's in my opinion.

SW17LS

I do like having my own car on a trip. I have all my stuff, and I bought my cars because I like them and driving them on a long trip is part of the fun.

1111GS

North - South Cal is about 500+ miles. I've driven across states that add up over 1K. I used to think like you but when you have a comfortable/roomy vehicle, considering everything else (checking in/out at the airport, having to sit in a stinky car whoknowswhat has been spilled on....) I will take mine any day. You don't save that many hours when you add everything up. We find it much more enjoyable in our own vehicle. Plus the technologies help ease the long drive. But even with shorter long drives, I still find EVs inconvenient for now.

spwolf

Feels like it should be repeated that Tesla experience is great, other brands are terrible.

With tesla your charging is planned automatically in your nav and it all just works.

With other brands, you have to plan on your mobile phone and quite often, anywhere in the world, it will not work well.

ABC

Yup. very valid points. I think we all, including myself, forget that 99% of our trips are under 100 miles/day.

Toys4RJill

In 2019 I drove Savannah G to Toronto, 18hrs. Had to make three gas stops. This summer drove from Toronto to Quebec, needed one gas stop, I probably could have made it in one shot if we tried. I don’t think I would have the patience or desire to try getting to either designations with a EV.

Striker223

Yep. Driving 1600 miles is fun if you have a great car.

patgilm

Funny you say that, I’m right outside of Savannah, GA now. Our flight to Orlando got cancelled so luckily we were able to rent a car to drive down. We drove 12 hours today (1pm - 1am) and there is no way I would have been sane in an EV. We got stuck in VA traffic for and lost about 1.5-2 hours because of that and I stopped at the gas station twice, once to fill up from empty and gas is so cheap it was only $38. After losing travel time due to traffic, there is no way I would have had the patience to wait 20-40 minutes longer to charge up 1-2 times. Drove over 700 miles today.

geko29

Just like my example above of driving home (800+ miles) from MD due to a hurricane and cancelled flight, this isn't really relevant. There's a good chance you couldn't have rented an EV even if you wanted one--they're still extremely rare in rental fleets. And the primary advantage of a rental car is that you can choose a vehicle that meets the specific needs of one single trip. So your knowledge of the exact drive ahead of you informed your choice anyway.

But it would more than miss the point to make a vehicle purchase decision on the basis of a one-off event that could potentially happen when you don't have access to your own vehicle anyway.

patgilm

I totally get that and I own an EV. I’m just stating that I’m not ready to travel with one and if there were only EVs right now it would be frustrating. Forget that the charging network isn’t that great on the east coast. I’m sure it would add additional to time. When I was traveling up to Niagara last year driving my Tesla would have added an additional hour to my trip due to the lack of charging network when I put it in the app.