Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Bread
Quote:
Originally Posted by glennQNYC
A couple of weeks ago the NY-Metro area was surprised by a snow storm that crippled roadways. People that had a 15 minute commute were in traffic for 5-6 hours.
Whenever I hear another one of my friends tell me a horror story of their short commute turning into hours and hours, I think of what a disaster this would be if they were in an EV. You might have plenty of range on a normal day, but a bad traffic jam could mean you're going to be waiting for a tow truck.
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Uh, why? Consumption from climate control is negligible and you're not moving. This is no different than a gas car. |
First, (here's a shocker) it's cold when it snows. This cold itself significantly diminishes range. Combine this with needing to run wipers, heat, defog (essentially air conditioning), and the rear defroster and you just lost a TON of your range when driving in the snow. This is anything but negligible. A more appropriate word is "significant."
Add-in this particular snow storm happened in the afternoon, so most likely you'd be starting your drive home with less than a full charge. Your morning commute consumed some of the vehicle's total range.
Another real factor is the drag of driving through the snow (on the roads). My MPG drops about 25% in snowy conditions. EVs aren't immune to this.
The other obvious difference is a gas car can quickly refuel nearly anyplace. Even if you're lucky enough to find an available charger on the way home, you'd have to sit there and make your excruciatingly-long commute even longer.