The reality: “Nobody stops to fuel their vehicle taking gasoline, gets out, rushes as fast as possible, puts as much fuel in the car as possible, and gets back in the car and drives away,” Cutler said.
I, in fact, do exactly that. I pull up in front of the pump, get out, stick my card in, fill up, and leave. It’s been over ten years since I went inside the store at a gas station, there’s nothing in there I want to buy.
However, needing to spend half an hour recharging if I were on a road trip would be fine, because on a road trip I would stop for a break from driving in any case. But, I almost never go on road trips, and 99.9% of my trips around town would be well within one charge, which I could do at home.
So, while I agree that charging doesn’t need to be as fast as gas, it’s not because of his stated reason.
I have a cheap Mazda 6e with the small battery. It has on a bad day 390 km range if I run heater, in sport. For daily use I can hold over a week with that. But I have a home charger so battery is always full each morning. I only ever need to charge in a station on road trips. At least in Norway which is a mature EV market most have home charger. Only those with street parking (not that common in Norway outside perhaps three large cities) don’t have home chargers.
Agree that people want to fuel fast tho’
Yeah that’s a crazy out of touch thing to say. That is exactly what every person does at every gas station.
Depends…lots of places do not have card readers on the outside to promote shop sales.
So… often you definitely will have to go inside and…wait.
It’s been over ten years since I went inside the store at a gas station, there’s nothing in there I want to buy
Wait… you dont want a tiny chocolate bar for 7 dollars?
I could stretch my legs for a few min, but that’s only on long trips.
Also ignores the main issue, what happens when there’s many cars and not enough chargers? It’s not inconclusive to wait for one or two people behind you for gas, that can mean 90 min total stop for EV. Ignoring that the line will be longer if more people need to charge and range is lower.
I want an ev for my next car, but I’m scared of that
I have had a EV for 6 years and and just switched fulle to electric.
Not once in that time I had to wait for a charger but multiple times I had to wait for a pump.
Plus…you know beforehand if a charger is busy so you wont go to a busy charger anyways
Uh, the only reason I go into the gas station now is to pick up a six pack of beer.
From someone that actually uses an EV: I don’t even have a charger at home. I charge twice a month on a station that takes around 30~45m a session to 90%. You go for a nice coffee or light meal and it is charged when you come back.
Sounds like another chore I won’t wish to add to my pre-existing list.
Yes. Because with an EV you live at the gas station.
People need to stop thinking about EVs like cars that need to be fueled. They’re more like phones that need to be charged.
And you know what they keep trying to do with phone batteries? Speed up charging time. They keep trying to find new novel ways of making a charger charge a phone from 0 to 100 in less than 5 mins.
You think they aren’t doing the same for EV’s?
owning a BYD EV here in Australia, 80% of my charging is at home, just plug in to a wall socket powered by mostly solar from my roof. 15% is destination charging eg when buying groceries, plug in, shop, unplug and go and only 5% is charging on a road trip.
Lets say you have a 300mi range EV. that sounds great, until you realize you can’t actually use it all.
We like to save the bottom 20% for emergencies and battery longevity, and fast charging is too slow above 80% to be worth it, so effectively, on a road trip. only the 20%-80% range is usable. Your 300mi+ range just turned into 180mi of usable range. And then factor in ~10% battery degradation over time, or range reduction in winter conditions, and you could easily have as little as 150mi of actual usable range between charging stops. And that’s assuming the charging stations are perfectly spaced apart.
That’s only a little more than 2 hours at highway speeds. And that’s not along time to be driving, even for a single person. In gas cars, we will regularly do 3-4 hours without stopping at all. And if we do stop for a break, it’s rarely at gas stations or places with charging stations. Those are typically awful places to spend the limited amount of time you have on a trip.
In practice, the charging interval is far, far less than the ideal 300mi and far more frequent.
Umm, there are no EVs you should be going 75mph for hours at a time in unless you want to trash your range.
Not sure if you have ever actually driven an EV, but typically in my 300mi range vehicle, I usually stop every 200 miles, roughly every 3 hours for charging, stop for 20 minutes and am back on my way. Sure, am I often a little slow than if I had gas? Yes, but that’s ok, I also always arrive in my EV refreshed, have eaten, and not wore out.
Umm, there are no EVs you should be going 75mph for hours at a time in unless you want to trash your range.
This is effectively telling people in the US they shouldn’t own EVs.
All the arguments are like this. You shouldn’t do this, you shouldn’t do that. Well of course if you can avoid all the downsides EVs would be perfect, but we don’t live in that perfect world in your imagination where everything works and we always do what you think we should be doing. If EVs were as good as everybody says, you wouldn’t have any trouble convincing people to use them. Why can’t anybody just admit that there are real downsides which in some situations become a deal breaker?
There’s two kinds of people who comment on EV threads.
People who say stuff like this post, and people who actually own EVs. There is no overlap.
What a braindead take. I’ve owned an EV for 10 years, and this is all from first-hand experience. I will never take it on a roadtrip.
I used to think this way until I actually drove an EV long distance. This tech is mature and useful for road trips. Most people aren’t willing to drive 12+ hour days anyway and that’s the only real way to get a time advantage out of a gas car.
I think the issue is like trucks in the USA. People buy what they think they need not what they actually they need and then underutilize it.
Speaking from embarassed experience, I live in the USA thought it would be OK for me to get a pickup truck because I literally do work in the trades. Even I underutilize it tbh, and I’m thinking about selling it. I mostly just drive it to and from work like any other car, and then move things around in the company vans, lol.
You don’t need it 99% of the time, but in that 1% when you need it, you really need it. 99% simply isn’t enough because that 1% is really important.
Time on a road trip is way more important than time in regular drives. I don’t mind being 30min late getting back home from work, that happens all the time from traffic, but 30min late on a roadtrip means you’re missing daylight, or an appointment, or that restaurant you really wanted to try is closed. These are not imaginary hypotheticals, all of these situations have regularly happened to me even with gas cars.
This is fascinating to read because it’s completely the opposite of how I think.
If I was regularly 30 min late coming home from work I would scream. Nobody has time for that!
30 min late on vacation? Who cares? You can’t even plan any trip with that tight of tolerances, anyway. Too many factors beyond your control could delay you by more than 30 minutes, easily. As you say, this type of thing can happen even with gas cars, or trains, planes, boats, bicycles, etc.
And that 1% of the time is where renting is more effective perhaps even moreso with increasing gas costs
I used to believe the EV evangelists until I tried to drive EV on a road trip. I will never do it again. Why can’t anybody just admit that there are real downsides which sometimes become a deal breaker?
I guess different people work differently. I’m speaking from my direct experience; I was cynical as hell until I actually tried it, and it really wasn’t as bad as I expected.
Would I prefer an ICE car for a long distance road trip? Yes. Can I take an EV on a road trip and have a good time? Also yes. Was the EV cheaper than taking an ICE car an equivalent distance? Also yes.
Nice try, BP
Who cares? I drive a BEV for 6 years now and charging definitely is a none issue.
We have been wanting an EV (something other than a Swasticar) for our next vehicle and think we could deal with the extended charging times required during a long drive or trip, but we ended up ruling it out.
For us the big problem is the difficulty getting parts and service. Service for the models we looked at is only available at dealers (and only some dealers), and parts are regularly not in dealer stock.
We really don’t want to risk taking a cross-county trip and having the car break down 200 miles from the nearest mechanic. With the additional real possibility of having to wait weeks (or months) for a part, an EV is not an appealing choice for us, at least not yet.
I think the reason they don’t have spare parts is because the motors are less complicated and, in theory, will need fewer replacement parts. An ICE motor is like 10,000+ moving parts, an electric motor is like 300 moving parts. They’re an order of magnitude less complicated.
LOL. Tesla parts shortages are because they break so frequently. You can’t drive a car without working door handles.
But there are still several ways the software or high voltage system can fault leaving people stranded and that usually isint a roadside fix or even a nearest auto part store run (yet)
Hyundai ICCU failures, for example.
What are you expecting to break down? A modern internal combustion engine plus continuously variable transmission is one the world’s most complex pieces of engineering in common use today.
An electric drive system is trivial in comparison.
You would think that, but Hyundai EVs are popping ICCU fuses and Tesla motors all leak coolant from the seals. There is a Tesla that went 3 million kms. Only needed 4 battery swaps, but it needed 14 motors. Coolant leaks will be problem at higher mileage.
I’d be worried about some of the electronics, modern cars, electric or not, tend to be overcomplicated with tablets and server connections and what have you. I might also worry about getting into an accident.
Hate to tell you this, but cars have been like this for about 15 years now.
Been a long time since ol Joe at the gas station could fill the tank and tune your carburetor with a screwdriver.
Yes but other cars can be repaired at any mechanic rather than just at a dealer, which is the issue we were talking about above.
I am well aware of the computerization of cars, how carburetors have not been a thing for more like 30 years, and how generally electric vehicles are better than combustion ones but both are worse than public transit.
My fears are software/firmware issues or battery pack failure. It’s an impossible problem for the common man to solve and you are beholden to the manufacturer. And at what cost? Minor accident? Manufacturer declares it unfixable and deactivates it. Doesn’t even matter if you repair it. Boo!
I really want one, but I can still repair my current car myself if needed.
The problem, as ever, isn’t the concept of an electric vehicle, it is the companies
No, you cannot roadside repair a car with a broken timing chain or clogged catalytic converter, or broken transmission.
What the hell does that have to do with anything? It is trivial to tow a standard car to my home and effect those repairs almost immediately. Just order the parts.
What about the EV? None of the above can easily be done.
Yet EVs are much less reliable than many ICE vehicles. The control module is one of the weak points. When it fails the car is down until it’s replaced.
As opposed to your ECU?
You’re just making shit up
Particularly when there’s less vibration, heat etc. to fuck with electronics
You’re pushing an agenda here
Why?
Right. My “agenda” is simple. I would prefer an EV, but when in the middle of bumfuck Nevada with no cell service when it’s 110F out, I don’t want a car that can only be fixed at a dealer and that may require a 3 week wait for parts.
I am sure you can show us real word data
No
Huge Study Shows EVs More Reliable Than ICE Cars With One Surprising Common Issue
EVs averaged 4.2 breakdowns per 1,000 vehicles, while similarly aged combustion models more than doubled that rate
https://www.carscoops.com/2025/04/new-study-shows-evs-are-more-reliable-than-ice-cars/
Sorry for lazy copy/paste. 1st search result in ‘reliability EV ice’
Case in point: https://www.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1lfssfn/hyundais_iccu_problem_heres_what_we_know/
The GM’s EV reliability is terrible. BMW, Lexus and Tesla are much better, but not looking for a luxury vehicle or a Tesla.
Yeah but GM can’t make any kind of car reliable.
‘Not looking for this or that’ means cherry picking… So I guess you are right in your own little world
Also kudos for posting anecdotal evidence like it would mean something. You are really cheering up my day :)
Get a BYD
But, I’m assuming you are a Yank, given your attitude, so you can’t get them
But you don’t want an EV anyway
Is your entire life purpose whinging about Yanks?
I figure I’d upset some EV fanboys with a dose of reality, but holy shit, you’re REALLY upset. Take your meds already.
I was FOAMING when I pasted this 😹😹😹
You could say that about a number of components on ICE vehicles.
Better not drive a car at all…
Yep
They’re looking for problems to justify their position
You guys don’t have insurance? If my car breaks down away from home, I can get a rental brought to me so I can continue my trip while my car gets fixed.
You don’t do road trips much? Trips don’t necessarily go to the same location twice and it can take days of driving to circle back.
Why circle back? My insurance would give me a car to continue my holiday.
deleted by creator
The world is not 'Murica
My country is bigger than yours, and I love my EV
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*You’re
Some CEO from 'Murica has absolutely zero credibility
How often are you taking cross country trips on the spur of the moment? Take the advantages of owning an EV and then just rent something for the trip.
Often enough and the trips can be for a few weeks. Checked car rental rates recently and a small SUV had a nearly $2K base rate.
Sounds like a plug in hybrid would be right up your alley. Many of the benefits of an electric vehicle (regen braking and the ability to charge at home, foremost) while still being able to fill up instantly using gas. Unfortunately you lose out on the basically-no-maintenance-required part of a pure EV, but frequent road trips are basically the ideal use case for a PHEV.
That’s exactly what we’re looking at.
For context, parts are as available as they need to be. IOW, parts are in stock when they are frequently needed. If a part is rarely needed, it won’t be in stock locally.
If you choose a common EV model, like GM, Hyundai, or even Tesla, you are extremely unlikely to suddenly need extensive service. Dealers (with EV mechanics) are common, with multiple in every major city, and a parts network that can have anything shipped overnight.
“Nobody stops to fuel their vehicle taking gasoline, gets out, rushes as fast as possible, puts as much fuel in the car as possible, and gets back in the car and drives away”
WTF? This is exactly how I have refeuled every single time I have ever gotten gas. If I could pay a little extra for a pit stop style refuel I would. Who wants to linger around gas fumes, processed “food” , and energy drink boner pills?
A big draw of EV for me is that 99% I don’t need to stop anywhere to recharge. If I do though I want it to be as fast as possible.
You are missing out on delicious sushi.
It damn well better have caffeinated cream cheese in it or I’ll be disappointed.
Yea, I don’t get all these people who are like “yea lets get a 30 min lunch break at a gas station”. Dude, the last place I want to spend time at on a road trip is at a fucking gas station.
We bought an EV and it took a few trips for it to click that you don’t need to charge to 100% or even 90%. Hook it up, hit the restroom, buy a latte, then get back on the road with 50% charge.
You only need enough to get to wherever your longer parking+charge is going to be.
We also figure out the range anxiety. Getting down to 10% isn’t a big deal, especially if that last stop is going to get you back to full charge. Our EV doesn’t even have that great of range to start with.
100%. The time I spend at a fucking gas station is the time the gas is flowing + the overhead of tapping the card. Plus, if there are ads and the mute button doesn’t instantly work, leaving a 1 star review.
“If there are ads”
WTF where do you live?
They live in the US. You have to watch ads to take a shit.
Ads at pumps are fairly common in the US. They been around since 2019 if not earlier.
I think he meant this as where would someone live that it would be an if. Ads are pervasive
We have ads in Australia too. :(
Don’t forget the unmutable unskippable multimedia advertisements on the fuel pump!
(Yes, I know some of them are allegedly mutable, but I have yet to find one.)
I think it means specifically in the context of long road trips, the kind where everyone gets out to stretch their legs and take a piss while stopping for gas. On the other hand, I was under the impression that EVs simply didn’t have the range for such activities, so IDK.
Modern EVs have hundreds of miles of range and can easily do road trips as long as there are chargers along the route. I haven’t done any cross county trips but I have driven from NorCal to SoCal and eastern to western CO without issue.
My EV has a 330 mile range, and a full recharge at home costs me $4. It’s amazing.
If I remember correctly, the new BMW 3 series EV is like a 430 mile range.
Keep in mind the range listed, just like mileage, is based on certain circumstances. Freeway speeds (~80 mph) will drastically reduce that.
I was under the impression that EVs simply didn’t have the range for such activities, so IDK.
Maybe 10 years ago that was true, but now ranges and charging speeds have gotten much better. The infrastructure of gas stations is still better for easy road trips without pre-planning though.
Where I live (Denmark) there is no need for planning your charging, there are charging stations everywhere. I think the same is true for Sweden and Norway.
It’s only a matter of when the infrastructure is established enough. Scandinavia is among the more developed regions with regard to charging infrastructure, but it will be the same in other countries soon.The US doesn’t do infrastructure. Bridges barely work.
4 hours driving and a half hour charge while doing a biobreak is perfectly doable these days. You can keep that up a long time. Personally not a fan of that long a stretch and we’re doing more 2 hours driving and a break.
It’s very possible. Aging Wheels on YouTube has a couple videos on road tripping in an EV.
Sure, maybe a few min with a family I guess. But if traveling alone it’s still quick stretch, in and out of restroom in less than 5min.
In Europe I’ll grab an espresso, add an extra min I guess for that.
I know some families will spend maybe 20-30min at such places, but ideally that’s a choice not forced by charging time. Doesn’t need to happen tomorrow, but I do think fast charging is a desirable goal.
Just sounds like a CEO who doesn’t want to invest anything in upgrading anything.
Of course I want to be out of there quicker. I’m driving to somewhere and it sure as shit is not to a charging point.
It’s Ionna, one of the (IMO) best options for DC fast charging.
He’s not justifying slow chargers; he’s justifying building stuff around them. Basically the “truck stop” model.
I mean, I see no problem with that if they want but the fact remains I don’t hang out. Same as all that stupid Bucees garbage- I have no idea what kind of people are going in and shopping around a department store full of crap.
I’ve never understood the devotion or novelty of it all.
So yeah, that might work for some but yeah, I’d MUCH rather have as quick a charge as possible (and will go to the ones that can get me out quicker) and it seems judging by this thread I’m not alone.
All Americans should travel to Italy and have a meal at an Autogrill on the highways. It’s likely the best food you ever eat. US highway stops are all hot garbage.
When I had an ICE car, it was exactly the same. With our BEV however, I don’t generally need to charge “on the way” as I can start each morning fully charged, and have more than enough battery for a full day.
It’s only on longer trips we need to charge, and on those we can easily combine charge and a short break.I agree with you. I always hurry to get out of there ASAP.
You go inside gas stations because you HAVE to, not because you WANT to. Same with EVs.
This is pure cope from a nation that is a long way behind the rest of the world on EV technology. I’ve done some very long road journeys, 900+ km in a day, and having an EV would likely have added at least an hour to that day, even more if I was towing.
The reality: “Nobody stops to fuel their vehicle taking gasoline, gets out, rushes as fast as possible, puts as much fuel in the car as possible, and gets back in the car and drives away,” Cutler said.
This is exactly how I go about my business at a fuel stop. Maybe do a few stretches and check everything on the roof isn’t working it’s way loose, but once the pump clicks off, I’m goneburgers.
Good to know you’re the overtired and in a rush driver that the defensive driving courses warn me about. Worse if you’re towing something.
You know there can be two drivers swapping back and forth with no downtime but still well rested right? That how we do most of our roadtrips
I’ve got shit to do, especially when I’m doing that type of distance.
The technology should still be improved as much as possible.
but the fast chargers do need more infrastructure that takes more space and cost, when having MORE slower, cheaper, easier to install AC chargers everywhere will help just as much
I think for my commute I would prefer a battery chemistry that needed slower charging, if it was cheaper or lasted longer or was safer, or lighter, or whatever. But I think there will always be use cases where it’s worth maximizing uptime, like long-haul driving.
I wonder if trucking will evolve to do tractor swaps, where rigs coming into charge up will hand off trailers to fresh tractors. That way the cargo doesn’t have to take up space in the charging lot or whatever. Or they might do battery swaps. I imagine for above some threshold of cost/minute downtime, the hardware for doing swaps will be worth the extra cost.
Nio has had battery hot swapping systems for years, but that’s for progressive countries.
It infuriating how nice an actual non-fossil-fuel infrastructure could be, if only we had a government that would build it. The Nio battery swaps are cool, I want to convert one of my old tractors to a similar setup, except I’ll probably just put a pallet of batteries on top of the engine compartment and forklift them on and off the tractor. But similar idea: let the batteries charge slowly on a rack while the tractor and implements only see a few minutes of downtime. But until we get our political shit together I’m stuck making my own with spit and baling wire.
In most jurisdictions, trucks are required by law to stop for the driver to rest every 5 hours or so. You can just charge the vehicle then.
But drivers swap on the road and don’t stop.
oh yeah, duh. the vehicle’s uptime is bound by its operator’s.
I remember one of the arguments against EV’s were that “there’s so few chargers compared to gas”.
And then you realise that chargers are literally at homes, workplaces, parking lots and ALSO at gas stations.
Which makes speed less important. The headline is spot on.
Got our first ev in august. Needed to install a lvl2 outlet right away. Now we have no issues or concerns with daily use. A road trip wouldn’t be bad as is, you can walk away from a plugged in car where you are supposed to stay by a ICE filling up. So spend the 15 minute stop walking in the station, getting a drink or taking a piss.
iow - charging stations can extract more revenue from drivers the longer the charge takes.
Sounds like Cutler, an engineer, has some MBA brainrot.
Gas stations can also raise the price of gas. You are realizing that both are the same. The differentiator is the possibility of charging at home without ever going to a dedicated station.
Fast charging is already expensive (often moreso than fuel unfortunately). The idea being proposed here is that if you make it slower, people get hungry and you can sell them more junk food. You lose that opportunity when charging is too fast, most people get their petrol and drive on instead of getting food each and every time. So it’s actually better to have slower charging, even if you can then charge less money for the energy itself, since you have a captive audience.
Charging at public chargers in UK is insane. £40+ for a charge.
