Lol when we rent cars for long drives I get so excited by the tech. Yesterday DS and I were trundling around town in the 2002 van, listening to Steely Dan on a cassette.
Someday soon we might have a car from this decade ….
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We live in an area where we get frequent power outages, sometimes for more than a day. What are everyone’s thoughts on having an EV in that situation? Realistically, I would expect that our other car would be an ICE model, but DH has raised this question.
Well…when this happens, you better have your car filled with gas, because often the gas stations aren’t working either. If you regularly charge your EV, one day without charging probably won’t be an issue unless you drive 150 miles each way to work.
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That’s a bit of a leap. Our neighborhood frequently goes out during storms but the main road where the gas stations and restaurants are never seems to lose power.
Many gas pumps wouldn’t work in a power outage either. Or the credit card machines wouldn’t and you’d need cash.
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I’m the OP of this thread. We considered power outages when discussing EV purchasing. DH and I agreed that having the car charged all the time would be a good idea.
Where I am, if the power is out for a lengthy period of time, it’s usually because of downed trees and power lines, and no one is going anywhere.
(Think storms like Sandy, and the freak snowstorm the Halloween of 2011).
If I lived where we had frequent power outages with many more than a day, I’d have a backup generator.
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And yes. We have that too!
EVs are great during power outages because you can use them as giant batteries to power anything you need. You probably know that the Ford F150 Lightning can be used as a generator to power your home. You can buy after market inverters for other EVs to power your fridge, etc too.
Our EV has been great in power outages. We have had no problems.
I’m sure I mentioned it up thread but when the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack caused massive lines and panic at gas stations we were sitting pretty in our EV.
If you are really worried about power outages and the dystopian future a lot of survivalists and preppers like EVs because unlike gas vehicles they can be completely off grid with home solar to provide electricity. Most people are not able to refine petroleum at home, although you could go with biodiesel from used cooking oil but it takes a lot of oil and is a somewhat messy process.
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Rental car is probably one of the worst case EV use types, so even those who own EVs may hesitate on choosing an EV for a rental car.
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Buy an EV that can function as a home backup battery?
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We just had a 20 hour power outage…spread over two days. First day 14 hours…second day 6 hours. Some of our gas stations have back up generators hence no problems pumping.
We had returned just before the power outage. Our Tesla was at around 60 mile range (meaning more like 50 IRL). Now, this power outage was somewhat small in that the entire town wasn’t impacted. (We have had situations just last year where we were out for up to 4 days and others in the greater area were out for over a week.) I went to the super charger station (which ironically is cheaper than charging at home! .44 kWh at home. .35 kWh at the station). So in this case no problem. BUT…we have two ICE vehicles and I will vehemently argue against becoming an all EV family - luckily DH is on the same page.
The nearest Service Center is attached to the non-dealership/showroom. Five miles from my house. But that better stay open, because the next closest Service Center is 100+ miles away and the third closest is almost 200 miles away.
Most of the time you’re EV will have plenty of power already in its charge when the power goes out. Unlike your ICE car where you ration when you go to fill it up, you can easily make a habit of having it freshly charged to the recommended 80% pretty much all the time. So what are the odds your power goes out when you happened to have just returned from a long trip that used most of the battery? And that it stays out long enough to matter? And even if all those low odds converge, you said it that you would have another vehicle.
BTW, since more and more of the newer EVs are coming equipped with two-way power capacity, they actually could be beneficial in a black out since they could provide power during one. At least enough to keepy your essential use going for a while.
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I usually keep it charged between 50-80%. Definitely charge if it gets below 30%. Percentage setting is reportedly more accurate than miles.
So you use the car battery for short term power… it is not optimized at this point… then you have no transportation.
But fact that an electric car can work as a temporary power source is a major plus.
Interesting how the complaints about EVs evolve and the technology and uses advance.
When the criticism of EVs that is that they can’t be simultaneously used as transportation and a source of power at one’s home, it seems maybe they are pretty darn useful.
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I think the temporary power source is more theoretical rather than practical at this point.
And since EV gets its energy from fossil fuels, living in an area that is trying to limit them is going to be counter productive at some point.
If the car’s battery runs low while powering your house during an outage, just drive to a charging station and bring back more. It would only be a problem if the outage area is huge.
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