John's Stuff - Personal Log 1297

October 19, 2024 - November 3, 2024

Last Updated: Mon. 11/04/2024

10-24-2024
New From CATL. Much higher energy-density cells are coming from CATL. Battery-packs equipped with them will be able to withstand significantly higher charge rates. That will make for rather impressive plug-in hybrids... exactly what has been hoped from the joint-venture between CATL and Toyota. This is why faster AC charging speed is rather pointless. Overnight covers daily driving just fine. If you need more during the day, why not stop at a DC charger for a quick hit? Focusing entirely on DC for business offerings is a simplification everyone can benefit from. In fact, I just had the opportunity to experiment with exactly that... getting to try what had been deemed unrealistic just a few years ago. Why in the world install "slow" chargers, an approach enthusiasts have never been seen as a reasonable question to ask. I find it absurd. The answer is so obvious. You stop at a restaurant. I did with a friend and my wife yesterday. We were there just a little over 2 hours. That's far too long for fast-charging, but quite typical for an outing like that. It's also a very normal duration for watching a movie at a theater. Drawing 24 kW for 2 hours will deliver 48 kWh. With gross battery-pack capacities varying between 60 and 90 kWh for a BEV, that 48 is perfect for charge session active the entire time you are away from the vehicle. So, even if the anti-PHEV crowd doesn't like this upcoming new offering from CATL for PHEV, they should still like the idea of what it promotes in terms of DC fast-charger installs. They'll find a way to spin rhetoric anyway. But in the meantime, I'm spreading the word about that potential: This is what Toyota has been hinting about for their next-gen PHEV. It may have seemed absurd a few years ago, but fast-forward to a time where we see ABB selling DC wallbox chargers. It may seem odd to consider a 24 kW unit from an enthusiast perspective, but it sure makes sense for businesses trying to attract patrons and dealers planning to sell a large number of plug-in vehicles.

10-24-2024
Tesla Earnings Report. Hope is quickly fading for Tesla fanboys. The has essentially become the first nail in the coffin: "As we learned in the quarterly earnings report, Tesla won't be making a new standalone, human-operated $25,000 EV." That reminds me of GM, well over a decade ago when Two-Mode fell apart. It was a very similar situation. Enthusiasts had portrayed the technology as having a "trickle down" approach. The process would start with the most expensive vehicles, then works it way down to eventually deliver an entry-level choice. No such offering ever happened. What had been produced was not conducive to scaling. We have always known that making things larger was much easier than smaller. Enthusiasts absolutely refused to accept that reality. They used excuses to justify the cost & scale to start with the reverse instead. That failed disastrously for Two-Mode. Same thing happened twice with Volt. Neither generation did anything to reach a different audience. Now, we see Tesla doing the same thing. Cybertruck has been a disaster and Model 3/Y remains in the same market segment. Nothing in the "nicely below $30,000" category is going to be delivered. Ugh. I put it this way: This was very easy to predict. With such heavy emphasis on FSD, despite its obvious shortcomings and reliance upon for income, there was no doubt BEV diversity would not become a priority. Then as Cybertruck hype grew, the wait for something entry-level turned into an Innovator's Dilemma situation. It made no sense offering FSD on something stripped down to just basic transport. Tesla backed itself into a corner.

10-24-2024
Lower is Better. More about the new video: Knowing how challenging things will become for us as EV advocates, regardless of who wins the elections, I have been creating debunk videos. The hope is to have a decent collection of real-world drives documented... stuff when can refer to when the rhetoric gets ugly... because, it will. I've been doing this too long to be so naive to think that time will somehow overcome current obstacles. Those fighting change are relentless. Anywho, to pull in feedback from those elsewhere in the world, I have been capturing a few of my drives using metric units. Turns out, they are interesting to watch... since efficiency is the reverse of what we are used to with mi/kWh. Lower is a better. Here's the second of those videos.

10-24-2024
Ready? About that new video, I asked: Are you ready for the potential nightmare an unfortunate upcoming election could bring? Like it or not, we're going to have to deal with political nonsense either way. Hopefully, it will be just the US scrambling to catch up. I have been striving to keep a hand extended to those elsewhere willing to offer some help. That's why I have been creating a few videos for us to better understand their perspective. After all, when you search for bZ4X, you're going to find a number of articles highlighting unfamiliar measures to what we see as we drive. Here's the latest to prepare us for whatever is about to happen, from the market we have all expressed interest & concern for.

10-24-2024
Video: Metric Units (mostly highway). It is sometimes difficult here (United States) to convey information about how bZ4X operates due to the measurement system being different. We use miles, mph, mi/kWh and °F instead of km, km/h, kWh/100km and °C. Being able to film a drive while capturing those values in metric units instead is great. This video is a commute to work for me, a route almost entirely highway... Toyota bZ4X - Metric Units (mostly highway)

10-24-2024
Sodium Temperatures. This was a rather informative article mention I stumbled across today: "CAT's new Freevoy battery includes a "nanoscale protective layer" and uses high-activity excited state particle technology in the cathode material, supporting multi-level power control. The battery also integrates sodium-ion technology, enabling it to discharge in extremely cold temperatures to -40°C (-40°F) and charge in conditions as low as -30°C (-22°F)." I had heard about sodium being more resilient to cold than lithium, but I didn't realize by how much. That's impressive. Not having to warm them is a big convenient & savings. It makes both home & business storage practical. That's going to be a really big deal in years to come... something to really look forward to.

10-23-2024
3 Cycles Per Day. It will be many years before the assumptions & misinterpretations related to DC fast-charging are no longer a source of problems. Station variation alone is a major contributor. Difference in vehicles themselves will be an on-going issue, especially since they will change over time. In this case, we are already seeing the updates for bZ4X cause stumbles. It's hard to tell who is actually ever impacted though. Most of the "number of cycles" problem comes in the form of rhetoric. Toyota's official word is: "A cycle is from low-light to 80%." To many though, that doesn't mean much. They aren't familiar with how long road-trip travel works best anyway. This is my latest at dealing with the mess of online confusion: Since most DC charging isn't like that, you won't trigger a full cycle in just 3 sessions. You want to take advantage of charging-curve (stop at about 60%, lower is faster) and avoid heat (longer equates to hotter). Also, keep in mind that not all DC chargers are "fast". Heck, I used a new one last night that was only 24 kW. Last year, I did 4 sessions, maxing out the 200-amp charger to pull 72 kW.

10-22-2024
474.6 Miles. That was the total distance for my trip up north recently. Each way is within the range of the battery-pack, but I travel while there too. Overall average was 3.6 mi/kWh. In other words, I got around just fine and efficiency was decent. So much emphasis on long range and superfast charging is a waste. It's overkill, clearly a want rather than a need. That isn't the way it's portrayed though. Enthusiasts are afraid of having to compete on merit. If it isn't an easily measureable trait... like longer or faster... they dismiss its importance. I'm happy to be hampering their stride with some real-world data revealing what they deem essential isn't really what will break the status quo. Most won't even recognize the self-defeating nature of their own actions. I try to point them out though: Those forcing the "must be good for long trips" paradigm share the mindset as the "must be able to tow" enthusiasts of the past. They became their own worst enemy. By refusing to accept the reality that not everyone needs or even wants what they see as vital resulted in a lot of wasted opportunity. It's really sad to watch that history repeat.

10-20-2024
Infrastructure Denial. It should be no surprise seeing comments like this: "You're citing a problem about availability that doesn't exist." Enthusiasts like to post status observations they see with rose-colored glasses. The grim reality of how painfully slow installs have been for some and how there is little improvement to expect in the future is really a let down. That's what we have to contend with though. If electricity lines aren't available in parking lots & garages, that means they need to be installed. That in itself is a challenge of cost & logistics. Having the power supplier add a transformer to feed those new plugs isn't something that can be hastened. Each electricity provider is unique, where both weather & equipment make the challenge even more difficult. It comes down to patience. The work is quite realistic. It just takes a very long time. Fortunately, it is an awesome long-term investment. Anywho, to those attempting to downplay the situation, I call them out but keep responses short. Today, it was: Try telling that to apartment renters and condo owners without any outlet at all. Then try telling the family with only a single 120-volt outlet available. Claiming that problem doesn't exist is serious denial.

10-20-2024
No Substance. Comments like this are obvious rhetoric against PHEVs: "They still have all the maintenance of an ice. Small battery so it generally gets cycled more often and degrades faster." Yet, they are still difficult to debunk. Rapid audience growth makes follow-up a problem. An antagonist will make a claim with no substance and not get called out to provide any. Most posts go unchallenged, as if that is common knowledge with no need for question. Ugh. It's like politics. People just accept claims at face value. Again, ugh. Anywho, there isn't much that can be done to stop the nonsense. All you really can do is draw attention to its absence of detail: What part of elimination & simplification are you not understanding? Again, where's data to support your claim? Spreading FUD from propaganda articles without anything else is dead giveaway you're just parroting taking-points. None of that rhetoric pans out. Please show us something with substance.

10-20-2024 Not Well Informed. Found this in a recent review, a sentiment that cannot be repeated enough: "Buyers are still not well informed about what PHEVs." Hopefully, there will be more detail contributed to the topic. It certainly looks like that market is poised to boom. That sure will make things interesting. The stigma given to "stop gap" was to portray the step as unnecessary. Turns out, it's looking to be essential. I posted this in the comments:

That's because there are a variety of different PHEV types; yet, articles about them dump all choices into a single category. Such blatant misleading is a reveal that some cannot handle the truth.

I owned a 2012 Prius PHV for 5 years before replacing it with a 2017 Prius Prime which I had for 6 years before replacing it with a 2023 bZ4X. With that second-generation PHEV, I drove countless commutes using nothing but electricity. It had a large enough battery-pack to get me to work, where I recharged, and kept me warm through most Minnesota winter days with just the heat-pump.

Looking back at that experience from the eyes of a BEV owners, I know all too well some of the PHEV claims are utter nonsense. Many of my summer PHEV drive videos clearly show EV miles delivered by 5 mi/kWh efficiency. Not all PHEV can do that. Heck, some PHEV don't even have any type of electric heater. They are not all the same.

This happened long ago with hybrids too. Media sources, then online antagonists, attempted to misrepresent by lumping everything into a single category. Eventually, the better designs brought out beyond the rhetoric. Seeing some BEV owners feeding it currently is quite a let down; though, it is a confirmation they fear what some PHEV have to offer.
Imagine the uproar if data from Leaf was used represent to Model 3. They are both BEV. Why not call them the same too?

10-19-2024 Constructive Discussions. There is a remarkable phenomenon I sometimes encounter online. The person will assume you are against what they support, simply by association. You can end up with quite a number of posts contradicting what you say. Watch for hostility. I civil response, though off-topic or misinformed, can sometimes be the result of you not connecting with subject matter they are most interested in. Remember, we are ultimately all in this together. You don't have to make enemies, even if they invite it. This one particular individual bumped heads with me a few times recently. This changed that: "When battery production is high enough to bring prices down, most homes and businesses will have batteries, both for cost savings and power security. Those batteries will not only be able to DC charge your car, but it will be more efficient to use DC charging." Not only did we see eye-to-eye, he actually contributed by pointing out a benefit I overlooked. Sweet! This is how I volleyed the discussion back to him, hopefully keeping in that constructive spirit:

I brought up the topic of future home DC charging at last weekend's EV event. I even pointed out a kickstarter targeting 20 kW using home storage. It was dismissed by both Tesla owners attending (Model 3 and Cybertruck) with the claim that most households will never have their own storage. What?

There is Tesla Powerwall already, often included with solar installs here (Minnesota) now. The potential seen from Sodium-Ion (compared to Lithium-Ion: less expensive, better performance in low temperatures, but large & heavy) in stationary application is quite significant.

The discussion eventually came around to V2G (Vehicle-To-Grid) as the solution most households will have instead. It made no sense. How would that routinely take advantage of solar & off-peak opportunity? You'd end up aging your more expensive battery faster and be sacrificing some range at the same time.
In the end, I'm glad we can finally engage in discussions like this. They are long overdue.

10-19-2024 No Longer. It's finally happening, progress but not in a good way. Ford has told its recipients of NACS adapters to stop using them. Issues related to speed & heat have been reported. This comment online pulled me into the discussion: "There seems to be so many issues going over to the Tesla connector." Concluded by: "Maybe it would have been easier to get Tesla over to CCS (given they have done that in European markets)." Not being aware of the history or what is currently at play was to be expected. It's nice, though not under the best circumstances, to get a change to engage in such a discussion. I climbed up onto the soapbox for this one:

CCS2 in Europe made sense... it also wasn't really an option back in 2018, when there was a major legal push for a standard. Here in the US, we have been stuck with CCS1... which doesn't make sense. Tesla's connector really is a good idea here.

But back when it was proposed as a standard (prior to any legacy automaker interest), some saw it as a Hail Mary from Tesla to retain business potential. It was obvious Model 3/Y would struggle as profit-margins shrink, carbon-credits would shrink, and offset from FSD would shrink. Absence of diversity would become more and more of a problem too.

Now, we see deadlines slip for adapters and rollout of V4 basically come to a stop. I'm still seeing new DCFC being rolled out with the CCS/CHAdeMO combo too. If Tesla was really on its game, encouragement to make them CCS/NACS should have been well underway. Of course, helping support providers with the new standard would be counter-productive for SuperCharger installs.

See the problem? Talking with a Model 3 owner at an EV event last weekend, I was surprised by how upset he was by my calling the new standard SAE-J3400 instead of NACS. Even the rename of "North American Charging Standard" to "North American Charging System" rubbed him the wrong way.

Recognition of uniqueness loss is the next stage in Innovator's Dilemma. That struggle to reach the masses, growing appeal beyond early adopters, is becoming apparent to current owners. It's more than just a business challenge at this point. Owners must face the reality of the appeal & advantage SuperChargers offered being lost.
Problems like what Ford is dealing with now will accelerate that transition. Rather than a legal push, there will be a pull from others wanting to save face. Legacy automakers cannot afford delay and DCFC providers will see an opportunity to capitalize on. Tesla itself is no longer at the helm.

10-19-2024
City-Only Range? As rhetoric continues to fade, we're getting more questions from those researching a purchase. Today, it was: "Any thoughts on what the real range would be with a 2023 FWD doing 100% city driving?" I was all too happy to jump into that discussion: What kind of "city" driving... the stop & slow like NYC where bikers ride by faster... or suburb where the top speed is 55 mph? The latter is much better. In the nicest conditions, you'd routinely get 5 mi/kWh. With the usable capacity of 64 kWh, that works out to over 300 miles. Don't ever plan for that ideal though. 4 mi/kWh is realistic. That will give you a solid 250 miles.

10-19-2024
Compared To What? Not seeing the entire big picture can be a problem: "Compare to EV, more moving parts and energy consumer to obtain inferior results both in performance & mpg." Comments like that are always fascinating. Volt was neither efficient in electric or gas usage. The system was too compromised to be competitive. In fact, that's why the struggle to earn profit ultimately failed. Such an outcome is easy to dismiss though. Anything with a gas-engine is dismissed outright, without data. All vehicles with only electric-motors are in turn declared winner, without data. In other words, it's more of a judgment based on principle rather than fact. Why must the situation be binary? That's not objective. I pointed out why, asking: So? Many here are endorsing electricity guzzlers. Note how discussion of really low mi/kWh and kWh/100km values is avoided. In fact, when really efficient EV values are brought up, notice how someone will change the topic to range.

10-24-2024	New From CATL. Much higher energy-density cells are coming from CATL. Battery-packs equipped with them will be able to withstand significantly higher charge rates. That will make for rather impressive plug-in hybrids... exactly what has been hoped from the joint-venture between CATL and Toyota. This is why faster AC charging speed is rather pointless. Overnight covers daily driving just fine. If you need more during the day, why not stop at a DC charger for a quick hit? Focusing entirely on DC for business offerings is a simplification everyone can benefit from. In fact, I just had the opportunity to experiment with exactly that... getting to try what had been deemed unrealistic just a few years ago. Why in the world install "slow" chargers, an approach enthusiasts have never been seen as a reasonable question to ask. I find it absurd. The answer is so obvious. You stop at a restaurant. I did with a friend and my wife yesterday. We were there just a little over 2 hours. That's far too long for fast-charging, but quite typical for an outing like that. It's also a very normal duration for watching a movie at a theater. Drawing 24 kW for 2 hours will deliver 48 kWh. With gross battery-pack capacities varying between 60 and 90 kWh for a BEV, that 48 is perfect for charge session active the entire time you are away from the vehicle. So, even if the anti-PHEV crowd doesn't like this upcoming new offering from CATL for PHEV, they should still like the idea of what it promotes in terms of DC fast-charger installs. They'll find a way to spin rhetoric anyway. But in the meantime, I'm spreading the word about that potential: This is what Toyota has been hinting about for their next-gen PHEV. It may have seemed absurd a few years ago, but fast-forward to a time where we see ABB selling DC wallbox chargers. It may seem odd to consider a 24 kW unit from an enthusiast perspective, but it sure makes sense for businesses trying to attract patrons and dealers planning to sell a large number of plug-in vehicles.
10-24-2024	Tesla Earnings Report. Hope is quickly fading for Tesla fanboys. The has essentially become the first nail in the coffin: "As we learned in the quarterly earnings report, Tesla won't be making a new standalone, human-operated $25,000 EV." That reminds me of GM, well over a decade ago when Two-Mode fell apart. It was a very similar situation. Enthusiasts had portrayed the technology as having a "trickle down" approach. The process would start with the most expensive vehicles, then works it way down to eventually deliver an entry-level choice. No such offering ever happened. What had been produced was not conducive to scaling. We have always known that making things larger was much easier than smaller. Enthusiasts absolutely refused to accept that reality. They used excuses to justify the cost & scale to start with the reverse instead. That failed disastrously for Two-Mode. Same thing happened twice with Volt. Neither generation did anything to reach a different audience. Now, we see Tesla doing the same thing. Cybertruck has been a disaster and Model 3/Y remains in the same market segment. Nothing in the "nicely below $30,000" category is going to be delivered. Ugh. I put it this way: This was very easy to predict. With such heavy emphasis on FSD, despite its obvious shortcomings and reliance upon for income, there was no doubt BEV diversity would not become a priority. Then as Cybertruck hype grew, the wait for something entry-level turned into an Innovator's Dilemma situation. It made no sense offering FSD on something stripped down to just basic transport. Tesla backed itself into a corner.
10-24-2024	Lower is Better. More about the new video: Knowing how challenging things will become for us as EV advocates, regardless of who wins the elections, I have been creating debunk videos. The hope is to have a decent collection of real-world drives documented... stuff when can refer to when the rhetoric gets ugly... because, it will. I've been doing this too long to be so naive to think that time will somehow overcome current obstacles. Those fighting change are relentless. Anywho, to pull in feedback from those elsewhere in the world, I have been capturing a few of my drives using metric units. Turns out, they are interesting to watch... since efficiency is the reverse of what we are used to with mi/kWh. Lower is a better. Here's the second of those videos.
10-24-2024	Ready? About that new video, I asked: Are you ready for the potential nightmare an unfortunate upcoming election could bring? Like it or not, we're going to have to deal with political nonsense either way. Hopefully, it will be just the US scrambling to catch up. I have been striving to keep a hand extended to those elsewhere willing to offer some help. That's why I have been creating a few videos for us to better understand their perspective. After all, when you search for bZ4X, you're going to find a number of articles highlighting unfamiliar measures to what we see as we drive. Here's the latest to prepare us for whatever is about to happen, from the market we have all expressed interest & concern for.
10-24-2024	Video: Metric Units (mostly highway). It is sometimes difficult here (United States) to convey information about how bZ4X operates due to the measurement system being different. We use miles, mph, mi/kWh and °F instead of km, km/h, kWh/100km and °C. Being able to film a drive while capturing those values in metric units instead is great. This video is a commute to work for me, a route almost entirely highway... Toyota bZ4X - Metric Units (mostly highway)
10-24-2024	Sodium Temperatures. This was a rather informative article mention I stumbled across today: "CAT's new Freevoy battery includes a "nanoscale protective layer" and uses high-activity excited state particle technology in the cathode material, supporting multi-level power control. The battery also integrates sodium-ion technology, enabling it to discharge in extremely cold temperatures to -40°C (-40°F) and charge in conditions as low as -30°C (-22°F)." I had heard about sodium being more resilient to cold than lithium, but I didn't realize by how much. That's impressive. Not having to warm them is a big convenient & savings. It makes both home & business storage practical. That's going to be a really big deal in years to come... something to really look forward to.
10-23-2024	3 Cycles Per Day. It will be many years before the assumptions & misinterpretations related to DC fast-charging are no longer a source of problems. Station variation alone is a major contributor. Difference in vehicles themselves will be an on-going issue, especially since they will change over time. In this case, we are already seeing the updates for bZ4X cause stumbles. It's hard to tell who is actually ever impacted though. Most of the "number of cycles" problem comes in the form of rhetoric. Toyota's official word is: "A cycle is from low-light to 80%." To many though, that doesn't mean much. They aren't familiar with how long road-trip travel works best anyway. This is my latest at dealing with the mess of online confusion: Since most DC charging isn't like that, you won't trigger a full cycle in just 3 sessions. You want to take advantage of charging-curve (stop at about 60%, lower is faster) and avoid heat (longer equates to hotter). Also, keep in mind that not all DC chargers are "fast". Heck, I used a new one last night that was only 24 kW. Last year, I did 4 sessions, maxing out the 200-amp charger to pull 72 kW.
10-22-2024	474.6 Miles. That was the total distance for my trip up north recently. Each way is within the range of the battery-pack, but I travel while there too. Overall average was 3.6 mi/kWh. In other words, I got around just fine and efficiency was decent. So much emphasis on long range and superfast charging is a waste. It's overkill, clearly a want rather than a need. That isn't the way it's portrayed though. Enthusiasts are afraid of having to compete on merit. If it isn't an easily measureable trait... like longer or faster... they dismiss its importance. I'm happy to be hampering their stride with some real-world data revealing what they deem essential isn't really what will break the status quo. Most won't even recognize the self-defeating nature of their own actions. I try to point them out though: Those forcing the "must be good for long trips" paradigm share the mindset as the "must be able to tow" enthusiasts of the past. They became their own worst enemy. By refusing to accept the reality that not everyone needs or even wants what they see as vital resulted in a lot of wasted opportunity. It's really sad to watch that history repeat.
10-20-2024	Infrastructure Denial. It should be no surprise seeing comments like this: "You're citing a problem about availability that doesn't exist." Enthusiasts like to post status observations they see with rose-colored glasses. The grim reality of how painfully slow installs have been for some and how there is little improvement to expect in the future is really a let down. That's what we have to contend with though. If electricity lines aren't available in parking lots & garages, that means they need to be installed. That in itself is a challenge of cost & logistics. Having the power supplier add a transformer to feed those new plugs isn't something that can be hastened. Each electricity provider is unique, where both weather & equipment make the challenge even more difficult. It comes down to patience. The work is quite realistic. It just takes a very long time. Fortunately, it is an awesome long-term investment. Anywho, to those attempting to downplay the situation, I call them out but keep responses short. Today, it was: Try telling that to apartment renters and condo owners without any outlet at all. Then try telling the family with only a single 120-volt outlet available. Claiming that problem doesn't exist is serious denial.
10-20-2024	No Substance. Comments like this are obvious rhetoric against PHEVs: "They still have all the maintenance of an ice. Small battery so it generally gets cycled more often and degrades faster." Yet, they are still difficult to debunk. Rapid audience growth makes follow-up a problem. An antagonist will make a claim with no substance and not get called out to provide any. Most posts go unchallenged, as if that is common knowledge with no need for question. Ugh. It's like politics. People just accept claims at face value. Again, ugh. Anywho, there isn't much that can be done to stop the nonsense. All you really can do is draw attention to its absence of detail: What part of elimination & simplification are you not understanding? Again, where's data to support your claim? Spreading FUD from propaganda articles without anything else is dead giveaway you're just parroting taking-points. None of that rhetoric pans out. Please show us something with substance.
10-20-2024	Not Well Informed. Found this in a recent review, a sentiment that cannot be repeated enough: "Buyers are still not well informed about what PHEVs." Hopefully, there will be more detail contributed to the topic. It certainly looks like that market is poised to boom. That sure will make things interesting. The stigma given to "stop gap" was to portray the step as unnecessary. Turns out, it's looking to be essential. I posted this in the comments: That's because there are a variety of different PHEV types; yet, articles about them dump all choices into a single category. Such blatant misleading is a reveal that some cannot handle the truth. I owned a 2012 Prius PHV for 5 years before replacing it with a 2017 Prius Prime which I had for 6 years before replacing it with a 2023 bZ4X. With that second-generation PHEV, I drove countless commutes using nothing but electricity. It had a large enough battery-pack to get me to work, where I recharged, and kept me warm through most Minnesota winter days with just the heat-pump. Looking back at that experience from the eyes of a BEV owners, I know all too well some of the PHEV claims are utter nonsense. Many of my summer PHEV drive videos clearly show EV miles delivered by 5 mi/kWh efficiency. Not all PHEV can do that. Heck, some PHEV don't even have any type of electric heater. They are not all the same. This happened long ago with hybrids too. Media sources, then online antagonists, attempted to misrepresent by lumping everything into a single category. Eventually, the better designs brought out beyond the rhetoric. Seeing some BEV owners feeding it currently is quite a let down; though, it is a confirmation they fear what some PHEV have to offer. Imagine the uproar if data from Leaf was used represent to Model 3. They are both BEV. Why not call them the same too?
10-19-2024	Constructive Discussions. There is a remarkable phenomenon I sometimes encounter online. The person will assume you are against what they support, simply by association. You can end up with quite a number of posts contradicting what you say. Watch for hostility. I civil response, though off-topic or misinformed, can sometimes be the result of you not connecting with subject matter they are most interested in. Remember, we are ultimately all in this together. You don't have to make enemies, even if they invite it. This one particular individual bumped heads with me a few times recently. This changed that: "When battery production is high enough to bring prices down, most homes and businesses will have batteries, both for cost savings and power security. Those batteries will not only be able to DC charge your car, but it will be more efficient to use DC charging." Not only did we see eye-to-eye, he actually contributed by pointing out a benefit I overlooked. Sweet! This is how I volleyed the discussion back to him, hopefully keeping in that constructive spirit: I brought up the topic of future home DC charging at last weekend's EV event. I even pointed out a kickstarter targeting 20 kW using home storage. It was dismissed by both Tesla owners attending (Model 3 and Cybertruck) with the claim that most households will never have their own storage. What? There is Tesla Powerwall already, often included with solar installs here (Minnesota) now. The potential seen from Sodium-Ion (compared to Lithium-Ion: less expensive, better performance in low temperatures, but large & heavy) in stationary application is quite significant. The discussion eventually came around to V2G (Vehicle-To-Grid) as the solution most households will have instead. It made no sense. How would that routinely take advantage of solar & off-peak opportunity? You'd end up aging your more expensive battery faster and be sacrificing some range at the same time. In the end, I'm glad we can finally engage in discussions like this. They are long overdue.
10-19-2024	No Longer. It's finally happening, progress but not in a good way. Ford has told its recipients of NACS adapters to stop using them. Issues related to speed & heat have been reported. This comment online pulled me into the discussion: "There seems to be so many issues going over to the Tesla connector." Concluded by: "Maybe it would have been easier to get Tesla over to CCS (given they have done that in European markets)." Not being aware of the history or what is currently at play was to be expected. It's nice, though not under the best circumstances, to get a change to engage in such a discussion. I climbed up onto the soapbox for this one: CCS2 in Europe made sense... it also wasn't really an option back in 2018, when there was a major legal push for a standard. Here in the US, we have been stuck with CCS1... which doesn't make sense. Tesla's connector really is a good idea here. But back when it was proposed as a standard (prior to any legacy automaker interest), some saw it as a Hail Mary from Tesla to retain business potential. It was obvious Model 3/Y would struggle as profit-margins shrink, carbon-credits would shrink, and offset from FSD would shrink. Absence of diversity would become more and more of a problem too. Now, we see deadlines slip for adapters and rollout of V4 basically come to a stop. I'm still seeing new DCFC being rolled out with the CCS/CHAdeMO combo too. If Tesla was really on its game, encouragement to make them CCS/NACS should have been well underway. Of course, helping support providers with the new standard would be counter-productive for SuperCharger installs. See the problem? Talking with a Model 3 owner at an EV event last weekend, I was surprised by how upset he was by my calling the new standard SAE-J3400 instead of NACS. Even the rename of "North American Charging Standard" to "North American Charging System" rubbed him the wrong way. Recognition of uniqueness loss is the next stage in Innovator's Dilemma. That struggle to reach the masses, growing appeal beyond early adopters, is becoming apparent to current owners. It's more than just a business challenge at this point. Owners must face the reality of the appeal & advantage SuperChargers offered being lost. Problems like what Ford is dealing with now will accelerate that transition. Rather than a legal push, there will be a pull from others wanting to save face. Legacy automakers cannot afford delay and DCFC providers will see an opportunity to capitalize on. Tesla itself is no longer at the helm.
10-19-2024	City-Only Range? As rhetoric continues to fade, we're getting more questions from those researching a purchase. Today, it was: "Any thoughts on what the real range would be with a 2023 FWD doing 100% city driving?" I was all too happy to jump into that discussion: What kind of "city" driving... the stop & slow like NYC where bikers ride by faster... or suburb where the top speed is 55 mph? The latter is much better. In the nicest conditions, you'd routinely get 5 mi/kWh. With the usable capacity of 64 kWh, that works out to over 300 miles. Don't ever plan for that ideal though. 4 mi/kWh is realistic. That will give you a solid 250 miles.
10-19-2024	Compared To What? Not seeing the entire big picture can be a problem: "Compare to EV, more moving parts and energy consumer to obtain inferior results both in performance & mpg." Comments like that are always fascinating. Volt was neither efficient in electric or gas usage. The system was too compromised to be competitive. In fact, that's why the struggle to earn profit ultimately failed. Such an outcome is easy to dismiss though. Anything with a gas-engine is dismissed outright, without data. All vehicles with only electric-motors are in turn declared winner, without data. In other words, it's more of a judgment based on principle rather than fact. Why must the situation be binary? That's not objective. I pointed out why, asking: So? Many here are endorsing electricity guzzlers. Note how discussion of really low mi/kWh and kWh/100km values is avoided. In fact, when really efficient EV values are brought up, notice how someone will change the topic to range.