7-11 Is Opening 500 EV Charging Stations By the End of 2022 (cnet.com) 168
7-11 announced Tuesday that it will be placing 500 EV chargers at 250 stores in the U.S. and Canada by the end of 2022. CNET reports: OK, but if they can't keep the Slurpee machine up and running, what kind of charging can users expect? Well, we don't know, and 7-11 isn't saying, but we do know that they will be DC fast-chargers, and it looks like they'll be supplied by ChargePoint, so we'd bet on anything from 60-ish kilowatts to 125 kilowatts. These new chargers will join 7-11's small network of 22 charging stations at 14 stores in four states, and the whole thing is a part of 7-11's ongoing work to reduce its carbon footprint.
McChargers (Score:2)
OK, but if they can't keep the Slurpee machine up and running, what kind of charging can users expect?
That complaint is practically cute when compared to McDonalds and their utter inability to operate a fucking ice cream machine.
We should be thankful we're not reading about McChargers.
(Yet.)
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OK, but if they can't keep the Slurpee machine up and running, what kind of charging can users expect?
That complaint is practically cute when compared to McDonalds and their utter inability to operate a fucking ice cream machine.
We should be thankful we're not reading about McChargers.
(Yet.)
When it comes to McDonalds I'm pretty happy if they have a McChair and McTable to go with my McGreaseBurger.
People are afraid of change... (Score:5, Insightful)
I always find people amusing when they are critical of EV's by saying there isn't enough charging places and they'll never become popular.
I'm sure blacksmiths and horse sellers said the exact same about motor cars and how there wasn't enough places to refuel and the roads weren't good enough, we all know how that worked out for them. The same will now happen with the cars running on petrol and diesel, 20-30 years form now it will easily be a majority of EV's and other electric transport.
The reality is human's as a special hate change, but the change will happen one way or another.
Re:People are afraid of change... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure blacksmiths and horse sellers said the exact same about motor cars and how there wasn't enough places to refuel and the roads weren't good enough, we all know how that worked out for them. The same will now happen with the cars running on petrol and diesel, 20-30 years form now it will easily be a majority of EV's and other electric transport.
The reality is human's as a special hate change, but the change will happen one way or another.
Indeed but it's even more than that. There is definitely a distinct group who seem to consider electric cars as some sort of personal affront where each electric car they see is the liberals actively insulting them and trying to destroy their way of life. The same people who had hate-boners for the Prius when that was new.
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You really want to see what it will take for Americans to change damn near overnight on this topic?
* Immediately changes American gas prices to what Europeans pay *
There ya go.
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The US love affair with automobiles is built on the low cost of fuel. Gutting subsidies and increasing taxes to match EU prices would certainly be an effective way to incentivize electric vehicles, but it would come with such a backlash that whomever did it would be
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Nobody cares about the cars. They dislike pols telling them what to do.
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Well except that people seem to think that the existence of electric cars is "pols telling them what to do".
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There is an element of logic in their reasoning, albeit only one. Governments are announcing intent to ban sales of ICEVs. They really are being told what they can do, eventually, when it comes to purchasing vehicles. They may not be geniuses but they can see the writing on the wall if you make it big enough.
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Nobody cares about the cars. They dislike pols telling them what to do.
My experience is they hate with a dark seething passion anyone who tells them what to do. And about everything and anything.
Which is kind of a pity. Because that makes them easily manipulable.
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I've met more than a few people who think that every electric car is an affront to the oil industry and the jobs they represent.
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Indeed but it's even more than that. There is definitely a distinct group who seem to consider electric cars as some sort of personal affront where each electric car they see is the liberals actively insulting them and trying to destroy their way of life. The same people who had hate-boners for the Prius when that was new.
Witness the Pick-em-up phenomenon. Where one's patriotism is declared by the truck size, and inversely proportional to the fuel mileage. There are some folks near me who "roll coal" and detune their diesel pickups to belch out black smoke as a mockery of Prius owners when they see one. A few others with dually rear pickups that aren't used for anything other than going to work or grocery shopping.
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Indeed but it's even more than that. There is definitely a distinct group who seem to consider electric cars as some sort of personal affront where each electric car they see is the liberals actively insulting them and trying to destroy their way of life. The same people who had hate-boners for the Prius when that was new.
Most people I know didn't actually hate the Prius because it was a hybrid. They didn't like it because:
A) It was ugly as sin, and
B) The initial buyers seemed to have a very high percentage of self-righteous fake-environmentalist hypocrites.
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Rural America only got cars in the first place BECAUSE of big citys and factories in those city's, they'd still be using horses otherwise.
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Big citys only got that way because farmers got more efficient.
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Big citys only got that way because farmers got more efficient.
Y'all need to stop acting like it's rural vs city. Both? Both is good.
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Dimwitted farmers are conned into some sort of myth about noble farmer, great rural ethos and made to slog away their lives making pittance.
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Farmer trade associations exist, and are funded by so-called "check-off" dollars. Every bushel of corn is charged a small fee by the government to fund the corn growers association (I believe this is authorized through the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service). This money is used to fund research into how better to grow corn, to fund lobbying efforts designed to create markets for that corn (such as getting China hooked on imported corn from the US s
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Don't forget bicycles. The pandemic bicycle boom is actually the third and thus far smallest bike boom in US history. The first, and largest was in the late 1800s; it was so big that the US patent office had two buildings, one for bike patents and one for everything else.
The enormous popularity of cycling spawned good roads movement [wikipedia.org], without which the adoption of automobiles would have been delayed by decades. Prior to that the vast majority of roads were completely unimproved and in places impassable t
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My neighbor on the east side of Bloomington, IN used to tell me about visiting relatives in Trevlac when he was younger. It's a 15 mile, 30-minute drive now just because the road is really curvy. In the 1940s they would get up early to make the 4-hour drive, stay for a while, and then come back before bedtime. Imagine trying to actually drive a longer distance.
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Well, thankyou for proving my point.
You have taken the existence of electric cars and spun it into a mixture of an entitlement and persecution complex. And thrown in with a bit of toxic masculinity where it seems choice of beverage in your mind somehow has some sort of relevance to being a man. Oh and a rural superiority complex too as it seems in your mind city dwellers are bad for having opinions, something it seems you are not shy of having.
You're also a bit out of date. Props for the man-bun, but you mi
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What pathetic whining.
Rural Americans have freedom of choice of what the market chooses to offer, just like the rest of us. The sad thing for them is that they are the minority - they don't have the purchasing power of the Americans that live elsewhere. Capitalism follows the money. If a company can invest in something that the market might prefer and therefore allow that company to return handsome dividends to its shareholders, that's their whole fucking purpose. Buy controlling shares in the company! Stop
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In your case, people with money barge into a market where you are the consumer and change it in ways that are disadvantageous to you. In my case people voting based on prejudices, irrationality, fear and hatred. ( Of course they very strongly think me voting based on my thinking is elitist or worse)
In my case it is government and tax policies. I believe the government s
Re:People are afraid of change... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, at the time, they were right! In the days before gas stations, (yes, there was a time) people that owned auto-mobiles had to go to their local pharmacy (chemist, kinda makes sense) to buy gas for their cars!
So back then, before actual dedicated gas stations were a thing, they had to supply the gas at stores that were already there selling other things.
In the case of EV's, it seems to have occurred in something of the opposite order, where dedicated charge locations appeared first, and now we're starting to see things like chargers in business parking lots, grocery stores, (my HyVee just put some in!) and convenience stores.
It's interesting to see how things evolve.
I suppose it's going to have to be a little more spread out though for EV's, due to them requiring several times longer to "fuel up". One of my local KwikStars has six islands, with four sets of pumps on each island, that's 24 spots at a time. The one outside town on the interstate has closer to 12 islands. If EVs totally take over, and we haven't managed to really get the charge time down, they're going to be either requiring four times as many islands, or we're going to need charge stations everywhere. And I think the latter is where we're headed.
I suppose in a way you could compare it to the disappearance of the once-prolific payphones, and how we now have usb ports everywhere.
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On top this, I think governments largely have the wrong incentives.
Electric cars are cheap enough now that I don't think governments should be prioritizing subsidizing electric car purchases. If they want to, I have no issue with that.
I just think they should be prioritizing the charging infrastructure, which is the real gap.
1. Regulation to make sure charging plugs are standard, or at least have 1 standard plug. If private company wants some super fast uber charge plug.. go ahead, but they should all suppo
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:2)
When you buy an EV, buy a home charger. If you don't own your home, work with your landlord to install a charger. Live in an apartment building? Where are you parking your car? That's where the charger is needed.
You can't rely on an infrastructure of public chargers, the time required to charge limits their ability to adequately serve a community of any size without consuming a great amount of space.
Great, a high-voltage charger can charge your EV a meaningful amount in 20-30 minutes, but you have to factor
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:2)
Here in Texas we have gas stations with 120+ pumps (Buc-ee's), they are used as covered parking spots where vehicles are parked while occupants visit the huge snack/novelty stores, as long as 20 minutes or more.
Conceivably those pumps could be converted to charging stations, but the footprint of a Buc-ee's is immense, easily 20x the size of a corner gas station.
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I always find people amusing when they are critical of EV's by saying there isn't enough charging places and they'll never become popular.
I just smile inwardly, think of all those people who told me that digital cameras would never displace film cameras and then I advise them to invest in fossil fuel industry stock.
Re:People are afraid of change... (Score:4, Interesting)
Additionally there are *tons* more charging places for electric cars than refueling stations.
Made blatantly obvious when during the recent pipeline shutdown, there were *huge* lines at every gas station before any of them even closed. Yet the electric car people continued to charge at home like they do every night. Despite a *constant* 'refueling' you don't suffer long lines to recharge your EV on typical days.
Yes, long road trips are, as yet, a bit less trivial than gasoline. However with ~300 mile ranges, that's about as far as I'd want to drive without stopping for a bit anyway.
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:2)
I think you are talking about ratios # of ICE vehicles to gas stations compared to # of EV vehicles to charging stations.
The vast majority of EV chargers are personally owned snd kept under lock & key for the sole use of their owner, compared to a shared public resource like a gas station.
In my lifetime I've seen gas shortages exactly twice, once during the oil embargo in the 70s and the recent pipeline disruption. I can't even begin to count the number of times my homes have lost electricity, which wou
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Cute, but misguided. Feeding and resting a horse after a day's ride can take awhile. Fueling up a car takes a few minutes at most. That should have been an obvious upside of gasoline-powered automobiles even in their earliest days. EVs with hour-long charge times are a step backwards in that regard.
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:2)
I plan on purchasing an EV in 2022 as a second vehicle, my current truck will be around for extended road trips or journeys that take me outside the charging networks. Just like people kept horses after they bought their fist car a hundred years ago.
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I always find people amusing when they are critical of EV's by saying there isn't enough charging places and they'll never become popular.
For many people in urban areas there is nothing funny about it. They park on the street so they can't charge at home, and there are very few public chargers anywhere nearby. So the general availability of local chargers is a critical factor in adoption.
The sheer numbers are hard to compare. When one refers to "charging stations" and "gas stations" it is unclear how many vehicles can be charged/refueled concurrently. My local 7-11 is one station but can fuel 8 ICE cars at once, at about 5 minutes refuel
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:2)
Many 7-11s have no parking spaces, esp in places like Manhattan. In the suburbs, a 7-11 may have 8-12 parking spaces, how many are you going to dedicate to EV chargers?
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I always find people amusing when they are critical of EV's by saying there isn't enough charging places and they'll never become popular.
From: https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-bo... [ny1.com]
"If Future of Cars Is Electric, NYC Remains in Dark Ages
There are 1.9 million cars and SUVs in the city, and just 14,000 of them run on electricity.
A pilot program by the de Blasio administration to create at least 100 curbside parking spaces where electric vehicles could power up has stalled.
The spaces were supposed to be ready in two dozen neighborhoods a year ago. Now, the city says only that they will be created sometime this year.
There are only 1,200 car charging
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:2)
One of the most precious commodities in NYC is parking spaces, how many public parking spaces will be converted to charging stations, seriously? Will they be placed on street corners? How will time limits be enforced? Will ICE vehicles be prevented from parking in these spots?
EVs have ranges like ICE cars (300 miles +/-), how many gas stations are there in Manhattan? Walk me thru the logistics of simply converting the city's buses and taxis to EVs and building out a suitable charging infrastructure to suppo
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Well there AREN'T enough charging places right now to drive mass adoption. There are enough to drive increasing adoption, but the news is heavily skewed toward novelty which is why 7-Eleven installing EV chargers is making the news. It's novel, not common.
When people say that EVs will never become popular, they're talking about THOSE EVs at THAT time with THAT accessibility of charging. The response shouldn't be, "OMFG You're a Luddite Trumptard!?", but "You're right. It's not good enough now which is why w
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:5, Interesting)
People get hung up on charging because they haven't used one and are thinking along the lines of petrol car patterns - run to almost empty, fill up in one shot. I was the same, I had the classic range anxiety before I got one and worried a lot about it. The reality is - that isn't at all how you use them and it's zero bother in the slightest if you can charge at home. If you can't, then yep - you go and spend 20 minutes sat at a fast charger or so and I accept the convenience curve is still catching up there though it's nowhere near as bad as people imagine.
It's less convenient right this second for those 600 mile trips I do once a year, but ho hum - the diesel I had that was more convenient for the 600 mile trip was also drastically less convenient for every single other trip I was doing.
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:5, Insightful)
People who don't have EVs often don't seem to appreciate the massive benefit of EVs when it comes to short trips.
It takes about (rule of thumb) 20 minutes of driving to recharge the battery to recover after starting the vehicle once. I have a 10 minute commute. If you do the math this means that I actually have to hook my battery up to a charger every weekend (If I don't go anywhere further away at that time) or eventually I can't start my truck. It barely gets hot by the time I get to work (5.4 V8) so I only have heat for the last couple minutes of my drive. And the catalyst doesn't function until it heats up, so for a sizable percentage of my drive my vehicle is spewing nasty emissions.
Some people are so fixated on the drawbacks of EVs on long trips that they forget the massive benefits on short ones.
If you have a long commute with no traffic (ha) then an EV may well be seriously annoying. If you live way out in the sticks they are probably not practical yet, though they are getting there — the podunk town I live in has like eight public charging stalls and signs on the highway advertising them. I get not wanting one if you can't charge at home. But everyone else will benefit massively. I'm seriously considering the upcoming F150 Lightning, depending on what they charge for an otherwise base tradesman model with the expanded battery. Right now I drive an '06 F150 XL SC LB and it gets maybe 16 MPG tops. Ugh.
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If actually you use your pickup as a truck, the F-150 Lightning sounds awesome: 770 foot pounds of torque, a huge "frunk" to replace the storage boxes in the pickup bed, and jobsite power through an inverter.
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If you think that's awesome, wait until someone realizes that you can ditch the inverter and just have straight DC-powered tools that run straight off the batteries. I really think the electric truck is going to be a game-changer for a lot of industries.
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It's less convenient right this second for those 600 mile trips I do once a year, but ho hum - the diesel I had that was more convenient for the 600 mile trip was also drastically less convenient for every single other trip I was doing.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with my father about his pickup truck. He owned a pickup truck and his customers were usually an hour or two drive away. About every other month he filled up the back of the truck with parts for his customers so he did need a truck from time to time. I did the math and discovered that he could park the pickup and save enough in fuel costs to pay the lease and the fuel for a smaller vehicle and still be able to rent a truck for the couple of days every other month
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:5, Insightful)
Right. All you need is a nice suburban house with a big garage and a $8,000 EV charger to go along with your $60,000 Tesla and you are all set!
That's marvelous except you don't need any of those things.
If you're charging at home you can charge from a normal socket overnight. You don't even need a garage. You can charge a car outdoors! Even a £20,000 Seat.
*mind blown*
And my local authority recently started upgrading street lights to LEDs. The new lamp posts designed to fit car charging points and I see quite a lot installed for on street charging around and about. No houses on my road have off street parking and yet there are electric cars because on street charging exists.
electric cars are not perfect but people sure like inventing problems.
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If you're charging at home you can charge from a normal socket overnight.
Well, you can charge maybe around 40 miles of range overnight - although based on the Slashdot Unicode disaster later you may be talking about European voltage and I have no idea if 220V AC wall sockets charge faster than US 110V AC wall sockets. (The major sticking point would be the number of amps they can pull - my wall charger caps out at 15A over 110V AC which is where I'm coming up with the 40 miles range.)
Now this is way more than enough for daily driving, BUT - it still ignores that there are major
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Well, you can charge maybe around 40 miles of range overnight - although based on the Slashdot Unicode disaster later you may be talking about European voltage and I have no idea if 220V AC wall sockets charge faster than US 110V AC wall sockets. (The major sticking point would be the number of amps they can pull - my wall charger caps out at 15A over 110V AC which is where I'm coming up with the 40 miles range.)
Plenty of amps. 16 or 32A for an IEC60309 outdoor weatherproof socket. That's over 7kW
Now this
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This is also why it probably doesn't make sense for 7/11 to put in chargers. Why would I go to a 7/11 to charge? I can charge at the mall, the grocery store, or home. The whole "drive somewhere to restore the energy storage in your vehicle" is only a thing with gasoline-powered cars because we don't have gasoline being piped into our houses. Also, it takes very little time to refuel a car - so little that I can stand there while it happens. I don't have to be present when my electric car is refueled an
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Right. All you need is a nice suburban house with a big garage and a $8,000 EV charger to go along with your $60,000 Tesla and you are all set!
That's marvelous except you don't need any of those things.
Quite so. Even if you don't charge up from a regular outlet but instead want a Level 2 charger, a ClipperCreek HCS-40P [clippercreek.com] (the charger I have) is less than $600 and is built like a tank. Installing it took about $100 worth of 6 AWG wire, a 40A breaker, a $13 50-amp outlet, and about two hours to do it myself to code. My friend recently had a local electrician put in the outlet, breaker, and wiring and it cost $400 for parts + labor. Hardly an unbearable expense, plus it's one-time.
electric cars are not perfect but people sure like inventing problems.
Agreed. Yes, there's absolute
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electric cars are not perfect but people sure like inventing problems.
Except not having a house really is a problem for electric cars in a lot of places. I've heard stories of long lines at chargers (1hr+) in areas that are more urban (= no garages).
Around here, most new development is high-density apartments with parking garages. Even the *brand new* ones are putting in about TWO chargers for the entire complex, and NO access to power for any other parking space. I can't imagine any complex wanting to spend the money to retrofit a parking garage to run power to a significant
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To add onto serviscope's comment, it is more like $2k for a high speed charger., and the federal, state, and electric companies chip in to pay that for you.
I don't own one, but one coworker just bought a new house and had to install one.
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With CCS2, charging times for non-Teslas are getting up there with supercharger speeds now too. So it's much better, but yes - right now you'd still have the weekly pilgrimage.
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It depends where you live, where I live (Montreal Canada) the local power company is subsidizing street chargers all over town. They are cheap enough that you can pretty much just leave your car there over night.
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Again, I expect this will be addressed in some manner, but not terribly soon.
It will be addressed. Sooner than you expect.
Internet enabled outlet controllers retail for less than 10$. All the lamposts and street lights are wired for 220V high power sodium vapor lamps. Switching to LED they have spare capacity. Adding to the lampposts a 220V outlet controlled via smart phone Apps is easy and cheap. Your apartment complex will franchise their lamp posts to some charging network. You create an account, log in and turn outlets on/off. They bill you for electricity used.
Since it is
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:5, Interesting)
Was the model T really more convenient then owning a horse though?
Model T could barely manage a very bad road, it really wasn't suitable for going across fields, a model T could only do 20-40miles before it needed to be refueled. At which time you better hope to hell there was a petrol station in the town or village!
Also the model T was insanely more expensive then owning a horse.
As for tax breaks for ev's, company's that make petrol/diesel cars and the fuel receive massive tax breaks. So not seeing your flawed comparison there.
Whats more convenient then being able to refuel your car in your driveway from your own houses power supply?
Given enough time you can charge it from your own panels too.
The reality is the ICE days are numbered when it comes to cars.
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The model T was special because it was both convenient, and affordable
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The model T was special because it was both convenient, and affordable. Electric cars barely ring either of those bells.
Given that there is such a thing as financing and EV TCO is lower than ICEV TCO, EVs are affordable. And given that most people can charge their EV from a 15A receptacle for most of their use, they are convenient.
They are not necessarily convenient for people who can't plug them in at night, and that's a real thing. That might even be 50% of the population or more. And that's going to have to be addressed with street chargers. However, they can be low-speed chargers if they're plugged in all night, so that'
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Was the model T really more convenient then owning a horse though?
Yes.
Model T could barely manage a very bad road, it really wasn't suitable for going across fields,
The truck can handle going across fields. The TIRES couldn't handle it, though. I'm not sure when tires got to be worth a shit, but it was well after vulcanization was invented :) and ultimately it has to be the result of some other modification, like silicates.
Also the model T was insanely more expensive then owning a horse.
It cost more to buy, but it didn't have the same space requirements and it didn't consume "fuel" whether it was being used or not. By the end of the model lifetime the Model T was being sold for $300, and a horse cost $50+, perhaps $150 average.
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Was the model T really more convenient then owning a horse though?
Let's play a game of "spot the guy who knows nothing about horses". Hey, I won!
Dude. Yes, a model T is *way* more convenient than a horse. The model T was made for driving on crappy roads - look at the size of the tires and the clearance under the body. If you're not using your model T, you stick it in a garage until you're ready to use it. Horses need maintenance every single day whether you're using them or not. And they shit everywhere.
There's a reason that the model T was a big success. The rest
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A Tired argument already. People gave up horses for the Model T because the Ford was more convenient then owning a horse. The EV is a step backwards in convenience, hence the tax credits and now mandates.
You idea that tax credits are an example of failed technology means that the nuclear power industry and the petrochemical industry are utter failures. They've been getting breaks for a long long time. Oh yeah, and the tax breaks for the biggest SUV's we had for while.
So we should just forget about that tired and false meme.
Y'all need to tell us about how we are going to power our vehicles after we run out of easily available oil. Or are you one of the people that thinks that God supplies an infinite
Re: People are afraid of change... (Score:2)
You idea that tax credits are an example of failed technology means that the nuclear power industry and the petrochemical industry are utter failures. They've been getting breaks for a long long time. Oh yeah, and the tax breaks for the biggest SUV's we had for while.
The tax break on SUVs is based on their weight snd being classified as commercial vehicles...
Y'all need to tell us about how we are going to power our vehicles after we run out of easily available oil. Or are you one of the people that thinks that God supplies an infinite amount of fuel, ready to put in your pick-em-up?
We have enough 'easily available oil' to last through your grandchildren's lifetimes - we are no where near exhausting the oil supply.
Here's a convenience issue for ya - we're installing charging stations at a lot of state parks. One near me is over 20 miles from the nearest gas station. Near empty in that commie EV? Plug er in. Near empty in your Patriot pickup? Thoughts and prayers - maybe a siphon. Y'all will have to walk a few miles to get cell service to call AAA.
Seriously, a single charging station in one location at a state park makes it no big deal to run out of electricity in a state park?
Unless you run out of charge at the charging station, you'll need a tow truck to get to the charger. If an ICE vehicle runs out of gas, I can have someon
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I don't get that. The vast majority of my driving (4x4 chevy tahoe) is in town and environs. Nearly every night the truck is back at the house. Being able to "refill" the truck at the house for those 90-95% of occasions would rock. The 15-30 days a year that I'm sleeping away from the house, most are at a hotel or other formal property that would likely have charging available in the next few years. What I worry a bit about are the 10 nights a year where I'm sleeping out off the road. On the other hand, it'
Meh (Score:5, Funny)
If I can't drive across the country without taking any rest breaks while towing two boats then I'm not interested. Until electric cars can do that they're clearly a scam and sheeple are only buying them because of Elon Musk's con game.
Re:Meh (Score:5, Interesting)
Interestingly this was the original plan for EV charging. The Japanese standard is called CHAdeMO, which is short for "o-cha demo ikaga desu ka" which means "would you like some tea?" It's a reference to how long charging takes, long enough to drink a cup of tea. 7-11 is, of course, a Japanese company.
Of course these days cars can charge in less time than that, but the expectation was that the dwell time would encourage businesses to install such chargers rake in the profit from people buying tea and other refreshments.
Hopefully 7-11 get it right. IKEA installed a load of rapid chargers that were actually kind of annoying, because you usually end up spending more than 30 minutes in IKEA. Etiquette means you need to come out and unplug when finished charging, and move your car. They would have been better off with a load of 7kW AC chargers.
Re:Meh (Score:5, Interesting)
I have reached an age where by the time I have emptied the battery, I need a restroom and a break. :D So places that can offer another cup of coffee, food or snacks and a clean restroom are probably a place I would stop to charge my car.
Re:Meh (Score:5, Funny)
Just be glad you haven't reached an age where you dare not drink a coffee because you will need the restroom 5 minutes after you set off!
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Just be glad you haven't reached an age where you dare not drink a coffee because you will need the restroom 5 minutes after you set off!
yeah, not fun
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Just pee in a handy gallon jug and no stopping required. My truck gets about 450-500 mi per tank and damned if I'm gonna stop before I need to.
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Great customer service (Score:2)
Not a great idea... (Score:2)
It seems we are too fixated on 'charging == gas station' which is just a bad model.
For one, the reason why gas stations are in fairly specific dedicated places is because of the problems of safely storing that volume of gasoline. There's no reason to concentrate charging into dedicated charging parking lots because it's much easier and safer to equip spots here and there in a distributed fashion.
For another, the whole 7-11 and other convenience store model built up around assumptions of how long a refuelin
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Re: Not a great idea... (Score:2)
No they won't. Charging stations cost money, require maintenance beyond that if an asphalt patch in front of a store.
Each charging station costs thousands of dollars to just install them, and to use them requires the vehicle to occupy the space for an extended period, while most stores businesses are interested in customer turnover, not customers camping out in their store.
You might just as well argue that every business will install gumball machines in front of their stores, since they are a source of reve
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Re: Not a great idea... (Score:2)
The downsides of operating a drive-in over a drive through could be largely mitigated with modern technology
No.
The issue with the drive-in is that customers sit in their cars in a space before they order, while they wait for their food, as they eat their food, until they choose to get back on the road.
A car could occupy its space for 30 minutes or more, limiting the number of customers the restaurant can possibly serve in an hour to about 2x the number of parking spaces available. Go watch a chick-fil-a drive thru at lunch or dinner time and count the number of customers per hour they serve.
Let's not pretend tha
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I agree. Last year I took a drive with my family in our Bolt EV from our home in Alameda County, CA to Lake Tahoe. The town of Colfax, CA had some typical highway gas station stops with some fast food places right off the highway and an EVgo fast charger a few blocks further into town by the old historical railroad station. Plugging in at the charger, we went into a local pizza place, had some tasty food and drink, used the restroom, and were done about 45 minutes later just as the fast charger was finishin
These still exist? (Score:2)
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They're the most popular and largest chain.
7-Eleven is 70,000 Stores Strong -- Convenience Retailer Tops 70,000 Global Locations, More than Any Other International Chain [prnewswire.com]
500 EV? (Score:2)
That's only 10^-16 joules.
It's 7-Eleven (Score:2)
Not to be pedantic, but it's 7-Eleven, not 7-11
Re: It's 7-Eleven (Score:2)
Sorry, you were pedantic.
Doesn't fit the business model (Score:2)
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Since the EV-angelists tell us people will recharge overnight, how many of the middle class owners are going to leave their car sitting on a quik-mart lot overnight to charge it up?
How? (Score:2)
These new chargers will join 7-11's small network of 22 charging stations at 14 stores in four states, and the whole thing is a part of 7-11's ongoing work to reduce its carbon footprint.
How does installing EV chargers reduce 7-11's carbon footprint? I can see how it would help customers reduce their carbon footprint, but unless 7-11 delivery trucks are EVs and will use the chargers as they unload, how do the chargers reduce 7-11's carbon footprint?
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carbonara (Score:2)
How does installing charging stations reduce their footprint? Do the charging stations remove carbon from the air? I could see REMOVING gas pumps having that effect, but ADDING charging? BS.
Re:What to do for the hour? (Score:5, Funny)
Just give me GAS! and let me be on my way.
Try the beef and bean burrito.
Hour? (Score:2)
Dude... it takes plain ol' regular EVs 20 minutes to charge. 7-11 has it right because that's enough time to go buy a snack, maybe tinkle, eat the snack and drive away.
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If it's only 60 kW, then it's too slow. At 125, things are looking reasonable. If I'm limping in on 10% and want to get to 80% (on an 88kWh battery) in order to get to my next charging station, then I'll want 125 or better. This is for a road trip, obviously. Around town, I can't ever see myself charging at a 7-Eleven, because I plug in at home.
The big caveat to the above, though, is if I find myself stuck with no other choice. Heck, I still carry my factory charger with me. It'll give me three miles per ho
Play video games, or watch Netflix (Score:2)
Re:I'm sorry... (Score:4, Funny)
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The electricity may be free, but for an additional $30, I can give your vehicle a fung shway massage to help align its aura for peaceful slipping through the karmastream.
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Good thing you are using fung shway and not feng shui. We all know that's a con. Might I recommend some Gordon Shumway as well?
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The electricity may be free ...
I don't think so.
TFA doesn't mention the price, but why would it be free? 7-11 is a business, not a charity.
EV chargers usually require online registration with a credit card.
Even Tesla charges a fee for cars bought in 2017 or later.
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Well those are not Tesla Superchargers, but normal chargers, for the likes of the Chevy Bolt, and all the rest of the electric car makers. Tesla's can charge charge on these if they want but you will need to use the supplied adapter.
You can get a Tesla for under $40k while that is still expensive for people, it is in the range for middle class people to buy one if they indeed wanted a Tesla. It isn't like it was even 4 or 5 years ago, where all Tesla's were over $100k. Where getting a Tesla vs an other
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Is it too much to ask that people use proper fucking English? If you can't even distinguish between "break" and "brake", why the fuck should anyone think you have the first idea what you're talking about otherwise when it comes to automotive topics?
Excellent example of Ad Hominem. What part of their comment do you believe to be nonfactual?
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Oh I am so sorry. Thanks to rubbing it in on a life long sufferer of dyslexia. Perhaps you want to park in some Handicap parking spots, and tell that guy in a wheel chair to "Learn to Walk".
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The fact that this comment is modded "overrated" is a tragedy.
Hilarious, good work. You'd have my +1 if I had the points.
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Wrong. EVs are cleaner than ICEVs even when charged "from coal" because they are so much more efficient. The inefficiency begins before the fuel even gets to the vehicle, and then continues from there.
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America probably needs to spend five trillion over the next ten years to get the infrastructure back to first world standards. We need a Marshall plan for the roads, bridges, and utility systems. An aspiring elite would focus on that, rather than frivolous nonsense like electric cars. It would also be more scrupulous about who gets the money for the projects. That is not the future. Instead, it will be abandoned EV’s next to massive potholes and collapsing bridges.
That's probably as close to the truth as you're likely to get.