Another reason not to own a EV

[rad32]

I'm waiting for the 2025 RamCharger.

Take it from my experience, don’t do a first year Stellantis vehicle. I dodged a bullet with my 4xe with it being build late in the model year. The early ones had a ton of issues.

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[Decayed]

Yeah make the batteries lighter. While at it. They should also just make an engine that gets 7,000 mi per gallon. Of course they're working hard to make batteries lighter and more energy dense. Solid state batteries are the plan for that. But the batteries are placed in the perfect location for normal off-road driving, it gives a low center of gravity which is preferable. They're not placed, ideally for off-roading but I wouldn't really take this thing in any kind of rough off-roading type situation.

Not sure what your point is here. Current battery tech is big and heavy and there is no disputing that. Different chemistries are in the works that might improve that, but like EV's as a whole they are not ready for prime time. At least it might be possible to improve them while ICE engines probably can't be made significantly more efficient.

Low COG might be important for off roading but my comment was about the apparent lack of battery pack protection via skid plates.

In the end it appears we agree that neither of us would want to off road this thing. So what's your point?

 

[Decayed]

I know I've never seen a gas engine offroad catch fire.

A better analogy would be about the gas tank.

 

[MarcoG]

There are numerous reasons not to buy or own a EV. Many have been discussed and posted. I read this article and thought, wow never thought of this. Keep in mind the EV has been in the ditch for MONTHS.

https://supercarblondie.com/rivian-has-been-stuck-like-this-for-months/

I love my Mav, but l would love a Rivian also. Just sayin'

 

[Gonzo chris]

In 1959 North American electric code used in USA Canda and Mexico required all new service installs to be 100amp 240vac. But you need a 200 amp service to add on a car charger most of the time or would have to have gas cooking, heating, no AC, and less than 2 bd 1 bath. local utility may not be able to upgrade your service if the local grid is at cap. All things to look into before buying an EV. We skipped on a leaf or Bolt opted for the Mirage because we could not justify the 5k to upgrade power service.

When I upgraded to 200 amp I inquired with the electric company about upgrading the service line as the one they had me run from the weather head down was massive, I can't remember the exact size it was, compared to the one coming from the pole but they said since it's aerial they don't upgrade it for 200 amps because it cools being in the air.

 

[Gonzo chris]

Wow ... lot of passion in this thread.
I saw the original post and immediately imagined the OP doing this:

The actual issue with the stuck Rivian is not having a powerful enough tow vehicle/wrecker,
it's the hazard involved in doing the pullout.

My mind immediately went to: When hazard spills happen (train derail / 18-wheeler flip),
Special teams (hazmat for example) are called in to reduce risk before the pullout.
Would this not be a similar situation?

I would like to try an EV - just not as a primary vehicle.
I am more interested in electric motorcycles though - as a commute vehicle.

Yeah like I remember about a year ago when a fuel tanker crashed and caught on fire under an overpass on i-95 in Philadelphia and the entire corridor was shut down which is a pretty big deal. S*** happens regardless of the tech really

 

[Gonzo chris]

True believers slways gets upset when someone utters a blasphemy against the EV religion.

Thanks for the profanity that was a nice touch!

Zero. I have zero hours and at this point I have no reason ever to get even a minute until the battery tech radically improves. This has been my stance all along. At this point in time it's a niche product that doesn't suit most people, which is why the EV market is tanking so hard - people know a turd from the smell.

Question: do you support building out new nuclear power stations?

I will go on EV sites and poke holes in the idea that they are perfect for everything. But you're mistaken when you say it's a niche product and it's not suitable for most people. Usually when somebody says that they end up admitting they live in North Dakota where there are 10 cows for every human. For the vast majority of Americans living in the suburbs and small towns they are definitely suitable. They're not perfect and if I was regularly towing something long distances I wouldn't consider it. Not sure why you think the battery tech needs to radically improve. There is room for improvement but there are EVS now that go over 400 miles per charge. I do not know many people who regularly drive further than that without stopping for 20 minutes.

 

[Gonzo chris]

Not sure what your point is here. Current battery tech is big and heavy and there is no disputing that. Different chemistries are in the works that might improve that, but like EV's as a whole they are not ready for prime time. At least it might be possible to improve them while ICE engines probably can't be made significantly more efficient.

Low COG might be important for off roading but my comment was about the apparent lack of battery pack protection via skid plates.

In the end it appears we agree that neither of us would want to off road this thing. So what's your point?

Dreamland.....ICE already has had the low hanging fruit efficiency gains. Only real mpg gains are from adding EV tech a la hybrid. What's the mpg difference between an EB and a hybrid Maverick? Batteries are heavy which makes the car is less fun to drive but basically irrelevant for daily drivers like 90% of cars on the road today. If you look at the energy density of a battery today compared to just 10 years ago it's a significant difference. The efficiency on an internal combustion engine hasn't improved nearly as much over that time
Not sure if it was you or the other Luddite but my point was that you can't say the vehicle isn't ideal for off-roading so therefore nobody should buy one. Seriously what percentage of people go off-roading heavy duty trails regularly? So the conclude that for that minute percentage of people it isn't perfect nobody should get one is more like faith-based thinking that science.

 

[Bwicka]

There are numerous reasons not to buy or own a EV. Many have been discussed and posted. I read this article and thought, wow never thought of this. Keep in mind the EV has been in the ditch for MONTHS.

https://supercarblondie.com/rivian-has-been-stuck-like-this-for-months/

Looks pretty clean for being there for 4 months!
I’d say click bait !
The article even says it comes with a camp kitchen , which was an option , but never materialized over 2 years ago , lot of red flags on the video ( the can’t park here audio is a popular clip used in memes and a lot of just stock press material in the article that’s outdated . Plus that would be an easy traction board and rock stack recovery if anything , if it drove in there it would very easily be able to get back out after getting it in the last hundred feet of stuck area .
If battery is dead , a 5kw gen and level 2 charger would have it charged enough in 5-8 hours to go 75 -100 miles and if something drastic has it disabled , there is always an off road recovery place especially in Arizona.
Worst case 10-15k for an aerial rescue , not much heavier than a small rooftop chiller or the cell site shelters I’ve set with helicopters.

 

[Bob The Builder]

One thing I find extremely interesting about this thread is that the Administrator has chosen not to add the political warning to the title of this thread. (yet).

I guess (s)he has given up at this point.

I do enjoy how some EV proponents (not here necessarily) enjoy pointing out to me how if I lived around the turn of the 20th Century I would have been one of those people refusing to give up their horse for a gas powered car. I say possibly, but back then the gov't wasn't going to shoot my horse if I decided to keep it.

 

[Bwicka]

Wow ... lot of passion in this thread.
I saw the original post and immediately imagined the OP doing this:

The actual issue with the stuck Rivian is not having a powerful enough tow vehicle/wrecker,
it's the hazard involved in doing the pullout.

My mind immediately went to: When hazard spills happen (train derail / 18-wheeler flip),
Special teams (hazmat for example) are called in to reduce risk before the pullout.
Would this not be a similar situation?

I would like to try an EV - just not as a primary vehicle.
I am more interested in electric motorcycles though - as a commute vehicle.

Not much hazard there , it looks as stuck as a shopping cart in a landscape planter . That whole picture/article meme is a joke .
As far as the electric motorcycles try out the Zero brand , good buy used and decent highway range .really fun to ride with the instant torque , makes them a lot safer for reactive situations in traffic.
But the funnest is the Stark Varg , that thing can smoke a 450 four stroke race bike on the mx track !
I mean literally smoke it for a full race . A lot of negative Nancy off roaders are trying to ban them from putting them in the same classes of racing.
I like the ev’s , thinking of converting one of my broncos and possibly my buggy over .
I’m just tired of handing my money over to the Middle East a couple times a week .and causing all those slave kids to mine cobalt which is used in the refinement of every gallon of gas ( not just batteries)along with prodigious amounts of electricity to make the gas.electricity that could go into charging the batteries,at which point the grid would be fine .
Hope everyone one else feels the same about that part of the Middle East and OUR money!

 

[Gonzo chris]

One thing I find extremely interesting about this thread is that the Administrator has chosen not to add the political warning to the title of this thread. (yet).

I guess (s)he has given up at this point.

I do enjoy how some EV proponents (not here necessarily) enjoy pointing out to me how if I lived around the turn of the 20th Century I would have been one of those people refusing to give up their horse for a gas powered car. I say possibly, but back then the gov't wasn't going to shoot my horse if I decided to keep it.

I never understood how a propulsion technology became political in the first place other than the possible theory that fossil fuel interests as in BP, ExxonMobil etc tend to align with the political party that will help them the most regardless of the country and the corporations also sow a lot of doubt regarding anything that threatens their bottom line. Yeah that big bird old government telling me what to do not prime my gas can out of my cold dead hands..... You could drive a gas car for the next thousand years according to the government it just has to meet efficiency standards...
I hate to break it to you but the government is the one that tells you everything you have to do or can't do basically other than perhaps your wife..... Speed limit , pay your taxes, can rob a bank, can't kill somebody, can't walk around naked, can't sleep with somebody under a certain age, can't drive drunk, can't remove the catalytic converter from your car or truck, I think the word govern is right in the word government.... .
Also the horse analogy is also dumb. Yes you probably would have been one of the ones to not give up a horse for a car judging by your post history out here but comparing an EV to a gas car is not even close to the same as a car to a horse. Currently an EV can't really get me across the country any quicker, I actually probably a little bit longer so the differences really aren't that great.

 

[Decayed]

I will go on EV sites and poke holes in the idea that they are perfect for everything. But you're mistaken when you say it's a niche product and it's not suitable for most people. Usually when somebody says that they end up admitting they live in North Dakota where there are 10 cows for every human. For the vast majority of Americans living in the suburbs and small towns they are definitely suitable. They're not perfect and if I was regularly towing something long distances I wouldn't consider it. Not sure why you think the battery tech needs to radically improve. There is room for improvement but there are EVS now that go over 400 miles per charge. I do not know many people who regularly drive further than that without stopping for 20 minutes.

But what about the times when you do need to drive for hundreds of miles in a day? I regularly make trips that are 4+ hours each way. This is northeast corridor btw. There isnt enough time in the day for me to stop and charge if I want to do it in a day. And no, there is no charging station anywhere I need to spend time when I get there.

Sure, most people's average drive is short and an EV could suit just fine. But if you can only afford one vehicle it needs to be flexible enough that you can make those long drives when you need to. Why is that so hard to understand?

The battery tech does need to radically improve. It needs to be as fast and convenient to charge as gassing up. That's the standard.

 

[Decayed]

Dreamland.....ICE already has had the low hanging fruit efficiency gains. Only real mpg gains are from adding EV tech a la hybrid. What's the mpg difference between an EB and a hybrid Maverick? Batteries are heavy which makes the car is less fun to drive but basically irrelevant for daily drivers like 90% of cars on the road today. If you look at the energy density of a battery today compared to just 10 years ago it's a significant difference. The efficiency on an internal combustion engine hasn't improved nearly as much over that time
Not sure if it was you or the other Luddite but my point was that you can't say the vehicle isn't ideal for off-roading so therefore nobody should buy one. Seriously what percentage of people go off-roading heavy duty trails regularly? So the conclude that for that minute percentage of people it isn't perfect nobody should get one is more like faith-based thinking that science.

I never said ice could improve, quite the opposite. I agree they have been improved about as much as you can expect. And hybrids are not EV's. Apples and oranges but you insist on comparing the two. I also never said nobody should buy one, just that the rivian, with the apparent lack of a skid plate covering the battery pack, was not well suited to off roading.

You keep throwing up those imaginary straw men. Guess you just like to argue. But you aren't responding to what I actually said.

 

[BoskoPColtrane]

By your reply, others can see the same for you. How about being constructive and figuring away to one get it out of the ditch? Two to figure away to correct this issue and allow EV's to be pulled from a ditch and or diverse terrain? Until then it's a major issue that shouldn't be ignored or made fun of. I do like the humor in your post though.

Sorry. But I’m not sure what this has to do with Mavericks.

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