Electric and Hybrid Car Thread

[tegra7]

Kind of neat I guess.


Lexus Built an EV With a Fake Manual Transmission

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a4...QTw_t-wLDUw9nA

[Manic!]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

I’ve watched plenty of rich rebuilds and it’s not like he has a full blown love affair with Tesla either lol.

I know it’s a different type of society and Canada basically covers the entirety of Europe. But there are like no EV’s in Europe. There are probably more Tesla’s in Vancouver than a dozen European countries combined. And the charging infrastructure is non-existent

I guess you have not seen all of Europe.


https://www.canarymedia.com/articles...y-the-most-evs

[JDMDreams]

Damn 75k for cloth seats

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...ibextid=dXMIcH

[dark0821]

I hope the guy didnt claim any rebates, or else he is gonna get 2 letters from both Federal and BC regarding that $9,000 lol

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by mikemhg

Not everyone has a Tesla, and with more non-Tesla brands coming to market with EVs, it's a real issue.

What's most surprising is the charging cost factor, there doesn't seem to be much parity between charging costs vs gasoline often times.

That's going to be a real problem if we're looking for overall adoption.

This is true and it shows you how far ahead Tesla is in the EV field.

Right now when people come to me about EVs and the difference between brands, I usually just tell them it's Tesla vs. Others.

If you want an EV that can do pretty much what most do now (mostly commute+once/twice a year for road trips), you have the 4 models from Tesla to pick from. If you are only commuting, then pick whichever look/brand/material makes you happy. They would all do fine.

Tesla's efficiency and charger network is what set them apart for long drives vs. the others. Using SC to go to my dad's cabin in BC interior is about $70 round-trip on my Model X. With a gas car, I'd estimate about $200 in gas.

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

Damn 75k for cloth seats

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...ibextid=dXMIcH

If it was the Volvo cloth seats then for sure but that Toyota fabric is yuck.

[trollface]

Originally Posted by freakshow

I don't see charging networks as a major barrier to EV adoption. The only time I ever use a charger outside of my home is an overnight trip to somewhere like whistler.

Ah, so you solved this by having a charging station attached to a 1.5 million-dollar house. Let's take a look at the Vancouver skyline and read that again.

Most apartments don't have that many stations or stations at all. You'd have to fist fight ppl to charge overnight.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by trollface

Ah, so you solved this by having a charging station attached to a 1.5 million-dollar house. Let's take a look at the Vancouver skyline and read that again.

Most apartments don't have that many stations or stations at all. You'd have to fist fight ppl to charge overnight.

Give it time... it'll come. Like power lines directly into a building or home at the turn of century. It was a luxury/gimmick at the very beginning. But then it reached a point where most people wouldn't consider a building without one.

I believe new buildings are mandated by law to have roughly 50% of its parking to have EV charging.

And to be honest, if I were residents of a strata building, I'd really vote for a motion to install something like a NEMA 14-50 plug on most parking stalls that have been assigned to particular units and have them wired directly to the unit's meter.

Installing a plug like NEMA 14-50 costs less than $1000 when installing in a SFH. If the entire building were to install at once, I figure the number should be much lower on a per-unit basis as the electricians can do many at once. And there's even a rebate from gov't/BC Hydro that one can apply for as a strata.

I'd give it some time... but it shouldn't be too long. Say... 10yrs from now... it'd be almost horrific to buy into a building without EV charging capacity.

Here is a quick story about the early days of electricity in BC. Many were stubborn and didn't want to let go of the old status quo. Similar to what many are thinking about EV nowadays

https://www.powerpioneers.com/bc-hyd...ory/1860-1929/

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by trollface

Ah, so you solved this by having a charging station attached to a 1.5 million-dollar house. Let's take a look at the Vancouver skyline and read that again.

Most apartments don't have that many stations or stations at all. You'd have to fist fight ppl to charge overnight.

Even with a house it's not a surefire solution. Most homes built before 2000 only has 200a into the house, and in the 80s and before it could be only 100a. It's a pretty penny to upgrade the power coming in, and then if you have a detached garage then you may need to upgrade the line going into the garage. There's a smart solution now (don't remember the name) that automatically slows down the charging if the house is drawing more power so nothing is tripped, but if you need to quick charge the car in the afternoon, but your wife and kids have the AC blowing full blast and baking cookies or something, you can't charge at max rate.

That's pretensed with whether if the power line on the street has anymore room for you to pull more amperage. And if the line is capable of letting every home on the block suddenly decide to pull 100a to charge two cars.

Talking with a friend who works at hydro, most residential blocks in GVRD are not built to handle that kind of draw. They just go upgrade when things blow up.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by Hehe

Installing a plug like NEMA 14-50 costs less than $1000 when installing in a SFH. If the entire building were to install at once, I figure the number should be much lower on a per-unit basis as the electricians can do many at once.

You think you can just slap in that many 50A circuits into an existing building?

[Simplex123]

Free charging promo at the Imperial St Chevron via the Journie App. They have 2 stations with 2 chargers each (Total 3x CCS and 1x chademo). They state speeds up to 150kW but I suspect that it's shared.

I tried it today for 10 mins and was only able to get up to 40kW while being the only one connected.

Supposed to be free for all chargers but currently only the Imperial one is live. Oak St's chargers are coming soon apparently.

[Badhobz]

The sales dude at Westminster Toyota told me that the bz4x should only be charged with a level 2. Toyota does not recommend level 3 or above charging due to battery degradation. If all these teslas are super charged most of the time, I’d figure their batteries would start to show degradation after about 5 years. I haven’t really heard too much about Tesla batteries failing I’m record numbers.

Could just be Toyota playing it safe as usual.

[Hondaracer]

Adding all these extra plugs, line capacity, charging stations etc. isn’t just a matter of building a plug or adding even additional power into a panel etc.

We’re talking about like, sub stations and transformers in order to upgrade blocks of high rises

[jcmaz]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Even with a house it's not a surefire solution. Most homes built before 2000 only has 200a into the house, and in the 80s and before it could be only 100a. It's a pretty penny to upgrade the power coming in, and then if you have a detached garage then you may need to upgrade the line going into the garage. There's a smart solution now (don't remember the name) that automatically slows down the charging if the house is drawing more power so nothing is tripped, but if you need to quick charge the car in the afternoon, but your wife and kids have the AC blowing full blast and baking cookies or something, you can't charge at max rate.

That's pretensed with whether if the power line on the street has anymore room for you to pull more amperage. And if the line is capable of letting every home on the block suddenly decide to pull 100a to charge two cars.

Talking with a friend who works at hydro, most residential blocks in GVRD are not built to handle that kind of draw. They just go upgrade when things blow up.

Electrician apprentice here. Most homes in Vancouver and surrounding areas have 100A service unless they were built with other higher electrical loads in mind such as hot tub/sauna/welders/compressors. Even many newer homes only have 100A/125A service so it's not a good idea to assume a newer home would have a larger service.

The smart solution you are referring to is a load share system which can automatically shut down the connected load when there are other loads in the main panel.

[Hondaracer]

Yea I didn’t think any homes, even newer ones were being built with a 200a service outside of special requests from the home owner, or the need because of hot tubs etc.

That’s a needless expense most buddy guys 10000% wouldn’t spend even if there were 4 suites in the home

[68style]

I don't know why I laugh every single time I read Honda saying buddy guys lol

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by jcmaz

Electrician apprentice here. Most homes in Vancouver and surrounding areas have 100A service unless they were built with other higher electrical loads in mind such as hot tub/sauna/welders/compressors. Even many newer homes only have 100A/125A service so it's not a good idea to assume a newer home would have a larger service.

The smart solution you are referring to is a load share system which can automatically shut down the connected load when there are other loads in the main panel.

I just based it on my panel. My panel has 2x 100A main switches. Or is it combined for 100a?

[Great68]

Yes, that would mean you have a 100A service.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by underscore

You think you can just slap in that many 50A circuits into an existing building?

I don't think there'd be enough capacity for that many outlets. However, since we are talking buildings with hundreds of units, they run on shared capacity from the get-go. Upgrading or adding power services so that these plugs can be accommodated in an apartment complex vs. a SFH is two very different animal.

I went from 100a service to 400a and it cost me just over 10k once everything is said and done. And that comes out only from my pocket. I won't say it didn't hurt, but I'm glad to have so much capacity that I can plan many things down the road at will (full workshop, whole house HVAC including the swimming pool powered by geothermal units, 2 full power Tesla chargers, hot tub... etc) without having to worry about maximum power draw. Sure the upgrade cost meant many of those plans would have to wait but the idea is that when I can afford to do them, I can just go ahead.

A service upgrade for an apartment complex will likely be a 6-figure endeavor if it doesn't have enough power provisioned for the complex. But spread out to hundreds of owners... it's really not all that bad in the grand scheme of things. With EV becoming more and more accessible for the general public, many future home buyers will likely put EV charging high on their priority list when it comes to househunting. Any money spent on adding EV charging capacity would likely be recovered when selling the place down the road. As an EV owner myself, two units being similar in every aspect, I'd for sure pick one that has EV charging capability instead one that doesn't even if the one with EV cost more. It's no longer a gimmick or a luxury "nice to have"... but rather, a necessity.

[Hondaracer]

Bro.. my last 25 storey apartment building with 100% owners had people voting down $4000 increases in landscaping

Good luck getting non-ev owners to sign on to that type of commitment

[mikemhg]

My parking underground doesn't have any EV charging stations whatsoever.

We have plugs in the garage but as I'm sure with most buildings, you can't use them to charge your EV.

People seem to drive across the street to the underground at Brentwood Mall and charge their vehicles there.

So essentially that "at-home" charging option is simply not available to a large swatch of people in the lower mainland, I don't see that changing anytime soon.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Bro.. my last 25 storey apartment building with 100% owners had people voting down $4000 increases in landscaping

Good luck getting non-ev owners to sign on to that type of commitment

To echo that, my old strata voted down a unit's request to install chargers, at their own expense. They said they don't want to risk structural issues.

It's not even about the money sometimes.

[JDMDreams]

Time to at least buy a townhouse

[trollface]

Stratas LOVE to spend money on things. Right? Right?

[whitev70r]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

Time to at least buy a townhouse

Townhomes also have strata ... won't be able to escape group think.