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SHOCKING: Meet The All-New Ram 1500 REV Battery-Electric Pickup!

Flot

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None of this is even remotely surprising - who in their right mind would take a 1400 mile road trip across North Dakota of all places and expect a seamless experience?

While it is certainly POSSIBLE, we’re not in a place yet where you would expect this to go smoothly.

I have a buddy who routinely takes 1000 mile road trips in his Tesla but he does it half just to prove he could do it. Give it another 3-5 years and I’d expect this to work out on a regular basis.
 

RVTRKN

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The fact you have to upgrade your home electrical service, and then pay to add charging stations where you live and work is beyond the advantage to cost. Keep in mind when there are more EV's on the road, the harder it will be to charge them when traveling and the rates will be higher than if you filled your tank every 500 miles. Then figure in the EV fires that spontaneously ignite, no matter where its located. You can google that and and be surprised with the countless stories you'll load. China is claiming that they have the largest registered EV's in the world, google that too and see fields of rotting EV's, that have been sold and registered.
 

HSKR R/T

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NThe fact you have to upgrade your home electrical service, and then pay to add charging stations where you live and work is beyond the advantage to cost. Keep in mind when there are more EV's on the road, the harder it will be to charge them when traveling and the rates will be higher than if you filled your tank every 500 miles. Then figure in the EV fires that spontaneously ignite, no matter where its located. You can google that and and be surprised with the countless stories you'll load. China is claiming that they have the largest registered EV's in the world, google that too and see fields of rotting EV's, that have been sold and registered.
Not everyone needs to upgrade their home electrical. Usually only older houses. No need to add a charging station at your place if employment, unless it's far enough away you would need to top off the charge to make it home, in which case an EV probably int the best option for you.

As far as fires, ICE vehicles catch fire far more often than EVs, you just don't hear about it, as much, because there isn't an agenda to try and make them look bad.

And who cares about what China lies about?
 

Flot

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The fact you have to upgrade your home electrical service, and then pay to add charging stations where you live and work is beyond the advantage to cost. Keep in mind when there are more EV's on the road, the harder it will be to charge them when traveling and the rates will be higher than if you filled your tank every 500 miles.

These are silly arguments. Most people will not have to upgrade their home electrical service. Nobody is paying to install chargers at their places of work. When there are more EVs on the road, obviously there will be more charging stations.

When is the last time you needed to charge your cell phone in a public place? Just like a phone, typical ev behavior will be to charge it every night (or nearly so) at home.

EVs are not for everyone obviously. But if you are like so many people whose commute is less than 40 miles, who park in their own driveway 7 nights a week, who aren’t towing, who own more than one car in their household - they can be a great option.

Ironically enough, except for picking 4 new cars up from out of state dealers, I don’t think I’ve driven more than 300 miles from home in 20 years. Longer than that and I’m flying. And I average a reasonably typical 10-12k miles a year. My better half on the other hand averages 16-20k miles - almost all of which is local commuting and would also be well suited for an ev.
 

SD Rebel

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We have a Telsa model 3 for A to B stuff, and honestly its perfect. Even longer trips, it does fine assuming your route has a few charging stations.

That being said, in terms of costs, I wouldn't consider any EV unless I had a home charger due to how much cheaper it is to charge at home. Using exclusively Superchargers will cost you just as much if not more than a gasoline powered car (though still cheaper than my Rebel). But home charging allows it to charge at low peak rates, so a full "tank" for like $12 - $14 or so, but we are also on solar so even cheaper than that.

Daily driving smaller passenger vehicles for 300 miles or less before charging is really feasible these days. A full size truck towing, nope, but will be.
 

theblet

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I don't think there are more EV fires, but they there are it's really hard to put them out. Takes hours upon hours.
 

Dewey

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I don't think there are more EV fires, but they there are it's really hard to put them out. Takes hours upon hours.
Just had a charging e-bike burn down a house locally. Fire spread so fast the fire department couldn’t save the structure. That was a battery the size of a small brick. Can’t imagine these huge EV batteries.
 

theblet

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Just had a charging e-bike burn down a house locally. Fire spread so fast the fire department couldn’t save the structure. That was a battery the size of a small brick. Can’t imagine these huge EV batteries.
Yup. EVs have high voltage, high amps, and huge batteries. When something shorts out its a disaster. Also, if you get in a wreck in one, don't touch anything metal just in case. Instant electrocution if there's current in the chassis.
 

HSKR R/T

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Just had a charging e-bike burn down a house locally. Fire spread so fast the fire department couldn’t save the structure. That was a battery the size of a small brick. Can’t imagine these huge EV batteries.
The fire would have spresd that fast no matter what the ignition source. And all those cheaper e-bikes or hover boards or anything like that come with warnings to not leave them plugged in after reaching full charge.
 

Dewey

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The fire would have spresd that fast no matter what the ignition source. And all those cheaper e-bikes or hover boards or anything like that come with warnings to not leave them plugged in after reaching full charge.
That’s common sense. Unfortunately that’s far too uncommon these days.

My point was if it has a battery the risk is there. I regular pedal bike doesn’t start on fire. The true test will be as these EV’s start aging. Just like anything that’s when the issues start. Not a big enough test sample right now.
 

WXman

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I see some silly stuff continuing in this thread.

"More gas cars catch fire than EV cars." That's because there are exponentially more gas cars on the roads. But if we look at the RATE of fires it's a different story. We've seen EVERYTHING that uses a battery catch fire. Phones, cars, toys, heck even a lawn mower that was ironically being demoed at a trade show caught fire and they pushed it outside as fast as possible to keep from burning down the convention center. High voltage is ALWAYS going to be a problem. I don't see that as something technology will fix. You play with fire you're going to eventually get burned.

"You don't need to update household electric service." Nope, sure don't.....as long as you've got a day or two to charge your truck so you can drive it again. But if you want an electrician to come in and install 240v service safely, which may also require some updates to your fuse panel and new wiring into your garage, you're looking at a large cost. MOST people will end up paying to have this done as I have not seen one single house built new in recent years that has 240v service by default.

And when an EV catches fire it's not the same. These battery packs burn at alarmingly high temperatures and are notoriously difficult for fire fighters to extinguish. In fact, where I live they usually don't even try unless there are occupants still inside.
 

HSKR R/T

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That’s common sense. Unfortunately that’s far too uncommon these days.

My point was if it has a battery the risk is there. I regular pedal bike doesn’t start on fire. The true test will be as these EV’s start aging. Just like anything that’s when the issues start. Not a big enough test sample right now.
ICE vehicles have batteries. And they catch fire more often than EVs. Even when parked in people's garages
 

SpeedyV

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We just returned from a trip to Ireland where we rented a Nissan Qashqai two weeks in a row. In both cases, ours were equipped with a true extended range hybrid powertrain. All electric drive with a small onboard gas generator. And it was awesome. Smooth, quick, and with a range of roughly 875km (545 miles). We drove probably 2500km on the trip and rarely needed to think about gas. We could learn something over here.
 

HSKR R/T

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I see some silly stuff continuing in this thread.

"More gas cars catch fire than EV cars." That's because there are exponentially more gas cars on the roads. But if we look at the RATE of fires it's a different story. We've seen EVERYTHING that uses a battery catch fire. Phones, cars, toys, heck even a lawn mower that was ironically being demoed at a trade show caught fire and they pushed it outside as fast as possible to keep from burning down the convention center. High voltage is ALWAYS going to be a problem. I don't see that as something technology will fix. You play with fire you're going to eventually get burned.

"You don't need to update household electric service." Nope, sure don't.....as long as you've got a day or two to charge your truck so you can drive it again. But if you want an electrician to come in and install 240v service safely, which may also require some updates to your fuse panel and new wiring into your garage, you're looking at a large cost. MOST people will end up paying to have this done as I have not seen one single house built new in recent years that has 240v service by default.

And when an EV catches fire it's not the same. These battery packs burn at alarmingly high temperatures and are notoriously difficult for fire fighters to extinguish. In fact, where I live they usually don't even try unless there are occupants still inside.
Most new houses, as within the last 20+ years, have 240 "service" to the house, and any house with electric ranges or furnaces already have 240v service. It's just a matter of adding another circuit from fuse panel to the charging station. I believe Tesla, at least they used to, included the installation of the home charger in the purchase of the car.

As far as the fires, please tell me the percentage rates for EV fires compared to ICE vehicles. Don't worry, I will wait for some made up number, because there isn't anyone who has even tried to come up with it. Especially since the only ones you ever really see on the news are EVs.
 

OCD Solutions

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I have not seen one single house built new in recent years that has 240v service by default.

What country do you live in? Literally every single house build in Canada and the US in the last 50 years is 120/240 VAC. In fact try to get 120 only and they will look at you like you are crazy.

Now, are you talking 100 vs 200 Amps? Because even still, I can’t remember the last time I installed a 100 amp service in anything less than a small workshop or barn. Most houses under 3500 sq/ft get a 200Amp service and over that are typically 400 Amps.


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HSKR R/T

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And those fires are easy to put out compared to lithium ion batteries.
Putting out a fully engulfed house fire takes the same amount of effort, no matter what the ignition source. And whether it's an EV or a ICE vehicle, they are both total losses after a fire. Doesn't matter how hot they burn or how hard it is to put them out
 

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