Unpacking some EV misconceptions
Yesterday, I made the mistake of clicking on an xkcd Facebook post and reading some of the comments. Today, you get to pay for my indiscretion 😛.
Read moreTag: Electric Vehicle
GM grabs a hammer, Tesla hands over a nail
First it was Ford, now it’s GM. The not actually a standard “North America Charging Standard” (NACS) connector used by Tesla, has put another nail in CCS’s coffin. Now that GM is on board, 70% of the US EV market is committed to NACS. Most of my thoughts around this can be found in the post about Ford’s action, so […]
Read moreNACS Takes A Step Closer To De Facto Standard
Despite the use of “standard” in the name of the North America Charging Standard (NACS), aka Tesla plug; NACS isn’t actually a standard. There are procedures around how standards get made, and Tesla didn’t do that. That’s not always important, Apple’s Lightning Connector isn’t a standard either, and it does just fine – well, until recently. What really matters is […]
Read moreFord Clears Up Blue Cruise Subscription Pricing, It Ain’t Good…
Ford has been hella coy about the price for their Blue Cruise Level 2 hands-free driving feature. When I bought my 2021 Mustang Mach-E, the hardware was optional (shown above), and Ford pinkie-promised that it would be $200/year to re-up the Blue Cruise. The ability to opt-out of the hardware went away with the 2022 models, and Ford went silent […]
Read moreV2L is cool, but it’s not a real option for home backup
Vehicle-to-Load (V2L), as demonstrated in the video below, is seriously cool. If you have an EV that does it, there will be scenarios where it could be awesome; like saving your food during a power outage. I wanted to start with that, so that it doesn’t get lost in what I’m going to say next. As cool as V2L is, […]
Read moreIRS Publishes Tax Credit Guidance For 2023 Electric Vehicles
OK… I guess it takes seven seats, or is it all-wheel drive (AWD), to make an SUV? But why does AWD matter for the ID.4, but not the Model Y, or Mach-E? This matters because not-SUVs price out at $55,000 where SUVs are good to $80,000. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent theme in the IRS’s guidance around what […]
Read moreI’m confused… Why is off-grid the goal?
Generally, I’m a fan of both of Alex’s car focused channels. I only know of one other YouTuber that gets into the weeds (in a good way) to the same degree that he does. I say that because I approach his content with PMA and an open mind, but I’ve been somewhat confused by a couple of the conclusions in […]
Read moreBring Your Own Cable Isn’t A Great Idea, Especially for DCFC
Every so often I see this idea that EVs should carry around their own charge cable, both for Level 2 (L2), and occasionally DC Fast Charging (DCFC). While I can respect the validity of the L2 argument, even though I disagree, for DCFC I struggle to see any compelling reasons around how it could make any sense.
Read moreWith Respect, Fred. Back Left Isn’t A “No-brainer”.
TLDR; Tesla Supercharger design is creating issues because other EVs have charge ports in different places. That the folks at Tesla didn’t think to design around that when they retrofitted Superchargers for CCS is mind blowing. This isn’t a hard problem to fix, you just use a longer cable.
Read moreFixing A Common Car Won’t Charge Issue
I found this post on the Mach-E forum, but it applies to every other electric vehicle (EV), including Tesla if you’re using a J-1772 EVSE (aka Charger) with an adapter. I’ve experienced this one myself, both with our Mach-E and the EV6 at public L2 charging stations. I’ve never dug into the problem, but I suspected it had to do […]
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