ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2012 and older => Topic started by: benswing on February 12, 2013, 07:07:24 AM
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As you have probably read, a blogger for the NYTimes recently got stranded in a Tesla Roadster going from DC to Boston and back.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/automobiles/stalled-on-the-ev-highway.html?hpw (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/automobiles/stalled-on-the-ev-highway.html?hpw)
Here is the response by Elon Musk stating that the blogger misled the readers.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100439335 (http://www.cnbc.com/id/100439335)
My question is, have you ever been stranded using an electric vehicle?
I have been riding electric motorcycles since 2007 with over 8,500 miles traveled and I have never fully run out of charge.
(Full disclosure, the closest I came was on a Vectrix (40 miles optimal range) and I had to travel the last mile home at low speeds.)
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I have never even come close. I pay attention to my travel distance and my energy use. If I get nervous about my range, I just pull off on to a road less traveled and slow down. If you stick to the posted speed limits the Zero has the range to go just about anywhere I want to go (other than to a gas station) during the day. :)
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I have never even come close. I pay attention to my travel distance and my energy use.
Ditto. The NYT guy clearly didn't know about or intentionally ignored "general EV knowledge" when it comes to cold weather, charging and driving style.
But it's interesting how polarizing articles about EV's are. Typically the authors come across as biased, sometimes for, sometimes against.
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Oh yeah, I have been stranded lots of times.... fouled spark plugs, ran out of gas, failed alternator, wet distributor cap, etc, etc.
I think that the stranded author should have take a few minutes to learn about what they they were driving rather than just blaze off without any understanding and Tesla put the charging stations too far apart for winter weather in the NorthEast.
So far I have been stranded 0 times on EV power. I probably will make it happen given some time.
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Yes.
One time the bike wouldn't drive the motor after I turned it on. Blinking error light. Checked all the codes, nothing seemed to point to a problem. Cycled power a couple of times, same thing. This was.. shortly after I got the bike back from Zero after the controller update.
I was about a block away from home, so I just pushed it home.
Then in my garage I realized I had hit the engine kill switch. Yup. *sigh*
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Brilliant!
Protomech, if that wasn't a facepalm moment, I don't know what is!
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. ;)
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I would also like to note that even an IC vehicle will stop if you don't look at the fuel gauge and keep driving until you run out of gas. ::)
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I was stranded due to burnt brushes in my 2010, but never as a result of EV planning issues...
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Same here. My 2011S stopped abruptly when the brushes burned out with 2200 miles on it. I was able to push and coast home, but really, when you consider the range of these, odds are you aren't going to be THAT far from home like on a touring bike.
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Thanks guys. I'm specifically interested in battery range issues as opposed to actually breaking down. I know several of us have had issues that have needed to be fixed (myself included), but media and individuals keep bringing up the range anxiety issue.
It seems that the NYTimes reporter managed to get himself stranded, people who actually drive EVs don't have that problem. Some friends who drive electric cars have responded similarly. One guy and his wife have a combined 95,000 electric miles with no tow trucks!
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The Crazy thing about non-EV owners is that a tiny flaw becomes a massive problem that you wouldn't think twice about on another car/bike.
A classic example, I went to a talk about charging infrastructure in the UK and the presenter had come over in his Tesla Roadster and after the show we went out to have a look at it. He opened the boot/trunk and bonnet/hood and a few people said 'oh the boot is tiny, you couldn't get much in there'. I know a few people with Lotus Elise' which is what the roadster is based on and people say 'its a sports car, its not supposed to be practical.
The fact is that in every possible way except recharge times EV's are better than their IC equivalents. But because you have to wait a couple of hours to recharge after driving 200 miles suddenly they are a waste of time and only a global warming nutter would buy one. My IC bike runs like a heap of junk when it rains because the air filter gets wet, it hunts and jerks on the throttle, deafens everyone within a square mile and does 90 miles to a tank, but everyone loves it and those things are just quirks. Forgiving an EV is a totally different matter and not just for petrol heads.
On topic, I had an X for 500 miles and went about my daily life with a sub-30 mile range due to the cold and not once did i ever have to change my plans to recharge or take a different route to get where i wanted to go. Range is a non issue for 99% of motorists. Getting people to give it a go and ride/drive an EV is the only hurdle to large scale uptake.
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I ran out of juice once, but that was planned. I had just bought my bike in San Jose and wanted to see how far up the peninsula it could go. After 30 miles at 55mph, it died in Redwood City and I had it towed the rest of the way to SF.
I've also run out of gas in my car, on more than one occasion and needed my grandfather to drive out with a bucket of gas. I wonder if that's not the real source of the miles paranoia. With a car, if you run out of gas, you just get more. The batteries require a considerable amount of time to charge and aren't swappable. Even a half hour charge time is considerably more than the 5 minutes it takes to dump a gallon of gas into your car.
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I've also run out of gas in my car, on more than one occasion and needed my grandfather to drive out with a bucket of gas. I wonder if that's not the real source of the miles paranoia. With a car, if you run out of gas, you just get more. The batteries require a considerable amount of time to charge and aren't swappable. Even a half hour charge time is considerably more than the 5 minutes it takes to dump a gallon of gas into your car.
Different ways to look at your scenarios. Consider the time it takes to call for help and source gas versus pushing the bike to the nearest house, shop, farm and asking to plug it in. In total time it will be not much different AND you meet people and do not need to wait till your friends or family have time to bring a bucket of gas.
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Here is Elon Musk's response and all the gory details of the reporters lies. I hope Tesla drag him through the courts.
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive (http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive)
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Once I drove home from college in my Datsun 510 with the flu. I was feverish and out of it. I misjudged the range of the car. Ran out of gas about three miles from home. Walked the rest of the way in the cold. That's the only time I've ever gotten stranded. Never since, including my two Zeros.
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CNN recreated the NYT Tesla drive (albeit in warmer temps) and arrived in Boston without issue.
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Not yet, but I've only had it for about two weeks. I'm not overly worried because my truck has an inverter that is powerful enough to charge the bike.
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I just happened to hear a report on NPR yesterday about the Times Tesla 6 test drive article. They covered both sides pretty well.
Trikester
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Never been stranded with my '12 DS, but was riding on "0" for a couple of miles. It was my first week driving, and I didn't plug in overnight. I had forgotten I needed to drive an extra 10 miles in the morning before work, and I was quite glad to make it to a plug on it's own power. Pushing it onto the driveway would have caused endless ribbing by my co-workers, so I'm quite grateful it lasted. Since then I've had ZERO problems, because I plug in every night and I never check the gauge unless I'm driving somewhere new (which is basically never).
I also recently got a Tesla Model S, and seriously, road trips are the only time I will ever check the range. I have had way more range anxiety about my gas cars because I have to go out of my way to fill up and it wastes at least 5 minutes of my time, instead of taking 4 extra seconds plugging in at home. FREEDOM!