LF: Winter and EVs

Winter – and cold weather – is just a few months away and that means more than just cold and probably snow.

It also means power outages.

Sometimes, these last for several days. Last year, for example, an ice storm in my area took down many trees and with them several power lines. The juice was off for almost a week.

How does one recharge an electric car in this scenario?

The answer, of course, is that one doesn’t. Not unless one has a whole-house back-up generator that produces the 200 amp service necessary to power the “fast” charger. Most people don’t have that kind of back-up power, because it’s expensive. The typical install is about $5,000 for the generator and supply/hook-up to natural gas, propane or diesel (which will produce “emissions” while charging up the “zero emissions” EV).

Fold this cost into the cost of your EV.

A smaller, more affordable portable generator – the kind most people who have to deal with power outages usually do have – costs less (about $600 for a 5,000 watt unit that will run a few 120v circuits and so keep the lights on and the fridge working) but doesn’t produce enough power to run an EV “fast” charger. If you need a charge, it’ll be slow.

Hours.

This could be inconvenient if you need to get someplace now. Or even soon.

Maybe tomorrow?

Just another example of the pending problems people will be experiencing once EVs are shucked-and-jived (and subsidized) into their garages.

Contrast this scenario of hassle and expense with the minor inconvenience of a power outage when your car is liquid-powered. Unless the tank is empty, you can go right now – no waiting, no hooking up to a gennie. And if it’s empty, all you need is a jug. Most gas stations have their own back-up power and the pumps will be on. Go get a gallon and you’re good to go.

It’s not just ice storms, either. There is a hurricane – the androgynous Dorian – bearing down on the east coast of the U.S. If it is strong enough and bad enough when it hits, the power will likely go off in many places. People will be wanting to flee those places, too – because in addition to the power going off, the water may be coming in. That means lots of people on the road all at once. Running out of power before you can get out of dodge is another problem EV People will be dealing with.

Which brings up a seemingly reasonable question:

Why bother?

Why accept all these hassles and expenses?

Isn’t it astonishing how eager people are to exchange something that works better (and for cheaper) for something that doesn’t and isn’t?

And they ask my why I drink . . .

Let's not forget that cold kills batteries,and once one has frozen it will never again hold a charge.

I did a search for info and the single best summary I saw was a single comment on a forum: "The data I've seen says to expect between a 10% and 40% degredation if you freeze a fully-charged lithium battery then bring it back to normal operating temps (room temp). However, the same articles say any permanent damage is slight (1-3%). Just make sure you charge it, and use it, when it's at room temperature!".

Source https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/effect-of-freezing-on-lithium-ion-batteries.345524/

For the more high-end lithium batteries, they can operate at -50C through -80C apparently, with little degradation. It does seem they need to be at least above 0C to be charged effectively.

There's less data on this than you would expect. Apparently, the manufacturers are not very forthcoming with that info.

In most of North America, you have a bigger problem with EVs when you start to include the energy cost of air conditioning a car in summer (bad) or heating a car in winter (extremely bad). So if you want to cruise around with a climate-controlled vehicle, the EV's range may be cut in half from its already paltry range numbers. So your Muskmobile may have a range of 300 miles in spring or fall on nice days. But only 200 miles in summer with A/C on. Or 150 miles in winter with heat on.

Of course, you could just be a sweaty hippy in the summer running around in shorts and tanktop and flipflops so you can keep your range up. Or you can bundle up like Nanook of the north country in winter, just so you can bear to use your Muskmobile when it's cold outside. You'd be surprised how many people discovered this harsh reality only after they actually bought one of the vehicles and found themselves to be very unhappy in very hot or very cold weather.

I don't see why they even produce EVs for North America. Their use just isn't very compatible with the climate in at least 40 states, probably more.

Hybrid vehicles do solve these problems but they are more mechanically complex. So do fuel cell vehicles which solve some of the complexity issues but require the change to hydrogen fuel and the infrastructure and distribution issues.

Hybrids are the answer if you want less pollution. Even the puny hybrid battery systems put in the modern Toyota RAV4 and similar vehicles. The 2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, for instance, has a battery only large enough to power the car in EV mode for 0.6 miles, like tooling around a mall parking lot. Then the engine has to engage. However, the RAV4 hybrid is 38mpg or better, city or highway, a decent improvement for a vehicle of its class over a standard gas engine. And the hybrid is considered a better driving experience overall by car mag experts than the gas RAV4s. Driving dynamics are just better for the hybrids and they uniformly recommend the hybrid models. In the most popular trim packages, the hybrid version costs only about $800 more than the gas version.

People wonder how a hybrid with such limited battery capacity can save that much fuel: it's the start-and-stop driving and the hills. The most energy is required by your vehicle is just to push the mass of air aside for your vehicle to slide through it. The next most intense use is the energy your vehicle uses to propel itself. And generally in third place, you have start-stop driving in traffic and the impact of hills and the impact of heating/AC on economy.

It is the start-stop driving and the hills where a hybrid or EV can recover some of its mojo because they can generate power from braking to recharge their battery so that, after the stop sign or stoplight or after that sharp curve in the road, you can apply the energy you recovered from braking and use it to accelerate back to your desired speed. The gas engine vehicles have no energy recovery at all.

When it comes to hybrid vs. EV, hybrid does win easily. If you get a hybrid with a large enough battery pack, it may not have quite the mpg but you can drive it like gasoline vehicle. It may be peppier in many measures, like using a hybrid RAV4 hybrid to accelerate against an identical gas-powered RAV4 at a stoplight and the hybrid RAV4 leaves the gas RAV4 in the dust (despite the hybrid RAV4 weighing a little more).

Vic is probably smarter than the rest of us. He's our only hybrid driver here and I think his Prius has saved him a lot of money, money he'll use to pay for a daughter's sports and college and for Vic's retirement. And he's determined to drive that Prius into the ground before he gets another. Classic male thinking and you can't argue with it in terms of economics. Vic isn't keeping up with the Jones's, he's keeping up with the costs of college and retirement.

And Willie loves the efficiency of those trains but I don't think he even has a hybrid or an EV.

I have been shopping for a gently used hybrid, garaged and driven only by a fundamentalist Christian lady once a week to teach Sunday school or play the piano for worship services and one or two trips a month to shop for groceries and dry goods. I just haven't found a hybrid like that yet. Vic would tell me, I'm sure, to just buy it new and get the full warranty and drive it into the ground. And that is probably the best advice if you're going to drive a hybrid.

I've also shopped for diesel vehicles but they just don't offer enough choices and I can't find ones that I like. Detroit seems determined to make diesel vehicles far more unappealing to consumers than they should be. In diesel, you can buy some honker engine with serious horsepower in the big pickups (very pricey but you'll get 300,000 miles from them) or you can buy an SUV with a diesel engine that is the size of a lawn mower engine that feels quite underpowered but that can get good MPGs on fairly flat highways but it isn't fun to drive in stop-and-go traffic. You're a loser at every stoplight you encounter as even the rice rockets leave you in the dust. With some of these micro-diesels, turbocharged as they might be, even Vic in his hybrid Prius could kick sand in their faces accelerating away from a stoplight, especially if Vic has a nearly-full charge on his battery pack.

The North American consumer is fucking broke and no longer commands what the market will build... Production economies of scale dictate that northern drivers drive the same cheap crap that they use in the Third World tropics...

We're not there yet, of course... but headed in that direction... The same climate change (whatever the cause) that's melting the polar ice caps and Greenland's glaciers will make EVs more viable in northern latititudes. Millenials aren't buying (can't afford) cars and are more likely to use 5G driverless Uber/Lyfts or the eScooters that are popping up in our cities...

The Dodge RAM V-8 pickup will still be around a few more decades for the rednecks who can afford 'em... but Trump ain't gonna save them, the handwriting is on the wall...

Actually, the vehicle products offered to the public now are the result of the supposed Green Revolution that was a key part of 0bama getting elected, back when gas was more expensive and every oil expert railed about Peak Oil, until the shale revolution hit and now every oil depot and pipeline are maxxed out with abundant American oil. A sea change really.

And so we are seeing the cancellation of a lot of EVs and hybrid vehicles which were supposed to be the landmark vehicles of the 2020's. And the introduction of even more pickups of every flavor (including Jeep's entry) and the cancellation of American car lines in favor of turning everything into an SUV.

So GM and the others prepared for EVs and hybrids, enjoying the federal subsidy to boost their dismal sales. Detroit had to worry that 0bama would get his 8 years and higher mpg/emissions standards and that he would be succeeded by a Dem as well which would cement those standards into place across America.

Now, with the unexpected Trump victory and the oil glut of relatively cheap gas, it's happy days again for gas-guzzling wheeled behemoths. Hell, I know people who never take anyone anywhere with them and they're driving Escalades and Suburbans. Because they can. Because it isn't very painful at the pump.

The V8's are disappearing because turbo V6's are better overall, at least over the number of years that a new-car buyer expects a vehicle to last before they replace it. But we'll still have some V8 pickups on the road, like in 1-ton pickups, a decade or more from now. Because of Trump and because of the geysers of fracking-instigated American oil.

I never believed in Peak Oil and I love to recount this particular story. Everyone believed it, everyone thought anyone who didn't believe it was some kind of caveman or a propagandist for the oil industry. And then they all had to shut the hell up when American oilmen proved they were all a pack of liars! I loved it because I can slip in a few I-told-you-so's. Because I am just that petty and proud of it too.

If you really think that,calling you ignorant is giving you the benefit of the doubt.

3/4 and larger trucks haul loads. Unlike the mini-trucks and most half-ton trucks,they aren't just for riding around in.

Show me one of your beloved battery powered trucks that will haul 20,000 lbs at 75 MPH from Minot,ND to the east coast without even whimpering,never mind stopping overnight for a battery charge,and I might start to listen to you.

BTW,a turbo V-6 will NEVER replace a V-8 in trucks,because turbos only produce horsepower,and with trucks it's all about torque.

My neighbors had been building competitive pulling trucks with straight 6's because of their strong cranks, but have lately given up and gone back to v-8's.

Inlines inherently produce more torque than a V design of the same displacement. The problem is nobody makes hi-po parts for large inlines anymore.

I will take a 292 GM or a 300 Ford inline 6 before I will take a small block V-8. To get any torque with the V-8's you have to go to the big blocks,and even then you have to turn up too many RPM's to produce any real torque.

BTW,I have a 51 Ford business coupe with the original flathead 6 in it,and recenty bought a high-compression finned aluminum Knudsen head for it,with the matching 3 carb intake. Going to cam it up a little and put split exhaust manifolds on it with glasspacks. I might not end up with the fastest car around,but it will sure sound like the nastiest thing you ever heard when it's winding out.

Since I am shopping and have decided to include pickups on my list once I realized that mileage and cargo are about the same as the better SUVs (no surprise really since real SUVs are built on truck chassis with the same engines as the consumer pickups have), perhaps you could tell me what you are driving for your main pickup(s). What year, make, model, trim level, special towing packages, what you consider their max towing capacity to be for highway driving with moderate hills would be helpful. I won't consider anything older than a 2012 model. Or any non-diesel engine with more than 80K miles. With diesel, I might go to 150K to purchase if it has regular maintenance records and is very well maintained.

I'm a little dubious of Dodge products, even the pickups because I think the Fiat dumbasses will eventually ruin the entire company. GM is okay. I probably prefer the Ford F-150/F-250s overall. I slightly prefer the styling of Dodge and GM vehicles over the Ford pickups.

I've thought I'd like some towing capacity in case I ever buy a camping trailer to tool around and/or spend a few winters along the Gulf coast. You see those little medium travel trailers in the 18'-25' range for $8K-$12K on a regular basis, even a few new plain-jane ones can be found under $15K at the end of the model year when they do clearance sales. And those travel trailers are built pretty light, some of them in the 2-3 ton payload range, light enough for most 1/2 ton pickups but far better using a decently equipped 3/4 ton pickup if you ever go into hilly country but big enough you could live a few months in one without feeling too cramped for space.

I looked at the bigger SUVs that can tow 5,000 lbs or more but you end up spending more on a used Suburban or similar SUV than just getting a decent used crew cab pickup.

But I am not really shopping for a big-engine diesel pickup that hauls 10 tons at 75MPH coast-to-coast. That's overkill. And those pickups have a very high price premium. I'd only buy one if I decided to try my luck at hauling hot loads for hire in a metro area where you can make a living at it.

I currently own and drive 3 pu's. A 1939 IHC D-2 half-ton,a 2016 Chevy Silverado crew cab 4x4 with the 5.3 engine,6 speed auto trans,and 3:73 gears,and the love of my life,my 2500 series 2006 GMC 3/4 ton 4x4 extended cab with the 8 foot bed.

I don't actually hate the 2016 Chebby,but every time I drive the 06 GMC I want to throw rocks at the Chevy when I see it parked in the yard. And it is a perfectly fine truck for most people if you can tolerate the standard equipment wiring and accessory flaws where things like the radio stop working for no reason at all,and a while later start working again for no reason at all. The 5.3 is the small V-8,but with 350 hp and 3:73 gears it accelerates like a 69 SS Camaro. Even gets pretty decent gas mileage. I normally get 18-19 mpg driving around locally,and have gotten 21 or so on highway trips.

I guess the most correct answer is "Yes,you CAN pull a travel trailer with a half-ton pu IF you order the trailer towing option,but the real question you want to ask yourself is "Do I WANT to do this?"

I saw a guy last summer towing a 20 foot travel trailer with a S-10. Looked like the rear bumper was almost touching the ground,and the front bumper was wanting to come off the ground. People do all sorts of damn-fool stuff. A tire blowing out or having to hit the brakes hard going around a curve would have almost certainly resulted in a turnover.

MY best advise would be to rent a 1/2 ton pu with a gas engine one weekend,and then rent a travel trailer and pull it somewhere,spend the night,and then pull it back to where you rented it all and turn it in.

MAKE SURE IT HAS EITHER 3:73 OR 4:11 GEARS or you will absolutely hate it if you have to pull any hills. Besides,any diesel 3/4 or 1 ton truck will have either 3:73 or 4:11 rear gears and it would be a really unfair comparison if the 1/2 ton had 3.08 to 3:50 gears.

The FACTS are that if you buy a truck with a gasoline engine you will NEED 4:11 gears if you haul a load. The gas engine just doesn't have enough torque to pull weight at speed uphills.

Then go back and do it again the next weekend after renting either a 3x4 ton or 1 ton diesel pu and drive it to the exact same campground you went the weekend before,using the same roads and pulling the same size trailer. Probably best to rent the same make and year vehicle,too.

I can't spend your money,but if I were you,I would either buy a 3/4 ton with dually wheels added,or a 1 ton that came with dually wheels. Once you buy one,spend the bucks for a 5th wheel hitch if it doesn't already have one. You will be VERY glad you did once you start pulling the trailer.

I wouldn't trade my 120k mile 06 GMC with the LBZ engine for two new half-ton Silverados,or even one new Chevy diesel 4x4. My 06 LBZ 6.6 turbo diesel is the last year with no smog equipment,and I don't have to add a fuel additive to each tank of gas to be able to drive the damn thing more than 20 mph.

BTW,if you shop for a used one,good luck finding a LBZ engine. You can find the ones with the lower power LMM engine easily enough,but do NOT buy one made before 2006. GM had a LOT of problems with their turbo diesels before they got the problems worked out in 2005. Look for a 2005 or 2006 model if you want simplicity,but make sure it either has the original engine in it,or a replacement 05 or newer engine. I thought the difference was important enough that I drove 1000 miles to buy mine in 2010,and have been nothing but happy with it ever since.

BTW,I bought a new F-350 Ford 1 ton with the turbo IHC Diesel in it and 4:11 gears in 1991. It wasn't half the truck my 06 GMC is,but it really opened my eyes to the danger I had been putting myself into using a car or half-ton truck to pull trailers.

A final note is I LOVE the big inline Cummings diesels used in the Dodge trucks. What I don't love is the reputation the Dodge auto-overdrive transmissions had for self-destructing with low miles. I have been told,but don't know this for a fact,that Dodge had this problem worked out and the trans now last good behind the Cummmings,but I don't know this for a fact. I guess you could buy one with a manual transmission,but I suspect you would be sorry. Automatic transmissions are safer and work MUCH better on slick surfaces like rain or snow than manual transmissions,and one thing you will not want to do is screw up and choke the engine off with clumsy clutch usage while taking off uphill pulling a trailer. Almost forgot. 3/4 and 1 ton pu's usually seem to have "slower" steering boxes than half-ton trucks. IMHO,this is one thing that makes them a pleasure to drive at or above highway speed on 4 lanes,but it also makes them a major pain in the ass trying to park one in a parking spot,back into a trailer space,etc,etc,etc. The turning radius is much larger,which means more "back up,pull ahead,back up,pull ahead" nonsense. One more factoid that favors an auto trans.