Electric Vehicles [BEVs] [FinallyADedicatedThread]

[Zaxxon]

Think it's time to call it. The days of DCFC units[in the US] without at least including NACS are soon to be over.

ChargePoint is in, too.

Now it's official: NACS is the standard.

[GreenGoo]

All wheel drive means you can drive much faster in the snow before finding out you can't stop. You have increased traction. It's the abs that does the magic.

Yes, I understand that. If I wrote something that implied otherwise, it was an oversight.

edit: Wife got to work safely. She said "Snow mode rocks!".

So I guess that's it.

[Kasey Chang]

Regular cars almost always come with all seasons except certain exotics or premium sports cars.

But there's also all weather tires (not the same as all season) as well as winter tires.

If you live in the area with months long snow season, please invest in 4 rims with mounted winter/snow tires, and have equipment to put them on yourself. The difference between all season and winter/snow tires are VERY noticeable in anything above light snow.

[Default]

Got my first bill and paid off the principal a month before the first payment was due. Take THAT, Gm Financial!

[Default]

Also had issues with the supplied charger. Turned out the switchable pigtail socket on the charger itself had a thin film of some type of grease or oil. I sprayed the contacts with CRC contact cleaner and it connected with no issues. Now it's charging at 12 amps and everything is peachy-dory.

[stessier]

I swear we talked about it somewhere, but I can't find it. Ford recalled their Tesla adapters earlier this year as they might fuse the contacts or catch fire (as I recall). I got the replacement today so I'm back to having access to Superchargers. Woo-hoo. Of course, I haven't left the city in about a year, so it's more academic than necessary, but still a "nice to have."

I still haven't gotten the Bolt software update to allow Supercharging.

[GreenGoo]

Canada has run out of money. No more Federal rebates.

Got in just under the wire.

[stessier]

I had to rent a car as part of my current business trip. It has been almost two years since I'd driven a gas car. Gas cars suck. That is all.

[Zaxxon]

So say we all.

[Unagi]

I had to rent a car as part of my current business trip. It has been almost two years since I'd driven a gas car. Gas cars suck. That is all.

It's actually just the fuel pump that sucks, but yeah.

[stessier]

Do not miss pumping gas in 0F weather. Heading home today to the glory of using electric fields to spin a motor.

[Default]

I'm in Tejas for at least a month more, and I miss the on-demand torque.
Also, why does every auto manufacturer perform exactly the same function in wildly different ways? I've been in three separate rental cars, and each one is a frickin' learning curve.
I don't want a manual as much as a flowchart.

[mori]

If anyone is in the market for one of the ultra expensive EVs, this video may interest you. I am just curious enough about the Dodge Charger EV to look into it a bit further, but everything I heard is that the size is huge, and it's crap.

[GreenGoo]

In Canada (and Northern states, probably) it is common to lift your windshield wipers to scrape out snow and ice that accumulates around them. I have since learned that doing that causes the wiper arms on my EV6 to grind against the edge of the hood, scraping paint all along the contact points.

So I have bare metal showing through my paint along the edge of my hood nearest the windshield. Is that because of what I did? Definitely. Am I shocked and angry? Yes.

I'm sure they had/have some awesome and clever plan in place for moving the wipers, overriding the behaviour of wipers on cars for the last half century or so. However, they failed to tell me what it is. If I had let the wipers turn half a rotation and then stopped them, I probably could have avoided the issue.

So now I have to figure out a fix for this, knowing that anything I do will not stop the rust from accumulating faster there than anywhere else on the car.

[Isgrimnur]

Dealer can probably provide a pint of touch up paint.

[GreenGoo]

Dealer can probably provide a pint of touch up paint.

Yes, I would hope so. bringing it in for a recall, so I already have an appointment. Will bring it up then.

[naednek]

In Canada (and Northern states, probably) it is common to lift your windshield wipers to scrape out snow and ice that accumulates around them. I have since learned that doing that causes the wiper arms on my EV6 to grind against the edge of the hood, scraping paint all along the contact points.

So I have bare metal showing through my paint along the edge of my hood nearest the windshield. Is that because of what I did? Definitely. Am I shocked and angry? Yes.

I'm sure they had/have some awesome and clever plan in place for moving the wipers, overriding the behaviour of wipers on cars for the last half century or so. However, they failed to tell me what it is. If I had let the wipers turn half a rotation and then stopped them, I probably could have avoided the issue.

So now I have to figure out a fix for this, knowing that anything I do will not stop the rust from accumulating faster there than anywhere else on the car.

My Kia telluride does this. There's some sort of mechinism that involves the push start where you press and it raises or adjusts the wipers so it doesn't scrape when you need to raise it to replace the blades ( I live in Sacramento with no snow, so no experience with that process)

[GreenGoo]

Thanks. I haven't had a chance to look into it yet, but it seems such a huge issue that I'm fairly confident that there is a solution that I just don't know about yet. Yes, I feel like a dumbass. But not all my anger is directed inwardly. Some. But not all.

[jztemple2]

I don't think this is R&P territory, but it's definitely BEV related: Trump Is Turning Off All 8,000 EV Chargers at All Federal Government Buildings

Electric vehicles are “not mission critical,” said the Trump administration, which has ordered all EV chargers located at federal buildings to be shut down nationwide and newly purchased EVs to be offloaded. This comes on the heels of pausing already-promised EV infrastructure funding.

The U.S. General Services Administration, or GSA, is the federal agency responsible for contracts and procurement as they relate to the government’s real estate, IT, products, and equipment, which includes vehicles. According to The Verge, there are several hundred charging stations managed by the GSA, which amounts to roughly 8,000 charging ports across the country. And they now they’re going to be turned off.

“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA owned charging stations are not mission critical,” said an agency email viewed by The Verge. “Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they’re out of service.”

These EV chargers were available for government-issued EVs as well as those personally owned by federal employees. An internal announcement is scheduled to be made next week. However, some federal offices have already been instructed to take their chargers offline.

[Isgrimnur]

Shades of Reagan removing Carter's solar panels.

[Kraken]

Shades of Reagan removing Carter's solar panels.

Except more substantive than performative this time. Batteries are going to die.

[raydude]

I don't think this is R&P territory, but it's definitely BEV related: Trump Is Turning Off All 8,000 EV Chargers at All Federal Government Buildings

Electric vehicles are “not mission critical,” said the Trump administration, which has ordered all EV chargers located at federal buildings to be shut down nationwide and newly purchased EVs to be offloaded. This comes on the heels of pausing already-promised EV infrastructure funding.

The U.S. General Services Administration, or GSA, is the federal agency responsible for contracts and procurement as they relate to the government’s real estate, IT, products, and equipment, which includes vehicles. According to The Verge, there are several hundred charging stations managed by the GSA, which amounts to roughly 8,000 charging ports across the country. And they now they’re going to be turned off.

“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA owned charging stations are not mission critical,” said an agency email viewed by The Verge. “Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they’re out of service.”

These EV chargers were available for government-issued EVs as well as those personally owned by federal employees. An internal announcement is scheduled to be made next week. However, some federal offices have already been instructed to take their chargers offline.

Initial read on the internet says this is a gift to Leon's Superchargers but I don't see how? I mean, if you already have an EV then I guess you have no choice now but to go to a Supercharger - unless it's inconvenient for your work commute. But if you don't have an EV and were considering one I bet this just turns you of Teslas even more.

[The Meal]

Shades of Reagan removing Carter's solar panels.

[Isgrimnur]

[GreenGoo]

There are plastic pieces as molding on the outside of the rear passenger windows, mostly for show. I can scratch them with my fingernail. I won't be surprised if I'm clearing the snow off the top of my car and the brush scratches those plates at some point. Anyone who has ever cleared the ice and snow off their car in the middle of a snow storm understands that handling your car with kid gloves is not the first priority.

I am also seeing what appears to be oxidation on the brake pedal, which seems to be a steel pedal with extruding rubber pieces for grip. Given that I live in Canada and we use an ungodly amount of salt during the winter, which gets on our boots, which comes into contact with the brake pedal on a regular basis...

These are just observations. It's not like I'm going out of my way to find things to complain about. So far 95% of my issues have nothing to with it being an EV.

[stessier]

Something to be aware of when filling taxes in the US and trying to claim the credit.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/28/nx-s1-53 ... rns-denied

[GreenGoo]

Well, thanks for the moment of sheer terror. I started to wonder if somehow I misunderstood how it worked in Canada. Yes, I know you are talking about the US.

Canada's (now defunct) EV incentive was a point of sale incentive, handled between the government and the dealership with buyer consent. It comes right off the final price, Sales tax etc are applied to the full price before rebate.

I guess it was more of a rebate than tax incentive. Phew.

[stessier]

I added the "in the US" part specifically because I knew you had bought one last year and didn't want to cause concern. Sorry it didn't work.

[GreenGoo]

I added the "in the US" part specifically because I knew you had bought one last year and didn't want to cause concern. Sorry it didn't work.

Thanks for your consideration.

Also, I don't actual know the state of the EV incentive in Canada right now. I know they ran out of money, but does that mean the program is dead? Or just waiting for a new federal budget? No idea.

[Default]

And this is why I bought the car in the first week of December and paid it off in the third.

[Zaxxon]

Got a ride to the airport in an EV6. Enjoyed it!

[GreenGoo]

Got a ride to the airport in an EV6. Enjoyed it!

I like driving the thing, that's for sure.

[Zaxxon]

And I opted to be adventurous and picked a Mach-e rather than a Model Y for the rental this trip. And they didn’t give me a NACS adapter. To the Wild West I go!

[Zaxxon]

Wild West, indeed. Without the NACS capability it’s a different world. Hit a Walgreens on the way out of SF, both EVGo chargers in use. Next stop suggested by the nav was another EVGo, didn’t realize till I arrived that this one didn’t send live status to the nav, and all were out of order. Third try was the charm, an EA station that’s working fine. The car didn’t precondition, though, so I’m only getting 116 kW at 30%.

It’s also a lot more difficult to reroute/ change charging plans on the fly while driving with either the Ford or Apple CarPlay interface, though I’m sure some of that is my novice capability with these systems.

Just a trash experience all around, relatively speaking. Hopefully it improves as we continue our way down the coast.

Long way to go for other manufacturers and their road trip experience/integration.

[Zaxxon]

Update—finished our ~500 mi of road tripping for this trip (we’re now in LA for Disney/Universal, from No Cal). Things did not improve. At our next charging stop all 4 EA stations were in use, with 4 more cars waiting. We skipped Dodge (thankfully had the charge to do so) and hit another charger, but this killed our plan to drive down 1 along the coast. Instead relegated to 101. It wound up being fine, but again 2nd-rate experience without Tesla access.

That rerouted charge went fine, as did our last one on the trip. Topped out around 150 kW, overall performance was lower kW than our 3/X, and the Mach-e used more energy/mi than our much-larger X.

Blue Cruise (which I think is what Ford’s Autopilot-like lane-keeping function is called) was fine, but also a clear step down from AP. It overrode my speed choices at least 100 times, a couple dozen of which were in dangerous ways (eg changing 80 to 45 or 50 on highways). When BlueCruise decides to disengage for whatever reason (most of which seemed to be for light lane markings or light rain), it emits a barely-audible-if-music-is-playing ‘ding’ and just… stops. This happened at least 20 times. Seems much more dangerous than AP’s in-your-face (and much less frequent) disengagement method.

Overall, I like the car as an around-towner, but was unpleasantly surprised at how far behind Tesla the overall road-tripping/charging/software experience still remains.