What did you do today non-detailing related?

Then you have the 3 Bears store near my old house in Chugiak that has EIGHT Tesla only chargers and 4 more chargers (2 of one kind and 2 of another, not sure what that is all about)

I wasn't aware that Tesla required a different style charger than other electric vehicles. That's just asinine. They should all be standardized. Could you imagine if BMW or Lexus required a different gasoline nozzle for their internal combustion engines.
Unless of course Tesla is paying 100 % of the cost to build and maintain these charging stations.
That is just another issue that has EVs a long way from becoming main stream.

Speaking of Electric vehicles. Here in Pittsburgh there is a race every July at a city park. It's called the Vintage Grand Prix. It is an excellent event with open wheel cars, Mini Coopers, Jaguars, Austin Healys, Volvo, Datsun racing around the curvy, hilly roads that course through the park. Just about every vintage sports car you can imagine. There is also a huge car show with thousands of cars and every year they pick a different brand for the feature brand. Last year the feature brand was Ferrari. There were approx one hundred Ferraris in attendance. And right there with them was a brand new 2024 Ferrari that was all electric. Never thought I would see that.
 
I wasn't aware that Tesla required a different style charger than other electric vehicles. That's just asinine. They should all be standardized. Could you imagine if BMW or Lexus required a different gasoline nozzle for their internal combustion engines.
Unless of course Tesla is paying 100 % of the cost to build and maintain these charging stations.
That is just another issue that has EVs a long way from becoming main stream.

Speaking of Electric vehicles. Here in Pittsburgh there is a race every July at a city park. It's called the Vintage Grand Prix. It is an excellent event with open wheel cars, Mini Coopers, Jaguars, Austin Healys, Volvo, Datsun racing around the curvy, hilly roads that course through the park. Just about every vintage sports car you can imagine. There is also a huge car show with thousands of cars and every year they pick a different brand for the feature brand. Last year the feature brand was Ferrari. There were approx one hundred Ferraris in attendance. And right there with them was a brand new 2024 Ferrari that was all electric. Never thought I would see that.
Tesla uses a faster more efficient charger with an entirely different "nozzle" (connector) and requires adapters for the other standard connectors, and I believe there are 2 other connector types

Much like the little plastic step down gizmo we had to put on leaded gas nozzles to fit the smaller unleaded opening to the tank

I thought I had a picture of this enormous row of chargers in my old neighborhood but I cant find it

Tesla chargers are clearly marked with the logo and these even have a placard saying "For Teslas Only"
 

Really good breakdown on the charger types, voltages, etc

As you can see, it can get complicated

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So I found these picture of the setup at my old neighborhood

8 Tesla chargers, 2 other "fast chargers" and the 2 others that I have no idea what they are

Now this is a small grocery store just off the highway and next to a Shell station

Kind of overkill to me but what do I know
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Back in 2018 I was working in Savanah Georgia for about 6 weeks. Was staying at a staybridge hotel. I elected to drive down there in my 2005 Buick LeSabre Limited.
After being there about a month the LeSabre was getting kind of dirty. So I started eyeing up these garden hoses I was seeing at the hotel across the street. One day I decided to go for it. I was going to drive over to the other hotel and use their hose to wash my car. I figured the worst they could do is kick me out.
When I went to use their hose i discovered they weren't garden hoses at all but electric charging stations. Was the first time I saw that at a hotel. Had to take it to a self service car wash. That's the only car wash I've been to since the early 80s.
Man that Buick was a nice car. I sold it to my son when i bought my Mustang and he sold it 6 or 7 months ago to someone else.
 
They're currently putting 2 or 3 chargers in at my local shopping centre, right at the back of the carpark, I wonder if there will be grumbling about walking an extra 150 metres. I like to park back there anyway, impatient idiots always park out the front.
 
plug in hybrids probably make sense for most people. could drive on electric for short trips and your commute if it isn't too far. beyond that, it's just a hybrid.

we had a plug-in hybrid SUV as a rental in Montana. it was nice but never found a place to plug it in. fortunately, they don't require you return it with a full gas tank and a full battery (which wasn't full when we got it).
 
plug in hybrids probably make sense for most people. could drive on electric for short trips and your commute if it isn't too far. beyond that, it's just a hybrid.

we had a plug-in hybrid SUV as a rental in Montana. it was nice but never found a place to plug it in. fortunately, they don't require you return it with a full gas tank and a full battery (which wasn't full when we got it).
The Lexus UX (Urban Crossover) Hybrid is designed to (advertised to) get better mileage around town than on the highway by virtue of all the coasting, braking, etc that work to keep the battery charged, vs highway where the gas engine is running 90% of the time

That hasn't been my experience, getting 42-45 mpg running errands vs 45 to close to 50 mpg on road trips, but my errand trips also include 55 mph speeds interspersed with around town speeds so there is no telling

I have switched it to EV mode a few times and there is no way I can come close to the distances a Tesla can get in straight EV

I haven't ever sat down and done the money maths on filling with gas vs "filling" at a charger

My daughter got a Tesla as a rental last year in LA and I asked her to keep track of her expenses when they charged it and it shocked me how much it cost them to fill it up, but then gas there is $3 a gallon higher than Alaska so it's really an apples to oranges comparison

All I know is I can go well over 400 miles, closer to 450, in each of the Hybrids and fill the 10.5 gallon tank in the UX and the 17 Gallon tank in the TX and I don't have to say ouch when I am done
 
The Lexus UX (Urban Crossover) Hybrid is designed to (advertised to) get better mileage around town than on the highway by virtue of all the coasting, braking, etc that work to keep the battery charged, vs highway where the gas engine is running 90% of the time

That hasn't been my experience, getting 42-45 mpg running errands vs 45 to close to 50 mpg on road trips, but my errand trips also include 55 mph speeds interspersed with around town speeds so there is no telling

I have switched it to EV mode a few times and there is no way I can come close to the distances a Tesla can get in straight EV

I haven't ever sat down and done the money maths on filling with gas vs "filling" at a charger

My daughter got a Tesla as a rental last year in LA and I asked her to keep track of her expenses when they charged it and it shocked me how much it cost them to fill it up, but then gas there is $3 a gallon higher than Alaska so it's really an apples to oranges comparison

All I know is I can go well over 400 miles, closer to 450, in each of the Hybrids and fill the 10.5 gallon tank in the UX and the 17 Gallon tank in the TX and I don't have to say ouch when I am done

From what I remember reading on fast charger rates, it's not gonna be a huge money saver if you're doing that on long trips.
 
From what I remember reading on fast charger rates, it's not gonna be a huge money saver if you're doing that on long trips.

I had never given any thought to the dollar rates being different for the different chargers but I guess it stands to reason

Maybe I’ll do some rate checking around here, just out of curiosity
 
The thing I don't like, and this is from what I've heard, not from personal experience, is all these different chargers require their own apps, all linked to payment methods. You can't just plug in and swipe a card, or heaven forbid, pay cash. You have to give them email addresses, number plate I guess, I don't know what else.
 
I get the same pleasure firing up a chainsaw as I do firing up my pressure washer! Obviously, the pressure washer gets used quite a bit more often than a saw, so its always a fun moment when I get to chop something up! Saw of choice today, my 38-year old Stihl 028AV Super.



Try doing this with your fancy dual cab.............................

 
From what I remember reading on fast charger rates, it's not gonna be a huge money saver if you're doing that on long trips.
Finding the cost of charging on line is not easy

As stated earlier there are LOTS of companies offering charging stations and each has their own pricing structure

Below are screen shots from the 2 that I could actually find that listed pricing, although the pricing from the Tesla website only shows non Tesla rates, which seems odd

I have to assume if you have a Tesla you are in the club and get an app and a secret handshake and us mere mortals don't get to play

For the others, I guess prices fluctuate just like the price of gas so they don't want to publish prices

IDK

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And by the way, the Tesla charging station in the pics I posted previously is the ONLY Tesla station in the entire state of Alaska, and it is 20 miles outside of Anchorage, which just seems odd


🤔
 
So that first one is $1.75 an hour? And that's a 7.4kW charger, so that's 24 cents a kWh, which I guess is perhaps an expected markup, of course that's if you actually get the 7.4 kWh throughput. But the Tesla at 55 cents a kWh?? My home electric rate is a little over 14 cents/kWh.

PS I see Tesla really wants you off that charger when you're done--up to $1/minute. And yes, from what I have heard, secret handshake for the Tesla owners.
 
There was a story on the news here several months ago about a local guy. He and his wife each had a vehicle. I believe his was a 2011 ( or so) Chevrolet Volt which is all electric. His wife has the same era Toyota Camry. Both vehicles had about 70K on the odometer.
He had calculated that the Camry they were into $20K to operate it to that point. The Chevy Volt he was at $5K to operate to a similar point.
Now this guy had solar on his house so he was charging for free. So that does not include the cost of the solar which is pricey.
 
So that first one is $1.75 an hour? And that's a 7.4kW charger, so that's 24 cents a kWh, which I guess is perhaps an expected markup, of course that's if you actually get the 7.4 kWh throughput. But the Tesla at 55 cents a kWh?? My home electric rate is a little over 14 cents/kWh.

PS I see Tesla really wants you off that charger when you're done--up to $1/minute. And yes, from what I have heard, secret handshake for the Tesla owners.
Yeah, that penalty for not getting the hell off their lawn is steep

So much for parking, hooking up, and wandering around the market where the "pumps" are located while you gas up

I am sure their secret decoder app would ping you when it was charged but you probably wouldn't want to walk away from your shopping and go move your car, especially in winter

It's kind of humorous but on the Tesla website in the charging section it shows someone playing a driving game on the nav screen with a hand controller while they wait for their car to charge

I guess if it is SoCal or Phoenix in July and you can leave your car "running" with the AC on while you charge, that might be ok

IDK, there is a whole lot about the EV lifestyle that eludes me
 
IDK, there is a whole lot about the EV lifestyle that eludes me
Yeah, but an overnight charge in your garage on a Level 2 charger gets you out of that lifestyle, under most circumstances.

I'm curious what happens in a wet snowstorm, when even all that waste heat from your ICE won't melt the snow. And how much running the heat in an EV lops off your range. Not sure if the A/C is the same or not.
 
I was just looking at new gmc pickups on the world wide web, and they have self driving assist tech now with a bunch of cameras and sensors for keeping you between the lines? How lazy they are making humans

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