cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/electricvehicles/p/2162853/usa-slate-s-new-electric-truck-will-cost-slightly-more-than-24950
Range is said to be 205 mi (330 km), higher than the original estimate. This price is for the basic truck. The SUV configuration is expected to be $5000 more.
My obsession isn’t with range, it’s with charge time. Yes I’m a bit irrational wanting a fully charged car every morning but that may not happen with a lower battery efficiency using a level 1 charger. I’m sure you’d appreciate better range efficiency like any gas car user would want better MPG.
Even with high efficiencies, you are going to have troubles with a level 1 charger. Level 2 charging is 5 times faster and still takes a long time to fill a battery. The most efficient consumer EV, the Kona, only charges at 6 miles per hour of level 1 charging. Yeah, you can get 80 miles of charge leaving your car charging overnight, but it completely limits any flexibility in using your car outside of commuting. I should know, I tried to do level 1 charging with a 90 mile range car for a couple months. It sucked, so I got a level 2 charger installed. After that, the 90mi range was fine for 3 years.
The shorter your range the more important fast charge is. My car with a 200 mile range is almost(!) always fine on level 1 since I so rarely use make so many trips in a row that it would empty the battery. My wife’s phev with only 30 miles of range is always at near 0% when she gets home and she (like most people) is likley to be making another trip soon so level 2 is a must. (of course it could switch to gas it isn’t charged, but gas is several times more expensive so we try to use gas for long trips only)
Yeah, 120v15a is a pain. At least see about rewiring an outlet for 220v 15a. An electrician can often do it cheaply because its the same wires. Then you can get most of a full charge between commutes.
In almost all cases your 120V15A outlet has other outlets on the circuit and so it cannot be rewired that cheap. In almost all cases it is really 120V 20A though, so you can set your level 1 charger to a slightly faster rate since odds are nothing else is running on that circuit (but good luck finding a charger that supports that faster level 1 rate).