EV lots getting cleaned out.

[Brons2]

My personal observation (of people I know and seen) is that the stereotypical EV owner is a pretty nerdy guy who gets into using apps for everything and gets a kick out of the extra planning and strategy required to get from A to B in an EV. OTOH someone like my wife would go into a panic if she had to plan out when and where to charge using an app on long trips, and she would forget to do it until some alarm went off. It would add a lot of stress for her.

There is some truth to this. I definitely lean into the geekery and have all the apps. This despite the fact we usually fly if we're going somewhere beyond 3 hours away, i.e., Dallas or Houston. We have driven my Lightning to South Padre, that's probably about the farthest we'd go that isn't on a plane, it's about 400 miles each way. We plan the charging stops around meals and shopping so that we minimize the time sink.

My wife loves her EV and only has ever charged at home. I do keep an NACS adapter in her car so she could Tesla charge if she had to. But she never has.

 

[Brons2]

The Tesla route planner is really good. Having said that, and after almost 8 years of EV ownership, I still have range anxiety. But I am getting better. I will say the one thing people may not understand is, stopping to charge can be a great experience. Ya never know; I like to learn new things. Who'da thunk it?

I only have range anxiety about my parents, they just did their 5th EV trip out to the West Coast in their ID.4 and they made some questionable route decisions. My mom was not questioning ABRP and I'm telling her, this app is only a resource and you have to make the final call. Just like the paper map era. They spent the night in Kettleman City and I told them to go through Tehatchapi Pass and on to I-40 to minimize the Mojave desert exposure. But no, they drove down to Indio on a really weird routing and then decided, oh it's 109 down here and we're going back to I-40! Then I recommended a route to get them to the EA in Needles from Indio and they disregarded me again. These 70 somethings are like teenagers sometimes.

But it all worked out and they're back home in Central Texas as of yesterday.

 

[AuthorEditor]

My wife and I are spontaneous travelers. We've decided to visit Florida and left within a few hours to drive overnight and arrive the next day, 1200 miles away. We'll just pop off to Maine for Thanksgiving, 6-8 hours away, or down to Philly, 5-6 hours. Or out to Michigan, about 750 miles. No planning, just go. Planning for charging stops, waiting around, is just not in our nature. Going is the fun, not the planning.

 

[Brons2]

this is the latest news I could find on your post
Roughly 25% of people who own electric vehicles would go back to gasoline

I didn’t include the link from 2024 that says 46% would go back to gasoline because I still consider EV’s in their infancy

https://www.spglobal.com/automotive...vehicle-owners-migrating-to-gasoline-vehicles

https://electrek.co/2026/03/27/used-ev-sales-boom-new-ev-sales-drop-28-percent-q1-2026/

I wouldn't mind having an older gas truck as a tow pig. But I'd have an EV as my daily and the tow pig would get driven less than 3,000 miles a year.

You can get two Docan Pandas for ~8,700 Canadian. That would equal 64 kW and would cover the bulk of your daily usage. What would the savings look like if you combined that with a discount off-peak rate? Technically with the off-peak you would only need enough battery to cover your daytime consumption.

what about a real panda? how much are those? Do they make good pets?

 

[jghall00]

what about a real panda? how much are those? Do they make good pets?

They don't even make good animals. They're notoriously poor at parenting and their diets are excessively restrictive. They also are notoriously bad at reproduction, even in captivity.

But Docan's stuff is good.

 

[demarpaint]

My wife and I are spontaneous travelers. We've decided to visit Florida and left within a few hours to drive overnight and arrive the next day, 1200 miles away. We'll just pop off to Maine for Thanksgiving, 6-8 hours away, or down to Philly, 5-6 hours. Or out to Michigan, about 750 miles. No planning, just go. Planning for charging stops, waiting around, is just not in our nature. Going is the fun, not the planning.

That's how we are! If the car needs gas due to spontaneous planning there are several gas stations open 24 hours within a mile of us, and less than a mile from the parkway off of L.I. No drama, no thinking about where to charge or when, just get in the car and go. Then if we need gas on the road, we pull in and can be back on our way in 5 minutes or less, or grab a bite if we feel the need.

 

[Brons2]

My wife and I are spontaneous travelers. We've decided to visit Florida and left within a few hours to drive overnight and arrive the next day, 1200 miles away. We'll just pop off to Maine for Thanksgiving, 6-8 hours away, or down to Philly, 5-6 hours. Or out to Michigan, about 750 miles. No planning, just go. Planning for charging stops, waiting around, is just not in our nature. Going is the fun, not the planning.

I would have hated to see you out West back in the gas crisis era. Planning gas stops was mandatory. Our station wagon got 10-12 mpg and had a 20 gallon tank. You had to pick backup stops because there wasn't a guarantee that the station you arrived at would have gas. Dad would stop and fill up with half a tank just to be safe.

Seen plenty of signs in my youth "next gas 80 - 100 - 120 miles". Used to even be one on I40, up until the early 90s there was a 70 mile stretch with no gas stations coming into Needles, CA in the Mojave.

Even as late as 2014 I was forced to stop in Newberry Springs,CA because I wasn't sure I was going to make it to Barstow with the gas I had. Cost me $4.40 a gallon at a time gas was about $2 in Texas where I started from.

Any rate, you're making this out to be a bigger issue than it actually is. I always have my cars plugged in at home, could leave somewhere no problem, and Google Maps will suggest charging stops as long as I am navigating somewhere. I haven't not used Google Maps in years because I don't like running into unexpected traffic. Even when I had gas cars I always used it.

Yes I geek out on the planning, but it really isn't necessary. I just like things optimal on road trips.

 

[Brons2]

They don't even make good animals. They're notoriously poor at parenting and their diets are excessively restrictive. They also are notoriously bad at reproduction, even in captivity.

But Docan's stuff is good.

I kind of like the inverter integration with the EG4 Delta stuff and their smart panel.

OTOH, I like that I can pick these up in person in Houston. Maybe I can plug them into the Lightning on the way home

 

[jghall00]

I kind of like the inverter integration with the EG4 Delta stuff and their smart panel.

OTOH, I like that I can pick these up in person in Houston. Maybe I can plug them into the Lightning on the way home

I picked up my cells from the warehouse. Just rolled on over, loaded up my Expedition and drove home with the goods. It helps that it's only 35 minutes away.

 

[Brons2]

I picked up my cells from the warehouse. Just rolled on over, loaded up my Expedition and drove home with the goods. It helps that it's only 35 minutes away.

It's about 3 hours down to Yewstun for me but doable in a day. Can probably make it on 1 charging stop if I drive conservatively. If I drive 85 it's gonna take two.

 

[OVERKILL]

Did you factor in the Ontario tax credit?

The battery is Chinese, but all the commercially sold residential batteries are Chinese. We don't have much in the way of domestic manufacturing for LFP cells.

I configured a portable 13kW generator to provide power for long-duration outages, but my battery storage is sized to get me through a single day. We get many small interruptions lasting from seconds to hours in my area, so its saves me the trouble of hooking up my generator for short outages. I also value not having to reset clocks and my free nights plan provides substantial savings.

No, I haven't checked whether a battery (without solar) is eligible. But realistically, most people are not going to be looking at this custom system you and I just assembled here, they'll be looking at something turn-key like the Powerwall, which is why that was the first option I mentioned.

We rarely get interruptions, but all my critical loads are on UPS's. If we do get an outage, it's often a longer duration thing, as a result of inclement weather. The last one was approximately a week, and I ended up with a new panel as my stack was ripped clear off the side of my house and this damaged the inside of my fuse box. The electrician was quick to fix it, and with the Generlink, I was able to run the whole house comfortably until service was restored.

We've had a few outages of that scale, the previous one was caused by a derecho and trees were down everywhere, so also took days to get service back. Did not have the generlink then, and that was extension cord hell, trying to run things. My hot water tank refused to run on an extension cord too (but works fine with the same generator on a Generlink...) so we were showering at my work.

Given the interruption frequency you describe, it sounds like a battery is a reasonable purchase for you, made further beneficial by your plan.