The Weekend Drive and Charging

Will I be that Turkey on the Thanksgiving road trip?

Going on a road trip usually means throwing your family and stuff in the car and off you go. Doing it in an EV, notably on the most likely busiest travel day of the year, means at least some semblance of planning. You could rely on the in-car navigation system, but should you? Is this all boomer-friendly or even consumer-friendly? Will this Boomer be the family turkey? We also discuss some other fun stuff this week. Some links below. The Out of Spec team undertakes a road race in three row EVs from the top of US Route 1 in Maine to the end of it in Key West, Florida. Look forward to the videos. Link here. [https://www.youtube.com/@OutofSpecMotoring] Did a test drive in a Tesla Model 3. What did I think about FSD (Full Supervised Driving)? Link here [https://www.tesla.com/fsd]. Could I get a Comma 4 (3x) [https://comma.ai/] or a Konik AI [https://konik.ai/] system for my Ioniq 5? Not sure, but not for the faint of heart.

Charge and Chargeability

(No apologies to Jane Austen) Definitely an "OK Boomer" episode, but there are signs things are getting better. Electric-vehicle fast charging can be a headache for drivers because the reliability of public charging hardware is still catching up to the growing number of EVs on the road. Many stations suffer from broken or weather-damaged screens that make it hard—or impossible—to start a charging session or follow on-screen instructions. When the display is unreadable or unresponsive, even experienced drivers can’t tell whether the charger is available, what steps to take, or how much they’ll pay. These issues are especially frustrating on long trips, where drivers rely on fast chargers to stay on schedule and have fewer alternatives if a station isn’t working correctly. Payment systems are another frequent pain point. Non-functioning credit-card readers, unreliable tap-to-pay modules, or apps that fail to connect leave drivers stuck in limbo, forced to retry multiple times or move to another stall. Add to that the occasional faulty cables, chargers delivering far below their advertised speed, or stations that are offline entirely, and the experience can feel more like trial-and-error than convenient refueling. While the situation is improving as networks upgrade equipment and adopt common standards, today’s fast charging infrastructure can still test a driver’s patience.

The Topsy Turvy World of EV's

Unexpectedly acquired a second electric vehicle, and it is a fun one. Nippy, small, and I can see why folks love the Chevy Bolt. The EV world has been turned upside down recently with the loss of the tax credit, some models being suspended, prices falling, and manufacturers no longer bringing specific models to the US market. Short and sweet is how I want these podcast episodes to be. Commercial-free too.

A Double Dose of Anxiety? Range and Charger?

Today we take a quick look at how much charging has improved over the last year, how both range and charger anxiety is a real thing but time will heal that wound. Love to hear from you, email rick@evboomer.com [rick@evboomer.com]

The Weekend Drive and Charging

Being a brand new podcast is a strange place to be, so here we go. Holiday weekend over here, so how did we almost get hit by idle fee's at Buc-ee's and how a co-worker was adamant that he was going to have his own DC fast charger at home! We reference the following YouTube channels this week. Well worth a visit. State of Charge [https://www.youtube.com/@StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney] - Tom freezes and cooks chargers so you don't have to! The Network Architect Channel [https://www.youtube.com/@thenetworkarchitectchannel]- Fascinating insight to the EV charger expansion every week.