Two Questions on EVs

[Ms.Minnie]

1- For those who have EVs and have traveled to WDW and parked in a WDW resort parking lot, were you able to charge you vehicle? If I were to drive to WDW and staying for three weeks at a DVC resort but not using/moving my EV during that time, would it still have power if there were NO charging station at the resort? If I didn't have any power, what would I do?

2- With the very cold weather a good portion of our country and Canada are now experiencing I'm wondering how EVs are working out. Please supply your experiences.

DH and I are gathering information for a new car purchase in 2024. Thanks for any and all information you can supply.

 

[tvguy]

My son and DIL are on their third EV. They love them, for them, it is the perfect car, BUT their second car has always been a ICE for two reasons. They don't have the money to buy a second EV, and the charging networks for non-Tesla vehicles are a little thin.
They have a VW ID4 with a range of 275 miles, and it is their primary car. They live in Los Angeles and most of their trips are less than 30 miles (they both work from home). But my son rarely keeps the car more than 80% charged, because apparently the battery will last a lot longer not being fully charged all the time. But when my son went on a 300 mile round trip trip he took the ICE because the charging network seemed a little thin where he was going, and just buying gasoline was easier. And after he got to San Diego, he found a lot of the charging stations were out of order so he would have had an issue.
Tesla has done a better job with their exclusive network of chargers. I travel Sacramento to Los Angeles frequently on I-5 and Tesla put 100 chargers at Harris Ranch. That is about the half way point between Sacramento/San Francisco and Los Angeles and you see a TON of Teslas on I-5.
Can't speak to Disney. For my wife and I we found a Hybrid to be a better option for us.

 

[Ms.Minnie]

My son and DIL are on their third EV. They love them, for them, it is the perfect car, BUT their second car has always been a ICE for two reasons. They don't have the money to buy a second EV, and the charging networks for non-Tesla vehicles are a little thin.
They have a VW ID4 with a range of 275 miles, and it is their primary car. They live in Los Angeles and most of their trips are less than 30 miles (they both work from home). But my son rarely keeps the car more than 80% charged, because apparently the battery will last a lot longer not being fully charged all the time. But when my son went on a 300 mile round trip trip he took the ICE because the charging network seemed a little thin where he was going, and just buying gasoline was easier. And after he got to San Diego, he found a lot of the charging stations were out of order so he would have had an issue.
Tesla has done a better job with their exclusive network of chargers. I travel Sacramento to Los Angeles frequently on I-5 and Tesla put 100 chargers at Harris Ranch. That is about the half way point between Sacramento/San Francisco and Los Angeles and you see a TON of Teslas on I-5.
Can't speak to Disney. For my wife and I we found a Hybrid to be a better option for us.

Thanks for your reply. I think it would be in the best interest for the future of EVs if they all used the same type of charging system. Meaning there shouldn't be one system for Tesla and another for all the rest. Maybe this is the way it is currently set up, I'm not sure as I'm just starting to seriously gather information.

 

[dvcgirl67]

We've had a Tesla Y for three years and I love having an EV. It's the most fun I've ever had driving a vehicle...it's super fast and responsive. I absolutely love the convenience of it. We live in NJ, and so it's cold and our charger is actually attached to the outside of my house as we have no garage and we've never had a problem with that part of it. You will use the heater obviously, and that affects your range. I drive locally for my business and put around 50 miles on it per day. I charge it up to 80% which is around 270 miles and plug it in around ever 3-4 days.

Obviously you need to take how you use the car into account, but if you're driving within 50 miles of home and have a charger at your house, you'd be fine. Can't help you with chargers at WDW or on the road anywhere quite frankly. We haven't taken the Tesla on a road trip. I'd be pretty confident with a Tesla though as they have a pretty reliable charging network around the country.

There's no maintenance for the most part, except changing an air filter every two years and rotating the tires. I will say you go through tires more quickly as EVs are pretty heavy, so you do need to take that into account.

 

[robinb]

I have a 2018 Honda Clarity which is an electric hybrid. I have a battery that can go about 30-40 miles depending on the temperature plus a 7-gallon gas tank. My combination range is about 300 miles. I have been waiting to get an all EV until the technology matured a bit more since I have had problems finding charging stations on the road for my J1772 connector. Luckily, I can drive my car as an ICE Hybrid so I've driven it from WI to CT twice. Now that it seems that the North American Charging Standard (aka the Tesla Standard) is in place, we may consider a full EV for our next car. It won't be a Tesla though because of my complete and long time dislike for Elon Musk.

 

[Mle8308]

Here is a link to a prior post about EV's at WDW. EV at WDW/Charging

 

[tvguy]

Thanks for your reply. I think it would be in the best interest for the future of EVs if they all used the same type of charging system. Meaning there shouldn't be one system for Tesla and another for all the rest. Maybe this is the way it is currently set up, I'm not sure as I'm just starting to seriously gather information.

Yes, universal charging, fast charging and more range would be huge improvements for EVs.
I have to admit, the thing I love about our hybrid is being able to drive 400 miles to our son's house and not needing to stop for fuel. Now if I could just figure out a way not to have to stop at every Rest Stop!

 

[kdonnel]

I have driven to Orlando twice with my EV. I have also taken several other roadtrips, all without any real issues.

Neither time did I count on L2 charging at WDW or WDW resorts.

I planned on using DCFC in Orlando, specifically the DCFC at Celebration. While charging we had a good dinner at one of the restaurants.

One trip I got lucky and was able to use an L2 charger at the hotel, the other trip I only used DCFC.

As for the cold, it does not really get that cold where I live and I see about a 20% drop in range when it is cold, 30-50 degrees fahrenheit. It can be a problem if you live somewhere really cold and need a majority of the range of the car every day. I think that works out to a small number of people. My car has a real world highway range of 280 and urban driving range of 340 in the summer. So more like 224 and 272 in the winter.

That range drop does not matter for me since I never normally drive that much in a single day unless on a trip. If I am on a trip I am already planning to charge.

As for an EV sitting and losing charge, that depends on the EV. My car, a Ford Mustang Mach e, can sit for months and might lose 1% in that time. Other EVs like Tesla and Rivian have options that can be turned on that keep the exterior cameras recording while the car sits idle. This can use 10% or more of the battery per day. The user should remember to turn off those features if the car is going to sit and they don't want the range to be impacted.

 

[_19disnA]

Several recent threads about EV rentals. Here is one also talking about experiences @ Disney. Even those who OWN an EV do NOT suggest renting one in an area you aren't familiar with. Too many things can go wrong.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/rental-car-electric.3933909/#post-65148500

Since there are no national charging standards, just because you might find a working/available charging station doesn't mean it will be compatible with your car. It would be a bit like having gas stations that only sell gas for a certain brand of vehicle, which clearly would make NO sense. Hertz also recently announced they are getting rid of a number of their EV's (not sure if all or most), but if it were profitable for them, they would keep using them.

The hype around EV's has outrun the charging infrastructure. They still take too long to charge and have too little range for most people. That is probably why sales have slowed compared to the original projections for all car companies. Some say they are great as a commuter car around town for short trips, but if you EVER plan to drive long distances, you get into all sorts of other issues.

 

[kdonnel]

The hype around EV's has outrun the charging infrastructure. They still take too long to charge and have too little range for most people. That is probably why sales have slowed compared to the original projections for all car companies. Some say they are great as a commuter car around town for short trips, but if you EVER plan to drive long distances, you get into all sorts of other issues.

Charging an EV is a not as big a problem as most think or the media likes to report. With just a little planning an EV road trip can be simple.

My family has been 100% EV for almost 2 years. Not once have I been unable to charge when I needed to charge. Not once did I arrive at a charging station and have to wait. I have had to switch from one dispenser to another at the station because the first one I plugged into didn't work but that is the extent of my problems in 50-60 DCFC sessions.

 

[tvguy]

Charging an EV is a not as big a problem as most think or the media likes to report. With just a little planning an EV road trip and be simple.

My family has been 100% EV for almost 2 years. Not once have I been unable to charge when I needed to charge. Not once did I arrive at a charging station and have to wait. I have had to switch from one dispenser to another at the station because the first one I plugged into didn't work but that is the extent of my problems in 50-60 DCFC sessions.

My son and his wife have had an electric car for just over 6 years. First was a 2016 Fiat500e with a range of only 84 miles, but it was perfect for my DIL as her commute was only 10 miles round trip. Their second was a 2020 Hyundai Kona with an advertised range of 258 miles. They could never get more than about 125 miles range, and that was the subject of a recall....and ultimately Hyundai stepped up because the dealer couldn't fix it and bought it back. Their ID4 has a range of about 258 miles but they have only taken one long car trip since they bought it 2 1/2 years ago and elected to use their gas VW Jetta instead, partly because of charging concerns, and partly because it was just easier not to have to movie the child safety seats from the ID4 to the Jetta.

 

[dizneegirl]

We have a Tesla X and a 3... been EV exclusive for about 6 years. We've driven OH to Disney probably a dozen times, maybe more, in that time. We've only used the Tesla superchargers during the trips... the cars will map out your route, telling you when and where to stop, and how long you'll need to charge.

The route has at least double the amount of chargers it did when we started... much easier to get to one now, and the newer chargers are much faster.

At Disney, there are Tesla superchargers near the parks, outside Disney property. We charge up there every few days if we're driving around. We leave Sentry Mode on the cars when we park... that will use battery.

We live in a cold climate. Using the car heater will definitely use battery faster, but there are ways to minimize it. We use the seat heaters to keep warm, and save using the cabin heat for keeping windows clear on long trips or use it if we're just running around town for short trips. The new cars have a much more efficient heating system than ours, though.

We drove OH to IL last year when it was 0 degrees. We had to charge a bit more enroute to make up for the temps. But the X worked like a champ... no issues with starting, performance, etc.

We've road-tripped to Boca Chica, TX, no problem with charging along the route.

I can't speak to outside of the Tesla network, though. I'd imagine it would be more difficult to go long distances. We have seen more and more ChargePoint and EV-GO chargers near the Tesla chargers lately. Saw a set of Rivian chargers today for the first time.

 

[bcla]

Their official parking info seems like it's not really all that great. They don't say anything about idle fees (where there's a cost for just being there after the vehicle has stopped charging). I remember reading about EV charging at other theme parks. For instance, There are over 100 charging stations at the Disneyland parking lots/garages and they don't have any idle fees, although they encourage guests to move if they can.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/parking/​

ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS
For your convenience, a number of ChargePoint charging stations are now available in parking lots at various locations throughout Walt Disney World Resort. Arriving Guests may ask a Cast Member for directions to these charge ports, which are available on a first-come, first-served basis.​

​

• Magic Kingdom park: 5 spaces—one space at the front of the Medical Parking Lot and 4 spaces at the front of the Zurg Parking Lot
• EPCOT: 4 spaces at the front of the Journey Parking Lot
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park: 4 spaces in the Medical Parking Lot
• Disney's Hollywood Studios: 4 spaces at the front of the Mickey Parking Lot
• Disney Springs: 13 spaces—3 on the 5th floor of the Orange Garage, 3 on the 5th floor of the Lime Garage, 3 on the 3rd floor of the Grapefruit Garage and 4 in the Watermelon Lot near the Cirque du Soleil theater
• Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort: 6 spaces in general parking near ADA spaces
• Disney's Riviera Resort: 2 spaces in general parking near ADA spaces
• Disney’s Wilderness Lodge: 2 spaces in general parking near ADA spaces

To use this service, you will need a credit card or a pre-ordered ChargePoint card—available at chargepoint.com. The cost to charge at these stations is $0.35 per kilowatt hour, with a minimum service amount of $1.50. Charging will stop once the vehicle’s battery is fully charged. ChargePoint will “ping” the owners to alert them when their car is ready.​

As for cold weather - it's a concern but probably not as bad as many would make it seem. EVs are selling really well in Quebec for some reason. The problem will generally be the battery performance and the acceptable charge rate when cold, but that can be helped since they have means to heat up the battery, although it requires electricity to do that - either from the battery itself or if it's left on a power source. Some owners leave them connected whenever possible so that the external power source can provide the electricity needed for heat. My neighbor had a charger for his plug-in hybrid outside so it could charge in the driveway. And in colder temperatures, using a charger for electricity going to be far more efficient than relying on a cold battery. But it's my understanding that in cold temperatures, the battery will be heated to help improve efficiency.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

If you are considering a Tesla, for the love of god, please read these:

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-you-find-when-you-take-apart-a-tesla-rich-benoit-2018-10

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvm3z5/rich-rebuilds-tesla-repair-and-salvage

 

[Ms.Minnie]

Thank you all for the responses, there is lots of good information here. I feel a little overwhelmed with EVs, it's like learning something all over again. It's probably not as complicated as it seems to me right now, once you have one it's probably pretty easy.

Based on some of the above comments I'm guessing that Tesla charging stations can on be used on Tesla's, is that correct? If that is the case it just doesn't make any sense to me, if this whole EV thing is going to work, we need to have universal charging stations that all EVs can use.

 

[jeff_h]

Based on some of the above comments I'm guessing that Tesla charging stations can on be used on Tesla's, is that correct? If that is the case it just doesn't make any sense to me, if this whole EV thing is going to work, we need to have universal charging stations that all EVs can use.

I've had two EVs and drove 130k on one and 160k on the other, and yes there should be one universal connector and the industry is moving toward that (and there are EV forums with endless threads on this topic, kinda like the DIS with threads on FP+ and people cutting in line, etc). There used to be three separate systems (CCS for most non-Tesla, CHAdeMO for pretty much only Nissan, and Tesla), but Tesla is becoming the single standard and several manufacturers over the past year or two have confirmed that their new models will be made with the Tesla connector.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Thank you all for the responses, there is lots of good information here. I feel a little overwhelmed with EVs, it's like learning something all over again. It's probably not as complicated as it seems to me right now, once you have one it's probably pretty easy.

Based on some of the above comments I'm guessing that Tesla charging stations can on be used on Tesla's, is that correct? If that is the case it just doesn't make any sense to me, if this whole EV thing is going to work, we need to have universal charging stations that all EVs can use.

@kdonnell knows more about EVs than I do, but I do know that you can charge on the Tesla network with some EVs as long as you have an adapter to snap on the end of the charger. Here's an article about that.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/electric-vehicles-that-can-charge-at-tesla-superchargers

We have a charger at my house that we snap an adaptor on the end of to charge my Tesla Y. We did that so we can look at the wider EV market when we decide on what our next EV will be.

I'll say this, we've owned nicer German cars (Mercedes and Porsches), and the interior on our 50K Tesla Y is nowhere near as nice as those vehicles were. But...I definitely don't see myself going back to an ICE vehicle because it's so, so convenient driving an EV.

 

[robinb]

Thank you all for the responses, there is lots of good information here. I feel a little overwhelmed with EVs, it's like learning something all over again. It's probably not as complicated as it seems to me right now, once you have one it's probably pretty easy.

Based on some of the above comments I'm guessing that Tesla charging stations can on be used on Tesla's, is that correct? If that is the case it just doesn't make any sense to me, if this whole EV thing is going to work, we need to have universal charging stations that all EVs can use.

The difference in charging protocols was something I didn’t understand when we bought our Clarity. I didn’t understand that I couldn’t use a Tesla charger on my car. Whoops. It turned out ok for me because of my hybrid engine and I can find charging stations for my car nearby if I need one. I rarely do, though. My overnight charge on my car is enough for tooling around town. I gas up maybe once a month.

I will say that I see a lot more EVs charging places. There is a set of chargers near a local grocery store that used to have only 1 or 2 cars at it but now is almost always full. There is another big charging station near my house that always has a half dozen cars parked there.

Another thing I just noticed was the cash back promo on my Costco Visa card. For years we could get 4% cash back on gas but with a 7 gallon tank that’s not a big savings lol. They now offer the same discount on EV charging! I rarely pay for a charge because of my engine but I thought that was good to know.

I do have a question for EV owners: how much does it cost you to get a full charge?

 

[georgina]

The difference in charging protocols was something I didn’t understand when we bought our Clarity. I didn’t understand that I couldn’t use a Tesla charger on my car. Whoops. It turned out ok for me because of my hybrid engine and I can find charging stations for my car nearby if I need one. I rarely do, though. My overnight charge on my car is enough for tooling around town. I gas up maybe once a month.

I will say that I see a lot more EVs charging places. There is a set of chargers near a local grocery store that used to have only 1 or 2 cars at it but now is almost always full. There is another big charging station near my house that always has a half dozen cars parked there.

Another thing I just noticed was the cash back promo on my Costco Visa card. For years we could get 4% cash back on gas but with a 7 gallon tank that’s not a big savings lol. They now offer the same discount on EV charging! I rarely pay for a charge because of my engine but I thought that was good to know.

I do have a question for EV owners: how much does it cost you to get a full charge?

We have 2 years of free fast charging with our Hyundai lease, but I can see that charging from mid-20% range to mid-80% (takes 20-30 minutes) would cost $21-$25. A full charge gets something around 267 miles, and we charge less than once a week.

 

[dvcgirl67]

I do have a question for EV owners: how much does it cost you to get a full charge?

I can give you our monthly figure for approximately 1,000 miles I drive per month....our electric bill is up $75 per month.