The Electric Surtax
October 17, 2018
Porsches have never been inexpensive – but they’re about to become more so. You could call it the electric surtax – because that’s what it amounts to.
And it’s probably going to be applied to us all, eventually.
Porsche corporate – the company – just announced that it will expect all 190 of its U.S. stores to install high-voltage fast chargers at a cost of $300,000-$400,000 per store as part of the company’s “commitment” to “electrify” half its product portfolio by 2025.
The problem – which Porsche openly concedes – is that while electric Porsches are fast, they’re slower than a ’72 Pinto with a slipping transmission when it comes to recharging.
This is a problem with all electric cars, not just Porsches.
It’s a much bigger problem, arguably, than battery range.
But it magnifies that problem.
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Electric cars can’t go as far as gas-engined cars, even very thirsty ones. A 911 Turbo averages about 20 MPG (19 city, 24 highway) but it can still go between 340 and 429 miles (city/highway) on a full tank – which is at least 100-150 miles farther than the longest-legged electric car currently on the market, a Tesla S.
And the range touted by Tesla and other EV advocates should always be taken with two big spoonfuls of salt – because it’s much more variable than the range of a gas-engined car. For example, electric cars are more affected by heat – and cold – in part because power-using accessories such as AC and heat are powered by electricity and take a lot of electricity to power. Use these accessories and your range decreases.
Electric batteries also lose efficiency in extremely cold weather – just like the 12V battery that starts a gas-engined car. But once a gas-engined car is running, cold weather doesn’t affect its range – even if the heat is used – because the heat is created as a byproduct of the running engine.
But even if an electric car’s range exactly matched its gas-engined equivalent, there is still the problem of recharging these things.
It is a time problem.
And “fast” chargers aren’t going to solve it – because they’re not.
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