"I would never want to be stuck waiting for an EV to charge"

[RivianRocks25]

To be fair, that $25k saved by charging at home with solar is significantly reduced by the cost to have purchased and installed said solar system.

My father bought them. Or more like: I spent inheritance on solar as he would have wanted us to have them. If not, I fully self installed and wired and parts cost for 7kw system was about $9k. Not all they produce has gone into cars, and rest offsets cost of house electric. The system was effectively paid off in about 3-4 years, so now yes, savings are real. Solar and EVs are match made as gas offsets cost are higher than electricity in house where pay back would have been about 8 years.

So still way up on the savings.

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[White Shadow]

The line for Costco gas is always long!

And it goes very fast. Average fill time for ICE is about 4 minutes and Costco fills two cars at the same time on each line. I've never waited more than 10 minutes to get gas there.

 

[strykerwsu]

And it goes very fast. Average fill time for ICE is about 4 minutes and Costco fills two cars at the same time on each line. I've never waited more than 10 minutes to get gas there.

Back in my gas days I once made the mistake to get in the Costco line assuming the same and took about 25 minutes. So never tried again when there was a line. YMMV.

Overall the discussion in my opinion is total time yearly which in many instances as noted is less than filing gas. Of course on only a single data point such as a road trip it will currently take longer when charging. We can then go down the discussion of how it makes trips better in some ways (relaxation time) vs worse in others (are we there yet).

 

[White Shadow]

Back in my gas days I once made the mistake to get in the Costco line assuming the same and took about 25 minutes. So never tried again when there was a line. YMMV.

Overall the discussion in my opinion is total time yearly which in many instances as noted is less than filing gas. Of course on only a single data point such as a road trip it will currently take longer when charging. We can then go down the discussion of how it makes trips better in some ways (relaxation time) vs worse in others (are we there yet).

Personally, I'd never wait that long to get gas unless I had no other choice. You'd really need a long line of cars in front of you for that kind of wait time. Gas pumps are good for about 10 gallons per minute, so the average car is done in less than 2 minutes. The rest of the 4 minute average is the time it takes to drive up to the pump, get rhe nozzle in the tank, swipe the credit card, remove the nozzle, put the cap back on (for the cars that actually still have a gas cap) and pull away. So unless something strange happens, the li e should move pretty quickly.

 

[strykerwsu]

Thee

Personally, I'd never wait that long to get gas unless I had no other choice. You'd really need a long line of cars in front of you for that kind of wait time. Gas pumps are good for about 10 gallons per minute, so the average car is done in less than 2 minutes. The rest of the 4 minute average is the time it takes to drive up to the pump, get rhe nozzle in the tank, swipe the credit card, remove the nozzle, put the cap back on (for the cars that actually still have a gas cap) and pull away. So unless something strange happens, the li e should move pretty quickly.

There are no pumps around me that do 10 gallons a minute. Maybe 5 if you hit a really good one. Most are mayne 3 to 4 gallons a minute. You guys have great pressure.

 

[White Shadow]

Thee


There are no pumps around me that do 10 gallons a minute. Maybe 5 if you hit a really good one. Most are mayne 3 to 4 gallons a minute. You guys have great pressure.

I thought 10 gallons per minute was the standard for gas pumps. I know that I fill my 5 gallon gas cans in way less than a minute at my local gas station. I'd say it's probably about 30 seconds or so....which seems to align with the 10 gallon per minute rate.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Costco gas station can be brutal. People get angry quick if you don't have every step of the process down to a system. Also, if someone pulls up and starts filling right when the person in front of them us just finishing up.

 

[Great Gatsby]

Costco gas station can be brutal. People get angry quick if you don't have every step of the process down to a system. Also, if someone pulls up and starts filling right when the person in front of them us just finishing up.

People also act like they have never pumped gas before. The level of gymnastic at Costco pumps, at least near me, needs to be studied. There is a lot of lingering inside the car and struggling with payment methods that easily makes each person take north of 4-6 minutes. I timed it once. Not to mention in the suburbs, all the huge pickup trucks and mom mobiles take even longer to fill those huge tanks.

Do not miss the experience. I just pay the extra for gas elsewhere. Not worth it.

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

People also act like they have never pumped gas before. The level of gymnastic at Costco pumps, at least near me, needs to be studied. There is a lot of lingering inside the car and struggling with payment methods that easily makes each person take north of 4-6 minutes. I timed it once. Not to mention in the suburbs, all the huge pickup trucks and mom mobiles take even longer to fill those huge tanks.

Do not miss the experience. I just pay the extra for gas elsewhere. Not worth it.

hey at least you have entertainment while you await a free pump right

 

[CharonPDX]

People also act like they have never pumped gas before.

One advantage of Oregon - we can't pump our own gas, it has to be an attendant. (With some exceptions.)

The downside - if a location has too few attendants, you're stuck waiting for one to be available. Back when I had an ICE vehicle, one of the local Kroger affiliates' gas stations commonly had "no line" but so few attendants you'd still wait 3-5 minutes at the pump before someone started pumping your gas if it was busy. (As many pumps as a Costco, but far fewer attendants than the Costco has.)

 

[zymolysis]

Average fill time for ICE is about 4 minutes and Costco fills two cars at the same time on each line. I've never waited more than 10 minutes to get gas there.

I have. I never bothered to time it, in all of the hundreds of times I bought gas at Costco, but I am quite certain that I never equaled either of those numbers. Sure Costco lines move fairly fast, but average of 4, and max of 10 - not my experience. And I'd rather be sitting in my EV doing other things (while it charged), rather than waiting, and creeping forward, and waiting some more in Costco lines.

Edit: I misunderstood: "the average fill time" that White Shadow was speaking of was for each car, not his average to fill and be on his way. But, still, I've been in lines at Costco with five or six cars waiting in each line, and then a line of cars waiting to get into those individual lines.
And, of course, since a fair number of those cars are trucks and vans with 35 gallon tanks (as I was mine), that fill time is quite variable.

 

[zymolysis]

I thought 10 gallons per minute was the standard for gas pumps

There is no "standard." And when the filters start to get clogged, a pump can be very slow.
Edit: Costco's maintenance is usually pretty good, so a slow pump would probably have its filters changed before it became obnoxiously slow.

 

[SwampNut]

A few weeks after posting this thread, I found myself waiting for a charger for the first time ever, in Morongo CA. I hadn't looked at the app to see how busy it was since I've never had to wait before. While I was looking at other charger options nearby, the car in front of me was done and it was my turn, under five minutes. I plugged in and walked away, there's a really damn good poke bowl place nearby, and I regularly eat there while the car charges. This means walking by the gas pumps, and there was what appeared to be a 10-ish minute wait to fuel. On my way back I learned that was wrong, it was 20 minutes, partly because the pumps were running slow as they were all in use at once. I walked to the bathroom, and...it was closed for cleaning. So by the time I got back to my car it was done, and two of the gasholes were complaining that they had been there for 30 minutes. Waiting in line, then slow-fueling, then waiting for the bathroom. 100% wasted time. Meanwhile I had a good healthy lunch instead of the tubular gas station food they were eating on the road.

 

[2kwik4u]

tubular gas station food

Hot dog?

 

[Thebandit]

This argument is so weird to me. Like, in my ICE vehicle I can drive 800 miles to Chicago with a single, literally 5 minute stop. I've done it, many times. I'm not going to be able to do that in my R2 when I get it. Not that I necessarily want to, but it's objectively true that EV charging is far less accessible, predictable, ubiquitous, and convenient compared to gas stations. Virtually every highway exit in the country has a gas station. Without a line of cars. Where a 100% fill takes about two minutes. Charging isn't going to replicate that any time soon. It's getting close to good enough but it's certainly not better or more convenient.

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