Wow! I can't wait for this amazing technology to make its way to North American!
this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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Electric Vehicles
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LOL... here's another V8 truck, fatty.
Goes well with a side of school shooting doesn't it?
The charge time is pretty good, the range not so much.
But all I’ve been hearing about it’s how solid state batteries will be 10 minute charges and enough kWh for a thousand miles.
450km (280 miles) with a 10 minute charge time is enough fine for 90% of use cases, including most consumer travel.
As it is even with longer charging times currently, all it takes is reframing your thinking and planning a tiny bit when travelling. The cars all plan this out for you anyway when you use the navigation. You don't need to charge fully every time, you just need enough to make the next leg of the trip, and they charge faster at lower percentages.
From personal experience, most of the time that's only a 15 or 20 minute pit stop. If you're actually doing what you should for your health, stretching, use the restroom, getting snacks, etc. that's a timeframe you're probably already going to be close to anyway when stopping, especially if you're travelling with others.
Also looking at the article closer... it seems to be that these numbers are with a 45kWh battery pack. Many current vehicles with similar ranges use a pack nearly double the size. My old 2018 Tesla Model 3 LR had a 75kWh pack and was rated for 310 miles. My old 2025 Polestar 3 had a 111kWh capacity and rating of 315 miles. My current 2025 Honda Prologue has an 85kWh pack and is rated for 280 miles.
None of these vehicles ever felt like I had limited range when traveling long distances, and I never felt like I was sitting around waiting for a charge for very long on trips since most of that downtime I was doing other things while it charged since you don't have to stand there as it fills.
If we extrapolate the 450kWh numbers out to a 90kWh pack you're at 900km or 560 miles. Obviously it's not linear, since there's the added weight to consider, but that's way more than most people need or even currently have in their gas cars.
Slightly off topic. How’d you rate each of the 3 cars you mention owning. Very interested how the Polestar & Honda compare for day to day use, comfort, reliability, customer support etc.
So... Coming from a Tesla, which was obviously designed from the ground up as an EV and with zero legacy auto baggage, it took advantage of that.
The Polestar 3 was awesome. A great step from the Tesla. It took similar advantage of being an EV. Things like being able to set it to maintain climate when going into a store for instance. Or just being able to walk up to it, open the door, and go without having to use a remote or press a button to "start" a nonexistent engine. However, I only had it 53 days before it developed an A/C issue, that they were never able to fix, and it's been a year. They never offered any sort of replacement option and I ended up having to go through a lemon law attorney to get it returned. And I still haven't received my payment, coming up on a year from purchase, and over a month since the final paperwork was submitted. I am still having to pay for this vehicle, and insurance every month, and I will only receive back the price of the vehicle, because that's all they're legally required to pay back for a lemon vehicle. The Volvo Service Center with the Polestar tech was awesome. The Polestar corporate customer service has been terrible from start to finish. Which sucks because other than the A/C issue, the car was awesome.
In the meantime I had several loaner and rental vehicles from Polestar thru Hertz, I was able to pick EVs each time. Kia was okay, but had the legacy auto thinking throughout. Engine Start buttons, unable to set climate if you're not in the vehicle, etc. It was sclear they just removed the gas engine and plopped in the electric stuff without any additional thought about what they could do differently. The wireless charger also was terrible.
Mercedes was terrible all around. They don't even have Traffic Aware Cruise Control as standard apparently. That's an extra purchase, which of course Hertz didn't do. So it was 40 year old dumb cruise control only. Along with the same Engine start buttons, etc.
In October as the EV credits were disappearing thanks to Trump, I decided to get a replacement for the Polestar that would eventually be returned. Ended up going with the Honda Prologue simply because all my vehicles prior to the Tesla were Hondas, the test drive was okay, and I was only planning on a 3 year lease anyway to give other manufacturers a chance have actual competition because right now, they're is very little competition for real EVs. The Prologue is bad. It's not a Honda. At all. It's a GM vehicle through and through, no Honda DNA at all. The key is a GM key with the round spot for the GM logo, but the Honda H glued in its place. Hell, it has On* for fucks sake, it's not a Honda. It has an engine Start button. It can't maintain climate without being on. The phone app works only 75% of the time to start climate remotely. There is no phone key option. The keycard on my Elite trim... Functionally useless. It's not a proximity keycard, or has to be held to the door to unlock, and will not automatically unlock when you walk away. You have to use the regular keyfob for that. Even then, you also have to press a button on the handle to unlock the car when you get in, even if you have the key fob in range, that just allows the button the unlock the door. It is a perfect example of how the legacy automakers can't even seem to imagine what an EV allows them to do beyond just being a different drivetrain. There is also an annoying wind noise from the front driver window area near the side mirror that nearly everyone complains about online. The dealership checked the seals and tried to gaslight me that it's normal and only noticeable because you don't have the noise of the engine, bullshit. There's a badly designed seal, or badly designed mirror shape causing excessive noise, but nothing they would do anything about so it's just there at any speed above 35mph.
It's not a bad vehicle to drive, and if you are coming from a regular gas car bone of this would likely be out of place or even noticed. But for someone coming from an actual EV since 2018, it's an extremely pathetic attempt at an EV. The fact someone at Honda even greenlit it as an option, is a disappointment to the entire brand. It is a Chevy Blazer with a Honda T-shirt on it.
Once this lease is up, I'll be headed to something like a Lucid or Rivian. I had test driven a lucid back in September and wanted to go that way, but could not handle having to pay for both the Lucid and the Polestar at the same time. So I'll stick with the disappointing Prologue for the lease period, and go to an actual EV brand, unless something fundamental changes with the legacy auto manufacturers. But without the threat of competing with Chinese EVs here in the US, they're never going to get better, they don't have to. Even if we were to double the price of the Chinese EVs, what you get with them is way beyond the US makers and it's worth it every single time. Just take a look at the convenience and technology they have included on their entry level vehicles for comparison.
Too bad the Saudi PIF owns 60% of Lucid.
Lucid is needlessly complex and people complain constantly about broken gadgetry. This is the same engineer as the early Teslas and he fails to understand the joy of simplicity.
That’s such a shame to hear, thanks so much for the detailed response though. I really want to make the jump to full EV but keep getting put off by stories like this, was hoping things had improved by now!
A neighbour down the road has 2 Polestars, & I’ve seen the large on-site repair truck out a few times in a few months, plus a flat bad carrying one or the other a way at least twice now. Have been meaning to go chat to them, but worried I’ll just hear a list of complaints…
Real sad to hear about the Honda, was hoping the traditional manufacturers might have started to catch up, but it sounds like they may have a way to go if others have gone a similar route.
Cheers again for the reply, very insightful!
Yeah. The Tesla Model 3, I didn't have issues with. People talk about build issues all the time, etc. but I didn't have any of those, and mine was built just a few months after production began when those discussions were all over the place. To be honest, I always thought they were blown way out of proportion. Of course some had obvious issues that should have been caught, but many people seemed to expect a $65k vehicle to be absolutely perfect. There were comments from experts in the field that have entire businesses built fixing build issues for luxury brands like Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, etc. and they were in the comments saying that's just not the way it works. They get vehicles factory delivered for a customer and fix those issues, install protective films and wraps, etc. before the customer even sees the vehicle for the first time.
The only actual repair I had to do, that wasn't my fault, was replacing the upper control arm ball joints at about 40k which is ridiculous, but common with the Model 3 apparently. Nothing specific to my vehicle, just bad design.
The Polestar 3 having to be towed could be relatively innocuous, not a major hardware issue. At one point when I had my vehicle back for 48 hours when they thought they fixed the AC issue, the key stopped being recognized by the vehicle. I drove to Costco, put it in Park, friend when in to shop, and when they came out, the car wouldn't recognize either the phone key, or the the keycard I always have as a backup in my wallet. It never even left the vehicle cabin. Unlike Tesla... there is no way to tell/force the car to start from the app remotely, and apparently Customer Service cannot do that either. Again, this is another example of something technically possible because it's an EV, Tesla does it, but other manufacturers don't do. And you would never even think about it, if you didn't already know it existed or use it previously on another brand.
Ended up managing to get back home with a friend that works at Costco letting us borrow their car and brought the second keycard and keyfob... The fob also didn't work (could have just been dead since they charge via Qi and I don't normally use it) but luckily the second keycard did. So out of 4 ways to start the car, only one worked randomly. The Service Center was able to get it fixed pretty quickly, but that would otherwise have required it to be towed.'
I had a Tesla Ranger out to the house several times to do things that didn't require a lift. Most of my tire rotations they handled that way, I didn't have to take the car anywhere or do it myself. I replaced the cabin air filter once myself and decided it was a pain in the butt. Coming from Honda where the filter was easily accessible by dropping the glovebox and a total replacement time of about 15 seconds, to a process involving removing panels under the glovebox and center console and needing pry tools and screwdrivers all while having to hunch or stretch in weird positions to get to things and reach, I would rather pay someone else to do that than deal with that nightmare again. Tesla is not unique here, apparently it being easy like Honda generally is the oddball from what I've seen in various mechanic videos over the years.
Very few manufacturers think about maintenance, and in an EV most of that regular maintenance doesn't exist anymore, so they might forget about it even quicker since there's only a handful of things left with 90% of the parts being unnecessary without an ICE engine.
It's mainly an adjustment to how you handle pit stops. I've learned to embrace the leisurely pit stop where you pull up to the charger and plug in, and then walk and wander around a shopping area or restaurants and maybe even sit down to eat slowly.
I also have a long road trip planned next month, where I'll be leaving in the afternoon/evening so I might have to sleep overnight on the way there. If that happens, I'm going to prefer a hotel with overnight charging options, rather than have to try to find a separate charger from where I'll be sleeping. But I haven't fully planned that out, and it'll be my first EV road trip over 600 miles/1000 km.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about reframing your travel mindset.
I’ve had my 2026 Silverado EV LT Extended since last summer and love it. 10 minutes on a 300kW charger will get me from 20% to 80%. Just took a weekend trip with the fam - I can get from New York to Boston on a single charge (starting at 85%). Like you said we stopped anyway to have a bite and use the rest rooms, etc. with the truck at about 50%. Of course the charge was completed before we were done. I’ve also driven 6 hours up to Lake Placid and only had to stop once at a fast charger while I grabbed a bite at a diner - a 30 minute stop that had the truck charged up in 20 minutes.
That’s the reason I’m harping on the capacity, because it makes a difference when reframing your travel mindset. At 280 miles (which will real-world at 250 miles @ 100%, which will likely get taken down a bit more due to the recommended 80% cap under daily conditions), there’s no avoiding having to stop multiple times on those trips which, like you said, would be expected, more or less, when traveling long distance. But the fact that I simply don’t have to charge that often is a game changer for my life style. I run my own business and have to travel a lot. I never have to think about range anxiety at all, and barely ever have to use the myChevy route planning unless taking a long distance trip (which works wonderfully). Throughout this past winter, with single digit temperatures and tons of snow, I didn’t have to think about range reductions at all, just kept to my regular daily habits.
My point is that - yes. Let’s get those charging times down, I love it. But I need 350+ miles of range for it to feel natural as a traveler. Because the SEV is such a beast, I’m able to think more about taking advantage of energy storage for my home with solar, battery storage offsets, VTH and other fun new energy strategies for my lifestyle.
Just my two cents, love hearing about the advancements and looking forward to see where we’re at 5 years from now.
I agree with you on the long-distance drives really needing the battery range. My EV is older and has about a 200mi real-world range and it’s fine for my extensive every-day urban driving for work but I wish I didn’t have to stop so much on long roadtrips.
Daily drive a smaller vehicle, rent a longer range vehicle.
For most people that's the sensible answer. But a lot will try to justify it with ridiculous reasons.
If you're only doing 1-3 trips per year, you should be separating the needs. You don't need the same vehicle for both, and rentals are not hard to get for the oddball situations. Just like you'd rent a Uhaul to move. If you only need a truck 5 days a year, don't buy a truck and drive that big thing around the other 360 days wasting money.
Rental companies have every type of vehicle imaginable. Heck, Lowes rents trucks the same way they rent tools. No need to buy a table saw if you just need it for one project. Same thing with a truck to get stuff home from the store once .
If you need that capability more often then that's totally fine, you get what fits your needs. That may not be a current EV. But the reality is that's just not 99% of people, don't expect your 1% use case exception to determine the entire industry.
My own experience going long distances in an electric car is less rosy. We drove from Ottawa to Toronto, about 500km, in two days. Our car is a Hyundai Ioniq 6, with a maximum range of just over 500km. However, in cold weather we are lucky to get 400 km.
On the first day, we drove about 200 km and there was only one charging station. That charging station could handle two vehicles, but one of them was not working. There were three cars waiting in line to use it. We kept going.
The next day, we drove another 50 km to get to a charging station. It had three days open, but the maximum charging speed was 100kW, and we managed less than that. It took almost 90 minutes to get a full charge. It could have gone faster if we had pre-conditioned the battery, but we were worried we wouldn't be able to reach the charging station if we had done so.
Between Ottawa and Toronto, there wasn't a single charger that could do more than 150kW. In ideal conditions, the ionic 6 can charge up to 80% in under 20 minutes, but in the winter, when there are no 350kW charging stations, that's a dream. And there are so few charging stations that it's common to have to wait for one or two cars to finish before you can even begin.
280 miles is about what my car does on a full tank of gas.
These idiots don't read. The whole point was the 11 minute charging, which means you don't need to carry around a ton of battery. Sodium chemistry actually works in cold temps.
Yeah that 11 minute figure isn't a full charge tho. Elsewhere in the article they boast of a 4c charge rate, which means minimum 15 minutes, IF they're able to maintain that through the whole charge (spoiler alert: they can't)
Sure, because everyone drives 1000 miles a day, why not 10 thousand miles?
I regularly drive 2000 miles a day without stop. I pee in a bottle and carry around a tank of diesel!
/s
Not looking for 1000 (although solid state promises numbers like that). Just about 350+ real world miles or so.
Well it's about twice the range of what my car is able to reach for like 2h less of charge. I think it's pretty neat, a solid milestone even