Jeep Electrifying Trailheads

[Aonar]

Jeep Wants To Litter Trailheads With Charging Stations (msn.com)

There is already one at Hot Springs ORV

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[lindaspins]

Apparently he missed the giant solar panels on top, and the fact that Jeep has been talking about this for several years.

 

[Reinen]

I don't quite see what the big problem is. There's already pit toilets and a parking lot at most heavily used trailheads where these would go. What kind of nature is this going to disturb that isn't already disturbed out of necessity? There have been supply waystations in the wilderness for thousands of years. This is no different than the open-use cowboy shacks w/ bunks, a water source and horse pens that were all over the American West.

I do think Jeep is jumping the gun a bit on this though. It's not like 4xe's have a lot of all-electric range. They'll just use ICE anyway. These charging stations are unnecessary until Jeep actually produces an EV. Even then, I wouldn't want to rely on these to be able to make the trip.

 

[Bulletbill]

And…

 

[Rocksmith]

Still waiting for the big bear ca trailhead charger. Jeep threatened one but haven't followed through...

 

[Jim1964]

Sounds like an implicit admission the Jeep EV solution is not yet ready to be a serious transportation contender. There’s no gas stations at the trailheads.

 

[Shasta_Steve]

Just an advertising gimmick. The 4xe, at least, is very capable but the being able to do it all electric I have never understood. As a hybrid it has lots of power and torque but offroad, electric only, it is fairly underpowered.

 

[sentience]

Interesting choice of words on the headline.

The charging stations ARE the billboards. They were paid for by Jeep, literally have Jeep plastered in big letters. If you have an issue with that, go take it up with the whomever approved the permit.

Garbage article.

 

[JeepViking13]

Just an advertising gimmick. The 4xe, at least, is very capable but the being able to do it all electric I have never understood. As a hybrid it has lots of power and torque but offroad, electric only, it is fairly underpowered.

For now I agree. They need to give it an all electric range of 200 miles and good power for me to even be interested.

 

[desmo2]

Jeep has clearly announced their intent to be a leader in the EV market, so the 4xe was only the first step.

These charging stations are, as stated above, largely unnecessary for a 4xe. I think they are intended to be support structure for the full EV's Jeep has planned.

My question is...how long will it take for one of these solar power stations to charge an EV? I'm reading stories of EV owners that are spending 8+ hours to get a full charge from a station wired into the grid (and some are charging $25/hour?).

 

[PatriotX]

^^^ Please link to $25/hour charger that takes 8 hours to fully charge car.

 

[Opus]

A.) That's not littering.
2.) While they're at it, why not add in some air stations so folks don't have to carry a compressor to air up after hitting the trail.

 

[Shasta_Steve]

For now I agree. They need to give it an all electric range of 200 miles and good power for me to even be interested.

Yeah I don't really understand the electric range argument on the 4xe at least. It does have an undersized gas tank, that is a pain for me out West, but I can always take extra fuel. To me a full electric Jeep would have to have closer to 400 miles range for my lifestyle.

We are a long ways out being able to charge these things in the sticks. The thing with the 4xe is you never have to charge it if you don't want. The thing about how much it costs to charge in public and all electric range just don't matter. I have taken this Jeep on a couple 1000 mile plus trips and have never once charged in public. I am just not going to wait around for 2 hours for what is essentially one gallon of gas. Now I do plug it in at my house and do most all my local driving on the battery. I am the first to admit the all electric portion is a lot better for running around town than serious off-roading. To even be able to get to the trail you have to save your battery so you can run it later. Running trails in full electric is more of a neat trick.

One thing the 4xe has going for it is a lot of low end torque operating in hybrid mode. I am always amazed at just how much power it has compared to other Jeeps I have driven. You never have to charge to get this. It is also super heavy so there are better options for dedicated rock crawlers but for most trails the thing works great. They will never do this because of the expense but if they wanted to build a more capable 4xe they could take most of the batteries out and just run it as a hybrid. They could still keep all the added power but not have to lug around all the extra weight battery weight when you are out of charge.

 

[rcadden]

This circles back to the age-old chicken-and-egg conundrum of EVs. EVs are impractical without a solid network of charging stations, similar to the existing network of gas stations. But any attempts to actually build that network out is met with FUD. "Why build these, there's no one to use them"

IMO, props to Jeep for putting the investment in now to prepare for the RECON and other full EVs that are certain to launch in the next few years.

The other element that's not talked about much is that these are Charging Stations v1.5. They're a little better than the first charging stations, because those first ones provided learnings, data, and other things that the engineers could look at for how to improve. The sooner these are up and in-use, the sooner we get to Charging Stations v2.0, v3.0, etc.

Anyone remember the early gas station pumps? Slow, leaky, awful to use. Then look at a brand new gas station pump. More efficient, etc.

The solar panels, yes, are going to be pretty slow for a "live charge", but what if there were a few battery packs in the base of this thing? It's not going to get constant use, so those panels have from M-Th to charge the batteries, and then they keep them topped up in a heavy weekend.

It's not a perfect solution, but it's a first step to provide learnings and research for the follow ups.

 

[JeepViking13]

Yeah I don't really understand the electric range argument on the 4xe at least. It does have an undersized gas tank, that is a pain for me out West, but I can always take extra fuel. To me a full electric Jeep would have to have closer to 400 miles range for my lifestyle.

We are a long ways out being able to charge these things in the sticks. The thing with the 4xe is you never have to charge it if you don't want. The thing about how much it costs to charge in public and all electric range just don't matter. I have taken this Jeep on a couple 1000 mile plus trips and have never once charged in public. I am just not going to wait around for 2 hours for what is essentially one gallon of gas. Now I do plug it in at my house and do most all my local driving on the battery. I am the first to admit the all electric portion is a lot better for running around town than serious off-roading. To even be able to get to the trail you have to save your battery so you can run it later. Running trails in full electric is more of a neat trick.

One thing the 4xe has going for it is a lot of low end torque operating in hybrid mode. I am always amazed at just how much power it has compared to other Jeeps I have driven. You never have to charge to get this. It is also super heavy so there are better options for dedicated rock crawlers but for most trails the thing works great. They will never do this because of the expense but if they wanted to build a more capable 4xe they could take most of the batteries out and just run it as a hybrid. They could still keep all the added power but not have to lug around all the extra weight battery weight when you are out of charge.

Yeah the 21 mile range of the 4xe would never cut it for me because I live 15 to 45 miles from everything. I doesn't make sense for someone who lives out in the sticks. Like I said an electric Jeep would have to be 200 miles at least for it to make sense for me.

I have this feeling the Wranglers design will never cut it for a full EV for the masses. I could be wrong. But the batteries are heavy and take up a lot of room especially where it matters. That's why I think they are bringing the Jeep Recon out. That will be their full time EV Jeep. Well see I guess. Time will tell.

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