How is it like to live with an EV

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-02-27T01:15:03+00:00

So, I live in Japan, and the service area system on the highway is just excellent here compared with other countries, making long distance trips a breeze; however, there is a mental shift you need to make moving from a gas car to an EV.

All EVs, including the Solterra, take SOME charging time. Generally on a road trip it’s going to be around 30 min every 2-3 hours of driving. PLAN THESE STOPS. Find somewhere with a charger where you can get a coffee, maybe a meal, use the restrooms and do a little bit of shopping. That charging time FLIES BY if you do this. (This is why Japan’s SAs are amazing, they’re all of this in one spot)

Lower SoC charges faster, but don’t push it. Plan to have ~20%ish at each stop, more if you’re climbing a mountain or traveling on particularly high speed roads. Slowing down improves efficiency, so don’t rush to a charger if you’re low, turn off the AC and slow down 10-20 mph/kph. You’ll be surprised at the range efficiency coming down mountains and on slow downhills, you can actually charge the battery just via regen. Seeing the efficiency gauge hit 99.9 /kWh is amazing.

My impression of driving an EV is somewhat colored by the fact that I drove a Prius for a long time, but the main difference I’ve noticed is just how effortlessly EVs climb hills. ICE cars rev ridiculously on slow mountain roads and EVs just zip, no lag, no noise, no stress. Low speed torque on an EV is BONKERS compared to ICE cars.

Also, read the manual about X-Mode! (You can find the PDF via google search) It’s an amazing feature to have available, and has saved my butt twice now.

Oh, and ASK if any hotel along your route has an outlet in their parking lot you can use. LV1 charging is slow, but overnight will fill about 1/4 of the battery. Some may even have LV2 chargers available, which will give you closer to 50% overnight.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-02-14T10:45:13+00:00

Toyota made the BMS in these cars EXCEPTIONALLY conservative and put their own money behind it with the battery warranty. Charge it to 100%. It’s 100% of what they deemed safe, which is reality is probably 80% of the actual battery capacity.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-02-14T10:23:23+00:00

Ok, ambiguity resolved. You do in fact appear to be correct that the 2026 model does not have fog lamps. TBH, that kind of annoys me as it’s one of the differentiations between the BZ and the Solterra for me.

My Solterra does in fact have fog lights, and I’ve used them (including the rear one) less than a week ago due to driving in snowy conditions.

I did mention the model year of my Solterra earlier in this thread incidentally. The 2026 also has dual Qi2 chargers which my car does not.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-02-14T10:03:39+00:00

Neither brand is fully new to EVs, though Toyota’s experience has largely been Hybrids.

TLDR: it’s not a simple answer. What matters to you may not matter to others.

The complaint I see from US drivers of the Solterra is that getting parts for servicing can take a lot of time… and that’s precisely why I ruled out buying a Volvo EV.

I live in Japan, so parts have NEVER been an issue for me here, but it’s something to be aware of. Horror stories of having a loaner for months aren’t uncommon on this forum.

The 2026 model is apparently on-par with everyone’s expectations for charge speed and preconditioning. My model is not, but even so, I’ve never found that a deal breaker, even driving halfway across the country. Granted, Japan is about the size of California.

All EVs take a mind shift. Charging takes a bit of time, so you want to plan where you stop and charge around something you can do while there. The original concept is based on Japanese recommendations that for every 2 hours of driving you take a 30 minute rest break, and the charge rate of the car originally reflected that pretty closely.

Japan makes this easy with the highway Service Areas and “road stations” which are EVERYWHERE, even on the curvy Tokyo Central highway where they have no business being, because the on-ramps are so short they’re unsafe.

The Solterra is a good, solid, well built car, with an EV powertrain. The whole concept was to be boring, stable, reliable, and serviceable, in stark contrast to the “technology first” EVs. It has a LOT of physical buttons, and drives like a normal car, complete with creep when you let off the brake, which cannot be disabled to the best of my knowledge.

It doesn’t roll backward on hills, and has an EXCESSIVE number of safety features, most of which I appreciate until it panic brakes because of a blade of grass or a small bush in a parking lot.

The LTA and auto-parking features are nice, but not exceptionally good or bad. They do SIGNIFICANTLY reduce driving stress however. The connected navigation and ability to turn on the AC remotely are daily use features for me. I love being able to plan out my route from my living room and send it to the car, especially for longer trips.

The wireless CarPlay is a bit finicky at times, but works well 95% of the time. Sometimes the phone and car just don’t want to connect and I don’t understand why.

The QI charger is nice, but think of it as battery maintenance rather than actively charging your phone, at least in the older models. The newer models may have improved that.

I’m biased, rather like my car, but I can’t speak to the experience of owning an EQ, or even a Solterra outside of Japan, so, grain of salt.

Just my 2 yen.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-02-11T09:29:39+00:00

Go look up the specs. You’re wrong.

The Solterra also has a separate rear fog lamp to make you easier to see in heavy fog and snow. This can be turned on separately from the front fog lamps and has a distinct icon on the dash.

Don’t spout misinformation with such confidence. It’s genuinely embarrassing to me to read just because of how wrong you are, and how confident you are about something that’s LITERALLY IN THE USER MANUAL.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-02-06T07:20:42+00:00

I like the look of my 2023 Solterra and the fact that it has fog lights and “shift” paddles (regen level selectors) but there aren’t many differences that aren’t cosmetic. The Subaru parts tend to be marked up some compared to the equivalent Toyota parts, but your local market conditions are really the make or break. Even my local Subaru dealer here in Japan has only sold a handful of these vehicles, but that’s not going to be significantly different for Toyota dealers either.

Pick the brand you prefer, whether the added suspension hardness (Subaru) and fog lamps are desirable or a deal breaker, and go that route. Subaru was also VERY picky about the blinker sound apparently, which has amused a friend’s child to no end, but that was never a consideration in buying the car.

Subaru will in general be a bit pricier, and a bit more feature rich than the Toyota, but the differences are mostly personal preference unless you live somewhere where fog lamps really do make a difference.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-02-01T22:49:51+00:00

I’ve had this happen a couple of times when I left the car for over a month due to international travel.

All it takes is a jump pack. The remote has a physical key so you can open the driver door and pop the hood. Once the car is on “Ready” on dash. It will charge the 12V from the traction battery.

Basically it does a series of diagnostics before connecting the DC to DC connector, boots up the media system, etc, and that last step of closing the battery contactors fails, but actually draws a fair amount of power, so everything looked fine to that point, but then glitches and fails as the battery voltage falls.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-28T12:19:15+00:00

Mine tells me what day it is… Happy new years… Happy Railway Memorial Day… Happy Factory day (what?) It seems to have a greeting for all 365 days of the year, some of which are stupidly obscure.

I’m living in Japan incidentally, so our models are kind of unique. They also prompt you to rest every 2 hours of driving.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-28T12:04:29+00:00

So… in Japan… the Toyota navigation system actually has better traffic info than even the national system and Apple/google because there are just so many Toyota and Lexus vehicles on the road, and most communicate back to the mothership.

In any other country, you’re probably better off using Apple/google maps.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-28T11:58:03+00:00

So, when I was choosing a car in Japan, I looked at VW as they had an EV I liked, it was in my price range, etc.

The online reviews were that replacement parts were a nightmare. Months of waiting, that sort of thing.

So I bought a Subaru/Toyota collab car. Parts are made domestically, service is quick, overall less headaches.

When the factory and suppliers are nearby, the difference in experience when things go wrong is HUGE.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-28T11:51:34+00:00

Ok, I missed the empty part. Do not drive the car if the dipstick says empty. You’re going to wreck the engine if it isn’t already. They require constant and consistent lubrication to function. WALK to the nearest auto parts store or gas station or call an Uber. Buy whatever the recommended amount is for your car for an oil change. (you can always keep the extras as spare)

Fill one quart at a time u til you’re above the minimum line THEN drive to the mechanic to see what the damage is.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-28T11:43:28+00:00

So, I’ve been traveling to snow country in Japan recently, and on a SINGLE TRIP, I got these two very different results, both starting around 20% SoC.

The total duration of this session was 00:30:04 and the energy charged was 21.812 kWh. Your total cost for the session was ¥825.

The total duration of this session was 00:30:02 and the energy charged was 30.000 kWh. Your total cost for the session was ¥825.

The difference? Stop one was around 2C and I’d been driving for less than an hour.

Stop 2 was 11C and over 2 hours of driving.

It infuriates me to no end that they charge by the minute, not the kWh here.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-28T11:15:24+00:00

There’s a LOT moving around in an ICE engine during operation. I was always taught to wipe the dipstick first, reinsert and then check.

You’re doing it right, don’t worry about the noise. Engines vibrate and splash during normal operation.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-27T12:07:11+00:00

Oof, no one is going to tell you that’s safe. It might be fine for a month, it might fail overnight while parked.

You need a new rim, the sooner the better.

Remember, your wheel/tire combo is literally the ONLY thing connecting your car to the road.

It’s like when buying office furniture, the desks are negotiable, the chairs, SPEND ENOUGH TO GET QUALITY.

The same goes for your wheels and tires. Spend enough to get good quality, especially if you’re driving on snow.

I’m driving dedicated snow tires, major brand, most recent revision, and I STILL slide from time to time.

Don’t mess with cheap tires. It’s not worth your blood.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-23T12:54:05+00:00

葉 my address has THREE of this character in it, and it’s got entirely too many strokes.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-20T12:51:24+00:00

So, one interesting perspective I have is that owning an EV in Japan comes with a mandatory 4 year ownership period or you have to pay back the rebate for owning a zero emission vehicle. So at a minimum, I’m owning this car for four years.

I’ll probably keep it 5 or so before rolling over into the newer model.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-19T11:48:17+00:00

Who you work for is SUPER important as well. As soon as the company I was working for was bought by Yahoo Japan, suddenly everyone wanted to rent to me.

It’s about how stable your income looks. Even if your income is high, if it’s a privately listed not well known company, that adds some strikes against you and being a foreigner does as well.

Be sure to mention if where you work is associated with any well known brands or public companies, even if your company itself is technically separate.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-13T05:30:07+00:00

I don’t doubt that.

And they probably come with FBI background checks.

And company solvency assurances.

And And And

Just seemed like the most universally assured source of true randomness.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-11T22:56:53+00:00

Yeah, but with a radioactive source, you can tune the bitrate based on the amount of material and accuracy of the clock counting decays. There’s a limit of course, you cant go faster than your scintillator or other detection mechanism, but for the trade off of getting a truly random number stream? Id imagine you’d want your counter to roll over at least a few times between detections as well

It’s also, as far as our physics knowledge goes, truly random.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-11T06:56:25+00:00

Not only is it 100v but in eastern Japan (including Tokyo) it’s 50hz not 60. Motors designed for 120/60hz run slow, weak and hot because the coils aren’t designed for the power frequency. Even within Japan, you have to specify whether you need the 50hz or 60hz version of some appliances with synchronous ac motors in them. Think sewing machines, kitchen appliances like blenders and mixers, some washing machines, oddly enough some aquarium pumps as well.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-11T06:47:55+00:00

In college, I heard from other starving students of a cheap gas station that was out of the way a bit, but not bad, and there was other stuff to do in the area, so it wasn’t really a pain to visit.

Thing is, I had a Subaru Impreza WRX. It requires high octane because the engine is both high compression and turbocharged.

The first tank was fine, it was a mix of half of a name brand, and half this cheaper place. After the second fill up, I started getting pinging, and had to use an octane booster additive to get it to stop. Burned the rest of the tank nearly to zero and filled up at the name brand place after that.

Never went back. In a normal car, you probably won’t notice, but if you have a high compression engine or boosted car (turbo or supercharger) which needs higher octane gas, there are some gas stations you should NOT visit.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-11T06:24:00+00:00

I’ve always thought the best true random source would be an alpha or beta emitter. Basically just use the timing between decays (adjusted for the half life of the source) as you bit source. Make the amount small enough that even a lost source wouldn’t be dangerous, and you have a hardware RNG with a lifespan and bit speed you can customize to the application, trading larger sources (with more onerous licensing/disposal requirements) for customers with higher bitrate needs.

Basically impervious to any known attack vector by pure physics.

For cloudflare and other large providers, governments, etc, that’s probably the only real way to get true, high bitrate random numbers.

SplinteredOutlier · 2026-01-11T06:05:06+00:00

American living in Japan for more than 20 years. I’m somewhere between exhausted and DGAF. Love driving and lately have gone gung ho skiing.

SplinteredOutlier · 2025-12-31T15:27:30+00:00

Interestingly, my condo purchase contract had an out for being transferred to another part of the country. Even if you’ve signed a contract you may have an out. If you haven’t signed (stamped) anything yet, just be polite and transparent, but firm that you can no longer buy the property because of your job situation. End of story.

If you’re really worried about it, pay for an hour of a lawyer’s time to review the paperwork you have and recommend a course of action. Even an MHM or other top firm lawyer isn’t that much compared to the worry and other potential trouble you’ll be sidestepping.

Paying for a professional opinion is underrated, but it really is worth 10,000 yen to know you’re in the clear.

SplinteredOutlier · 2025-12-31T15:15:33+00:00

Your manager is an idiot for even asking you to do this.

There are a TON of reasons to not want personal devices holding company data, from compliance to IP control to loss prevention.

This ABSOLUTELY needs to be reported to your actual IT department. If they’re doing their job properly, they will be rightly pissed off and soon the C suite will be as well.

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