Is it better to have a petrol car or a tram? Owners trapped on the highway back to their hometowns: there are no winners

"Core Tips"

A Spring Festival Expressway with freezing rain and snowfall not only trapped the people returning to their hometowns, but also brought the competition between fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles back to the public eye.

Author | Zhu Xiaoyu

Edit | Xing Yun

Approaching the Spring Festival, Hubei, Hunan and other places suffered rare freezing rain and heavy snowfall, and the sudden bad weather brought great challenges to the returning car owners. Not only has the time taken to return home doubled, but the uncertainty exceeded expectations, leaving car owners facing hunger, severe cold, and even going to the toilet a problem.

A Spring Festival Expressway with freezing rain and snowfall not only trapped the people returning to their hometowns, but also brought the competition between fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles back to the public eye.

Netizens are arguing about whether "trams are better than oil cars" or "oil cars are better than trams".

On the highway during the past holidays, trams will rush to the hot search because of mileage anxiety and charging problems under congestion, and they will be repeatedly discussed by car owners.

In this congested journey during the Spring Festival, the oil truck still showed some incomparable performance of the tram, such as no range anxiety. However, in the continuous low temperature weather, some oil vehicles also have a headache for owners because of the difficulty of cold start of the engine, especially diesel vehicles, which are embarrassed to not be able to hit the car.

In the rapid development of new energy vehicles in recent years, not only the penetration rate has continued to expand, but the cruising range has also increased steadily, and some pure electric models can reach more than 1,000 kilometers, even in the case of winter electricity discounts, it can also meet most of the travel needs. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2023, the production and sales of new energy vehicles will be 9.587 million and 9.495 million units, respectively, a year-on-year increase of 35.8% and 37.9%, and the market share will reach 31.6%.

On the whole, under the test of nature, both new energy vehicle owners and oil truck owners have encountered various challenges of "people are embarrassed", and there is no winner in the whole process.

1. Trapped for 40 hours on the way back to his hometown

This year's Chinese New Year, Ms. Xu's mood is more excited than ever. Married from Xiantao, Hubei to Nanchang, Jiangxi for five years, this is the first time she and her husband have returned to their parents' house for the Spring Festival, for which she stuffed a whole trunk of New Year's goods, and asked for annual leave in advance, and drove home full of expectations. However, the journey home was not smooth.

Due to the severe freezing rain in Hubei Province, coupled with the lack of timely cleaning and measures, the ice on the road is more than ten centimeters thick, uneven and slippery, and most of the cars do not use snow tires with stronger grip, resulting in the vehicles being trapped collectively. Especially for large trucks, it is difficult to move an inch when encountering a slope.

It was originally less than 5 hours to drive from Nanchang to Xiantao, Hubei, but this year, Ms. Xu and her husband drove 40 hours. Fuyin Expressway to Hangrui Expressway is very smooth all the way, but when it reaches Xiaohong Expressway in Hubei, it begins to gradually congestion, and finally it is completely unable to walk.

Ms. Xu said that her entire trip was spent on the last section of the Xiaohong Expressway, a distance of dozens of kilometers, which originally took less than two hours, but ended up being trapped for two days and one night, with a traffic jam of 12 kilometers.

Since she was driving a fuel truck, Ms. Xu did not have mileage anxiety, and she had prepared sufficient food and water for her hometown this time, so the family had no material trouble.

But the owner of the car next to him is much more difficult.

At around 7 a.m. the day after she was trapped, Ms. Xu saw a tall man get out of the green car and knock on the windows one by one to ask. When he arrived at Ms. Xu's car, the man introduced himself and asked in a very anxious tone, "Is there any water?" His child was stuck on the highway and had not been flooded for more than 10 hours. In the end, Ms. Xu gave the other party two bottles of coconut water and two cans of eight-treasure porridge. The man transferred a 500 yuan WeChat red envelope and said that he would thank him again in the future.

"It's all a gesture, and we won't confiscate the red envelopes. This time, you may not have expected to be blocked for so long, the food and water prepared have long been gone, and there are at least dozens of kilometers away from the service area, especially for children, how can they do without drinking water. ”

Being stuck on the highway for a long time, going to the toilet has also become a big problem.

Especially for women, on the unobstructed highway, they can only hold back if they want to go to the toilet, and when they can't hold it back, they find someone to go down the highway to find an open space together. The night was cold and dark, and Ms. Xu was afraid that she would go to the toilet after drinking more water, and she was so thirsty that she couldn't stand it, so she would only take two sips.

The lowest temperature at night was about minus 10 degrees Celsius, and some tram owners were afraid to turn on the heater for fear of running out of power, and some trams even turned off the system all night and even turned off the lights.

2. It is better to have a gas car or a tram

Click on all the videos about highway congestion, and almost all of the hot comments are ridiculing the mileage of electric vehicles, and believe that after this high-speed trapped incident, the sales of new energy vehicles will decline.

In fact, if it is not for extreme weather, almost all pure electric vehicle owners on the road have considered the conventional countermeasures, such as whether the actual driving distance of the electric vehicle in winter can reach the next service area to charge, as well as the charging queue time and charging time.

Mr. Qi, who is also a tram owner stranded on the highway, said that he did not regret buying a new energy vehicle. He believes that if he is not particularly well prepared, even if he drives a petrol truck, he will end up stuck in a highway with a shortage of food and water, and there will still be no way to go to the toilet.

Mr. Qi said that although some electric vehicles will lose power without heating in the case of motionless, this situation is limited to a small number of models, and now most of the pure electric new energy vehicles have a very high mileage, which is fully capable of coping with conventional congestion, and plug-in hybrid and extended range vehicles are more flexible and maneuverable.

"Congestion on the highway we can't blame the problem of the car, uncontrollable weather is the main reason, this is force majeure, some trams after more than 30 hours of traffic still go down. ”

In order to cope with the anxiety of battery life, many manufacturers have also made great efforts in recent years, and the battery life can even exceed 1000 kilometers, such as GAC Aion AION LX plus, NIO ET7, ZEEKR 001, etc., even in the case of winter power discounts, it can also meet the short-distance high-speed travel. At the same time, with the construction of charging piles and the popularization of battery swap stations, the problem of range anxiety is gradually alleviating.

In addition, there are plug-in hybrid and extended-range electric vehicles, which rely on electricity in short-distance travel, fuel for long-distance travel, and can also meet the travel needs of car owners more flexibly.

At the same time, fuel vehicles will also have a headache because of the difficulty of cold start of the engine at low temperatures. In this "embarrassment", there is no winner in either the tram or the oil car.

(At the request of the interviewee, all names have been changed)