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The gas station thing I wholeheartedly agree with. I have a fully charged car every time I enter my garage and never have to play that guessing game of if I’ll

The gas station thing I wholeheartedly agree with. I have a fully charged car every time I enter my garage and never have to play that guessing game of if I’ll need randomly add 10m onto any drive to get gas. It’s wonderful. That said, if I had to rely on public charging for my day to day, I’d be in the same spot as a gas car —- or worse, with only access to a level 2 charger. I was in Steamboat this weekend, and for some reason they have no superchargers. Relying on a level 2 charger giving me 10% charge after an hour was.. tedious at best. I would not want an EV if that was my regular experience. It’s one reason I’d never recommend anything except a Tesla until there are widespread level 3 chargers for all brands.

kleiba 4y ago
I live in Europe, I usually have to park my car way down the road. Am I supposed to run an extension cord from my house to my parking spot every night? The infrastructure for EV is not on par with classic gas stations for those who do not have a garage close to their house.
- KennyBlanken 4y ago
  In an urban situation you're supposed to plug your EV into the CCS charger which can charge at up to 350kW. Hyundai/Kia, Porsche, Audi, and a growing number of other companies make 800v cars that charge to ~80% in under 20 minutes. Or, you use a carshare, and the car is located in a garage/lot where it spends every minute it's not in use plugged into a charger. EVs aren't a solution to the unsustainability of individual car ownership in high population density areas.
  - kleiba 4y ago
    I'm not in an urban environment, and the part about "under 20 minutes" is what I'd call "not on par with classic gas stations". There's no (usable) car sharing services that I'm aware of where I live.
- butterknife 4y ago
  Put a pressure on your employer to install chargers.
  - kleiba 4y ago
    My employer is the government, they don't even provide enough parking spaces for all employees. There's a waiting list.
- ageitgey 4y ago
  In my neighborhood in London (maybe everywhere in London?), most of the lampposts by on-street parking have charging ports [1]. So you just park near a lamppost and plug in at night. There's a QR code you scan, then you click on a web page and it starts charging. Pretty cheap and easy. It's honestly easier than going to a gas station. So in my experience, having an electric car in London is super convenient. There's myriad ways to charge it and increasingly good rapid charging options along major routes. But I'm sure that's not everyone's experience in every neighborhood or city. Hopefully things keep improving as rapidly as they have been. NB: I have seen someone in London string a charging cable up through their non-ground-floor apartment window once, but only once :) [1] https://www.ubitricity.com/charge-points-uk/ https://www.ubitricity.com/charge-points-uk/
  - kleiba 4y ago
    That's the kind of infrastructure that needs to be available everywhere to make EV charging a viable alternative to classic gas stations. I expect this to be commonplace everywhere, bar any ubiquitous underground wireless charging facility. But unlike the UK, the country I currently live in seems to be 10 to 15 years behind in all technical developments, so I don't expect anything like the London experience to materialize around here any time soon. Plus, while what you say is probably feasible for bigger cities, I'm not convinced yet that small to medium sized cities will introduce something similar anytime soon, or is it the case in the UK? Just out of curiosity: how far apart are the lamp posts in London? How difficult is it to actually get a parking spot by one? Can more than one car in the vicinity of a lamp post charge their car or only one per post?
KennyBlanken 4y ago
According to Plugshare, there's a 125kw CCS charger in downtown Steamboat Springs. There were also lots of Level 2 chargers and three tesla 'destination' chargers. The hazards of buying a car with a proprietary DC fast charge network, I guess. Especially given how CCS chargers are now twice the speed of Superchargers and less 'oversubscribed.'

kleiba 4y ago

I live in Europe, I usually have to park my car way down the road. Am I supposed to run an extension cord from my house to my parking spot every night? The infrastructure for EV is not on par with classic gas stations for those who do not have a garage close to their house.

KennyBlanken 4y ago
In an urban situation you're supposed to plug your EV into the CCS charger which can charge at up to 350kW. Hyundai/Kia, Porsche, Audi, and a growing number of other companies make 800v cars that charge to ~80% in under 20 minutes. Or, you use a carshare, and the car is located in a garage/lot where it spends every minute it's not in use plugged into a charger. EVs aren't a solution to the unsustainability of individual car ownership in high population density areas.
- kleiba 4y ago
  I'm not in an urban environment, and the part about "under 20 minutes" is what I'd call "not on par with classic gas stations". There's no (usable) car sharing services that I'm aware of where I live.
butterknife 4y ago
Put a pressure on your employer to install chargers.
- kleiba 4y ago
  My employer is the government, they don't even provide enough parking spaces for all employees. There's a waiting list.
ageitgey 4y ago
In my neighborhood in London (maybe everywhere in London?), most of the lampposts by on-street parking have charging ports [1]. So you just park near a lamppost and plug in at night. There's a QR code you scan, then you click on a web page and it starts charging. Pretty cheap and easy. It's honestly easier than going to a gas station. So in my experience, having an electric car in London is super convenient. There's myriad ways to charge it and increasingly good rapid charging options along major routes. But I'm sure that's not everyone's experience in every neighborhood or city. Hopefully things keep improving as rapidly as they have been. NB: I have seen someone in London string a charging cable up through their non-ground-floor apartment window once, but only once :) [1] https://www.ubitricity.com/charge-points-uk/ https://www.ubitricity.com/charge-points-uk/
- kleiba 4y ago
  That's the kind of infrastructure that needs to be available everywhere to make EV charging a viable alternative to classic gas stations. I expect this to be commonplace everywhere, bar any ubiquitous underground wireless charging facility. But unlike the UK, the country I currently live in seems to be 10 to 15 years behind in all technical developments, so I don't expect anything like the London experience to materialize around here any time soon. Plus, while what you say is probably feasible for bigger cities, I'm not convinced yet that small to medium sized cities will introduce something similar anytime soon, or is it the case in the UK? Just out of curiosity: how far apart are the lamp posts in London? How difficult is it to actually get a parking spot by one? Can more than one car in the vicinity of a lamp post charge their car or only one per post?

KennyBlanken 4y ago

According to Plugshare, there's a 125kw CCS charger in downtown Steamboat Springs. There were also lots of Level 2 chargers and three tesla 'destination' chargers. The hazards of buying a car with a proprietary DC fast charge network, I guess. Especially given how CCS chargers are now twice the speed of Superchargers and less 'oversubscribed.'