7 ms·

I was really surprised on my vacation last summer how often I saw EV chargers at hotels in rural locations. Especially in central and western Kansas.

logicalmonster 4y ago
You'll come across them randomly in places you'd never expect. The problem still exists though. 1) Unless your trip is relatively short, you'll probably need to charge between your home and the hotel. 2) What happens when there's 4 EV parking spots at your hotel and 5 (or more) guests show up at a hotel with EVs? Are people willing to spend their vacations stressing out over getting one of those spots? Personally, I think EVs only work as a toy for the rich and mass-adoption currently involves too many problems for average people that cannot be resolved anytime soon.
- lostapathy 4y ago
  Right - I totally understand that we have a long ways to go. But at the same time, I think there's probably a lot more chargers running around already than most non-EV owners suspect. Do we have enough EV chargers for everyone today? Of course not. But the deployment does seem to be keeping up with the amount of EVs that exist, and that's good enough for today.
noirbot 4y ago
There's definitely some chargers, but the issue ends up being that you need a lot more chargers per mile than you do gas stations in rural areas, assuming you don't have a robust planning/reservation system. You can easily fill a gas tank with 100+ miles worth of gas in just a couple minutes. Recharging an EV locks up a spot at a charger for a fair bit longer, even if you don't charge to full. Driving through remote West Virginia earlier this year, I stopped at a couple 2-pump gas stations that were doing fine business because they were the only station on the highway for 50 miles or such. You probably couldn't get away with just having 2 EV stations.

7 ms·

I was really surprised on my vacation last summer how often I saw EV chargers at hotels in rural locations. Especially in central and western Kansas.

by lostapathy 4y ago

logicalmonster 4y ago
You'll come across them randomly in places you'd never expect. The problem still exists though. 1) Unless your trip is relatively short, you'll probably need to charge between your home and the hotel. 2) What happens when there's 4 EV parking spots at your hotel and 5 (or more) guests show up at a hotel with EVs? Are people willing to spend their vacations stressing out over getting one of those spots? Personally, I think EVs only work as a toy for the rich and mass-adoption currently involves too many problems for average people that cannot be resolved anytime soon.
- lostapathy 4y ago
  Right - I totally understand that we have a long ways to go. But at the same time, I think there's probably a lot more chargers running around already than most non-EV owners suspect. Do we have enough EV chargers for everyone today? Of course not. But the deployment does seem to be keeping up with the amount of EVs that exist, and that's good enough for today.
noirbot 4y ago
There's definitely some chargers, but the issue ends up being that you need a lot more chargers per mile than you do gas stations in rural areas, assuming you don't have a robust planning/reservation system. You can easily fill a gas tank with 100+ miles worth of gas in just a couple minutes. Recharging an EV locks up a spot at a charger for a fair bit longer, even if you don't charge to full. Driving through remote West Virginia earlier this year, I stopped at a couple 2-pump gas stations that were doing fine business because they were the only station on the highway for 50 miles or such. You probably couldn't get away with just having 2 EV stations.