They don't have to charge them every night, most people don't drive enough to spend a whole night's worth of charge on a daily commute. For apartments, the infrastructure isn't ready yet, only 9% of US apartments have charging stations installed. Unfortunately, we're just not as fast at building stuff as other countries, but I imagine that's partly the fault of the government, which won't allow Americans to import good Chinese EVs, so there hasn't been as much of a push to install the infrastructure. 2/3 of China's car sales are EVs, so it's pretty obvious that they've got everything working already.
None of that's relevant to the concerns you brought up, though. What's the real difference between filling up at a gas station once a week or two and plugging in your car twice a week before you head inside? Frankly, the EV sounds like less of a hassle to fuel, you don't need to stop at a gas station.
Charging a midsize EV on a standard 110v outlet can take 40-60 hours. It is an added multi thousand dollar expense to install 240v charging.
So if you’re not charging daily you’re creating charging deficits. The average American drives 200 miles week. They may likely have to public charging to make up for those deficits. These are things gas car drivers don’t need to worry about AT ALL.
Also if they go on longer road trips you’d have to drive out of your way to find a charging station and spend 1.5 hours to charge back up. Road trips can take 25% longer in an EV
People don’t want that hassle when they can fill up their cars once a week for 4 minutes and not have to worry. When they’re on road trips gas stations are off of almost every highway exit and take 4 minutes.
One day I’m sure these things won’t be a problem but today it’s too much of a hassle for many people and those concerns are valid.
Okay, I didn't realize Americans drove so much on average. I was thinking of a 120v charger that you can plug into a wall. Seems to go for $100-$200. It charges for ~40 miles overnight, so you're going to need to plug in the charger 5 times a week instead of 2.
I didn't find any reasonably accessible solutions to the road trip thing, though.
And when it’s cold out it takes longer to charge and the charge doesn’t last as long.
I’m sure the value proposition works for a lot of people but the EV people need to understand it isn’t there for many more.
I’d love to drive an EV and considered a Tesla a few months ago when I got a new car. I just don’t want to trade absolute convenience of gas for something I have to manage more or plan around in the case of road trips.
1
u/SeventhSolar 2h ago
They don't have to charge them every night, most people don't drive enough to spend a whole night's worth of charge on a daily commute. For apartments, the infrastructure isn't ready yet, only 9% of US apartments have charging stations installed. Unfortunately, we're just not as fast at building stuff as other countries, but I imagine that's partly the fault of the government, which won't allow Americans to import good Chinese EVs, so there hasn't been as much of a push to install the infrastructure. 2/3 of China's car sales are EVs, so it's pretty obvious that they've got everything working already.
None of that's relevant to the concerns you brought up, though. What's the real difference between filling up at a gas station once a week or two and plugging in your car twice a week before you head inside? Frankly, the EV sounds like less of a hassle to fuel, you don't need to stop at a gas station.