Hoodwinked, bamboozled
You’ve been had, EV enthusiasts. Yes, both of you.
Electric vehicle drivers get candid about charging: 'Logistical nightmare’
Charging on the go is neither easy nor fast.
YouTube personality Steve Hammes leased a Hyundai Kona Electric sport utility vehicle for his 17-year-old daughter Maddie for three reasons: it was affordable, practical and allowed Maddie to put her cash toward college, not fuel. Now, the upstate New York resident has a dilemma many EV owners can relate to: finding available charging stations far away from home.
"We're going through the planning process of how easily Maddie can get from Albany to Gettysburg [College] and where she can charge the car," Hammes told ABC News. "It makes me a little nervous. We want fast chargers that take 30 to 40 minutes -- it would not make sense to sit at a Level 2 charger for hours. There isn't a good software tool that helps EV owners plan their trips.”
Last week the Biden administration said Tesla would open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla owners by the end of 2024. The plan includes 3,500 Tesla fast chargers and 4,000 of its slower, Level 2 chargers -- a small number in Tesla's sprawling network. Setting up an account on Tesla's app is also required for access.
John Voelcker, an industry expert on EVs and the former editor of Green Car Reports, said this arrangement will allow Tesla to learn a lot about U.S. drivers -- "how you charge, where you drive and what car you have." He does not expect Tesla to commit to additional charging stations.
"Tesla does not want its highly reliable and tightly integrated charging network to be clogged with people whose cars can't charge as fast as Teslas," he told ABC News.
President Joe Biden prioritized emissions-free vehicles in the 2021 infrastructure law, vowing to increase the number of green vehicles on America's highways and local roads. The president's goals include installing 500,000 new chargers across the U.S. and dramatically boosting EV sales by 2030.
Voelcker said he's seen little improvement in the nation's charging infrastructure in the last four years and frequently hears complaints of dead chargers and sticky cables.
"The incentive right now is to get stations in the ground," he said. "It's not making sure they actually work."
Gee, given how decrepit and frail America's electrical grid now is, I can’t wait until all those new laws mandating EVs For All! catches up with it, and the rolling blackouts start. As Bill says:
I regard them as an innovation designed to solve a problem that doesn’t exist using a method that would only make the problem worse if it did exist.
Not to mention greatly exacerbating other problems—such as the aforementioned power-grid fragility, just for starters. Then there’s the explosions, the fires, disposal of those giant batteries, etc etc. But hey, don’t anybody get the idea that it’s ALL downside, that there are no positive aspects to EV ownership. Perish the thought.
Parking spots at EV chargers are sometimes occupied by gas-powered vehicles, Rosenholtz said. Or a charging cord is too short and won't connect to the vehicle. Then there are times when the charger is dead...or the wait time is more than an hour. The bad experiences are frustrating, he said. The one upside? Meeting fellow EV drivers.
"I can meet a lot of cool people at these stations," he said. "I always ask them how their EV experience has been. One Polestar owner helped me with a payment issue I had."
Hammes said EV owners have also come up to him at public charging stations, knocking on the Kona's window to say hello.
"It's a social experience...EV owners love to talk about their cars and talk to other EV owners," he noted. "It's a new tech and everyone is learning at the same pace and sharing their experiences."
Well good, I’m so happy for you biddable nitwits. So in other words, a bunch of shitlibs with way more money than sense standing around congratuling each other for Saving The Planet then, enjoying the pleasant aroma and subtle bouquet of their own rotten farts while they wait on their play-purties to charge enough to maybe get them back home again. Yeah, hard pass on all that from over here, I’m afraid.
Hammes, a first-time EV owner, said his experience overall with the Kona Electric has been positive. He installed a 240-volt Level 2 charger in his garage last December and has only praise for the Hyundai Home system. His one gripe? The sales associates at his local Hyundai dealership were unknowledgeable and poorly trained about the intricacies of EV ownership, he explained.
"The dealership experience is so far behind. I get solicitations for oil changes. The staff is so disconnected from the product they're selling," he said.
Heh. “Disconnected.” I see what you did there, fool.
A blind fool at that, being unable to see what’s really behind FederalGovCo’s forceful push for universal adoption of these expensive, troublesome toys: the mandatory curtailing of individual autonomy and freedom of movement. It's about the exact same thing everything the Überstadt megalith does is ultimately all about: Power, and Control.