[zdragnar]

I recently made a 1600 mile trip by car. In all of the places we stopped, I saw exactly one place that had EV charging set up.

Tesla, and non-hybrid EV in general, have a co-dependent relationship with charging stations to overcome "range anxiety". This is especially true for those od us who live in cold climates and must drive in conditions unfavorable to operating batteries, such as -20 to -40 degree weather.

I'm also very curious to see what the electric pickup trucks that all the manufacturers are not-so-secretly working on end up being capable of. A frequent consequence of rural life is needing to haul heavy things, such as wood for repairing out buildings or outdoor furnaces, or towing boats to go fishing.

[lazyjones]

>I recently made a 1600 mile trip by car. In all of the places we stopped, I saw exactly one place that had EV charging set up.

I made a 2800 Km (5 days) trip through Italy a few months ago, it was a breeze with SC and abetterrouteplanner.com, never had to wait at chargers. To give you an idea what kind of roads we travelled: http://666kb.com/i/dxjj2jkx7h0uvhmmg.jpg

Range anxiety: 0. Cost: only road tolls. I can imagine range anxiety and charging costs being an issue with other brands of EV (non-Tesla chargers in Italy are often horrendously expensive) and of course there's more planning involved than with an ICE, but for Tesla owners, this has been a non-issue for quite a while (at least in western/central/northern Europe and most likely the USA).

[HeWhoLurksLate]

> and most likely the USA

The USA is huge. Imagine an EU with 50 represented countries, and a common-ish heritage, spread them out across twice the land mass, and you have the USA- lots of cities, lots of land. Just like the EU, different countries (states) have different adoption rates. In short, parts of the USA have much better support and adoption of EV's, and the adoption will likely radiate out from there.

[rconti]

Right, though the parent specifically called out Tesla, which is funding superchargers across the USA regardless of local culture.

It's more of an issue with non-Tesla EVs, in the US and EU alike, as stated.

[zdragnar]

> most likely the USA

Only limited areas of the USA, as evidenced by my recent trip. That'll change over time, but as you also pointed out with the case of non-tesla chargers, one limitation of EV in general is the co-dependency on new infrastructure.

[breakyerself]

You can get from virtually anywhere in the USA to anywhere else in the USA using the supercharger network. The problem is you're expecting to see them on every corner like gas stations, but most people with electric vehicles charge every night. They wake up with a full tank. So they don't need charging stations for day to day use. Just longer road trips. So not as many are needed. They're also often tucked away in a hotel parking lot somewhere that you don't notice unless you're actively trying to find it.

[dragonwriter]

> Only limited areas of the USA, as evidenced by my recent trip.

For Tesla chargers, that might be the case, but there are a lot more multi-standard chargers supporting CHAdeMO, CCS1 & 2, etc., than Tesla chargers in the USA. Tesla has the biggest single-owner network, but that doesn't actually put them ahead in infrastructure supporting their cars, because they are the only ones relying on single-owner infrastructure.

[zdragnar]

I did a bit of research along the route I followed, and the worst stretch seemed to be around 120 miles of no charging stations. The rest of the trip typically had them between 15 and 20 minutes away from the freeway.

If I needed to spend an hour (driving off freeway + charging) for every 200 or 250 or even 300 miles, that would have made the drive far less pleasant.

[illegalsmile]

As someone who also travels by ICE vehicle I don't look for EV chargers and they're not on my mind so I don't see them. That's probably not at all the case for someone with an EV especially a Tesla owner who has that information at their fingertips in the vehicle. I know around here they're at malls, movie theaters and a little more off the highway than gas stations. That said I don't know where you were driving so it's entirely possible there weren't many charging stations around.

[zdragnar]

Very significant portions of the trip were between large cities. If we had had to zig-zag back and forth between cities with movie theaters or shopping malls that had charges, it would have added a significant number of hours to the trip.

Even with an ICE, there was a (small) amount of range anxiety, in that some areas had 30-45 miles between exits with gas stations near by. Get caught up in a podcast or some good music, and if you're not paying attention, it's not impossible to run out of gas out there.