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by magicalhippo 2226 days ago
> people want the freedom to drive as far as they can, because it’s hard to predict when they will need that capability, and charging is very slow

For most people, if they really need to drive hundreds of miles unexpectedly, I doubt spending 15 minutes at a high-speed charger to top up the batteries will be an issue.

1 comments

As someone who drives an EV, I can tell you that it’s not the long distance trips, it’s having an unexpectedly busy day of errands in cold weather that gets you—realizing that you’re starting out at only 50% charge, which means you can’t make that last trip into the suburbs at the end of the day. There are very few fast chargers in densely populated areas and they’re often malfunctioning, or have queues. They also hurt your battery, so not to be used on a regular basis.
In Norway where chargers are a lot more common, it's not an issue. Of course if I want to charge at 4pm at a popular place it may be a queue but most of the times many chargers are available and functional.
> There are very few fast chargers in densely populated areas

I live in Norway so not a huge issue, and I expect it to get better. Circle K for example is pushing hard to build high-speed chargers at their stations.