Whether you are just tired of spending a small fortune on gas-guzzling cars or are worried about the environment, it seems that just about everyone is talking about electric vehicles and just how important they are to our future. However, as EV owners nationwide are learning firsthand, the charging trials might be even worse than filling up with gas.
Now, to be sure, this isn’t exactly news. After all, there have been many issues on hand since the modern-day electric car’s conception. And first and foremost has been its battery and charging abilities.
But as more and more people buy into the narrative of climate change and the so-called cheaper fuel of EVs, those struggles are being made that much more public.
The latest report that heavily criticizes the push for EVs comes from ABC, which went into detail about a few of the problems American EV owners have encountered and which don’t seem to be going away.
In the report, EV owner Steve Hammes explains just how problematic finding adequate charging stations are. Like many Americans, Hammes decided to go electric, thinking it would cut down on the amount of money his family, particularly his 17-year-old and college-bound daughter, has to spend on gas.
After all, it’s not like gas is cheap right now. Naturally, the idea was to get her something she could save money for college with.
But as they soon learned, higher-than-normal gas prices are the least of their worries.
In particular, the family is worried about her upcoming drive from their home in Albany, New York, to Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. While gas stations might be plentiful along the way, the same cannot be said for EV charging stations.
“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.” Let’s say the planning is a bit more involved than simply plugging the address into Google maps.
And the Hammes are not the only ones to have found this as a problem on longer trips.
Furthermore, with the colder months still in full swing, many more have found that charging more often is required. Apparently, the battery doesn’t do nearly as well or hold a charge for as long as it does during warmer weather.
Both Sharon Bragg and Tony Quiroga talked to ABC about this issue, detailing experiences in which they were forced to stop much more frequently to charge their EVs due to nothing more than cold weather.
Other EV owners backed up their stories as winter storms have made their way nationwide over the last few months.
Another issue is that once you are lucky enough to find a charging station, which is few and far between, it’s all too common to find that they don’t work or just aren’t practically set up. Some chargers don’t work at all. Some charging cords are dead; others aren’t long enough to reach the car.
And for the ones that do work, there are usually long lines.
Then once you get to the working charger, you are stuck there for hours – just waiting for your vehicle to charge. Plus, those hours and the voltage used adds up, often costing owners more than filling up with gas.
Now, as technology improves, these problems will inevitably go away. However, that day is not today. EVs might be the future of driving. But based on just these few problems, it’s clear that the future isn’t here yet. And we’ve got quite a long way before it will be.
My advice: hold off on going green until all the kinks are worked out…
