The perils of dependency on an electric vehicle

Motor Trend:
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Although it’s still cheaper than filling up with gas, I tend to avoid public charging because it’s significantly more expensive and considerably less convenient than doing so at home or at work. Even with today’s Level 3 DC fast-charging stations, you’ll need to be in the same place for at least 45 minutes to get a good charge. Level 2 charging, the sort you can get wired into your home, is OK if you’re going to be leaving your car in the same place for several hours, but if you’re just running into the grocery store, there’s almost no point. Unless you’re running on empty and need those couple extra miles to get home, public charging is not really worth the hassle if you’ve got a charger at home. If you don’t, you could get by on public Level 2 charging as long as you plug in almost every time you park and have made peace with the fact that you’ll rarely ever have a full battery and maximum range. Workable for city dwellers with short commutes but not ideal. Trust me, I’ve tried it.

Let’s pause for a minute for a quick primer. Level 1 charging, which is just plugging into any old outlet, gets you maybe 5 miles of ranger per hour charging. It’s basically only useful if you can plug in overnight or really need a few more miles of range to reach your destination. Level 2 is plugging into a dedicated charger or a 240-volt outlet (like for your electric clothes dryer), and it’ll get you up to 25 miles of range per hour charging. Much better, but if you’ve got a big battery and it’s empty, it still doesn’t feel like much. Level 3 is the current leader, with commercial-grade public chargers that can get even the biggest EV batteries up to 80 percent charged in 45 minutes or so. Chargers twice as powerful as Level 3 are on the horizon but not here yet.
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This is where public chargers are critical. The Bolt’s 238-mile range is great for everyday living and trips around the greater Los Angeles area. Getting somewhere farther than 120 miles—half the Bolt’s range—requires preplanning. Ideally, wherever I’m going, there’ll be a public Level 2 charger nearby and I’ll be there long enough to make it a nonissue, but that’s hardly a given and rarely the case. A Level 3 charger makes it a lot easier, but they’re far less ubiquitous even around here than Level 2s. Going to Palm Springs, as an example, requires me to stop at the outlet mall on the way back for an hour while the car charges, as there are very few Level 2 chargers in Palm Springs and none convenient to hotels and restaurants at this moment.
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I am not sure why anyone would put up with the inconvenience of having to map out charging stations for a relatively short trip.  While the author says the charging is cheaper than gas, that assumes his time is of no value.  It should also be noted that one reason it is cheaper now is that people do not have to pay the tax on gasoline.  But as more electric vehicles get on the road, they will be taxed and it will probably be in a more invasive way with big brother logging each trip made by a driver.

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