~60% of Americans own a home, I’d wager a significant percentage of that 60% would either do fine with a standard 120V outlet or add an EV charger in their garage. That’s still a big market.
You make some good points but you are making some really broad assumptions about driving profiles that probably wouldn’t verify against actual practices. Sure, many people’s daily round trip commute falls within the the range of an EV, perhaps even outside ideal drive conditions. Mine does, easily. I also drive a lot of.long distance travel for work and for pleasure. Public chargers are available in my area but they are frequently in use, and are generally not convenient to my travel routes. Also, charging takes time-- more time than gassing up-- which extends my travel times considerably.
Further, counter to your point, home chargers are not infrastructure. Its an available receptacle in a garage or on a driveway. We charge our HEV on a 120v 15A utility receptacle on my driveway that happens to have been there. When I say infrastructure, I mean rapid chargers as common as gas pumps, and the power distribution network that supports them.
Extending the infrastructure argument, I would.also include maintenance facilities and qualified techs who can work on vehicles. Right now EV service is practically a vendor lock-in since most service is performed at dealerships. Not many 3rd party or independent shops at getting theirntecjs certified on these systems yet.
These limitations are still very real.l, and can’t be dismissed because theres a convenient place to plug in where you happen to park your car at night.
Lest you walk away feeling I’ve completely dismissed your argument: that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I wholeheartedly agree with your points about the UAW, election year politics and resistance in the automotive manufacturing and retail sectors have likely had an outsized impact in holding back EV adoption, and the growth of those support sectors. It would have been a tough sell in any other era. Its just about impossible to sell it in such a polarized market for all of the reasons we’re discussing.
Ah, anyway. We’ll get there when we’ve run out of all the other.options, just like we always do.
You make some good points but you are making some really broad assumptions about driving profiles that probably wouldn’t verify against actual practices. Sure, many people’s daily round trip commute falls within the the range of an EV, perhaps even outside ideal drive conditions. Mine does, easily. I also drive a lot of.long distance travel for work and for pleasure. Public chargers are available in my area but they are frequently in use, and are generally not convenient to my travel routes. Also, charging takes time-- more time than gassing up-- which extends my travel times considerably.
Further, counter to your point, home chargers are not infrastructure. Its an available receptacle in a garage or on a driveway. We charge our HEV on a 120v 15A utility receptacle on my driveway that happens to have been there. When I say infrastructure, I mean rapid chargers as common as gas pumps, and the power distribution network that supports them.
Extending the infrastructure argument, I would.also include maintenance facilities and qualified techs who can work on vehicles. Right now EV service is practically a vendor lock-in since most service is performed at dealerships. Not many 3rd party or independent shops at getting theirntecjs certified on these systems yet.
These limitations are still very real.l, and can’t be dismissed because theres a convenient place to plug in where you happen to park your car at night.
Lest you walk away feeling I’ve completely dismissed your argument: that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I wholeheartedly agree with your points about the UAW, election year politics and resistance in the automotive manufacturing and retail sectors have likely had an outsized impact in holding back EV adoption, and the growth of those support sectors. It would have been a tough sell in any other era. Its just about impossible to sell it in such a polarized market for all of the reasons we’re discussing.
Ah, anyway. We’ll get there when we’ve run out of all the other.options, just like we always do.
Cheers.