Charging an EV is Still Too Hard, Even in Places Where It Shouldn't Be

by Chris Teague

Published: February 21st, 2023

charging an ev is still too hard even in places where it shouldn t be

Though we’re a little past the early adopter phase of electric vehicles, owners still face challenges that gas vehicles don’t have. Scott Case, a Seattle, Washington-based EV owner, recently took to LinkedIn to outline his charging horror story.

Case is the co-founder and CEO of Recurrent, a used EV buying and selling platform. His experience included trying several chargers, calling tech support, and unattended vehicles with completed charge cycles. Case’s Volkswagen ID.4 needed a few charging stops to get him and his family home to Seattle, and it appears that none of his visits went smoothly. The worst part of the story is that this all took place in the Pacific Northwest, a region that fosters and engages with new technologies well ahead of most of the country.

Though it’s challenging to make a news story out of one person’s experience, I’m familiar with Case’s woes as an occasional EV tester here in New England. Even in and near Boston, home to MIT, Harvard, and millions of brilliant people, the EV charging scene is blindingly frustrating. On a recent trip from midcoast Maine to an event south of Boston, I had to stop four times to find one working charger. Units labeled with 350kW charging speeds rarely exceeded 150kW, and there were at least a half-dozen fully-charged cars parked in precious charging spots.

Case calls on Electrify America to do better, but the whole country has quite a long way to go before we’re ready for full electrification. Billions of dollars are on the way to improve charging infrastructure, though, and even Tesla is helping by opening part of its Supercharger network. So while things won’t get better overnight, it will be a lot easier to charge EVs in the coming years.

[Image: Volkswagen]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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9 of 89 comments

Deanst on Feb 22, 2023

Most of the comments seem to validate the view that unless you want an extra $50,000 vehicle sitting in your driveway depreciating most of the time, EVs are not practical.

4 Reply
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- Art Vandelay on Feb 22, 2023
  
  36 for the truck new, 9 for the EV used. Both paid for. pretty short break even given what i was spending on fuel to daily the truck or whatever V8 Toy car I had and I never have to worry about what the Arabs are doing and it is fun to drive.
  
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- EBFlex on Feb 22, 2023
  
  They were never practical. They are nothing more than a government funded boondoggle.
  
  2
- 95_SC on Feb 22, 2023
  
  Says the guy who has never owned one. Let me guess…you hard all about it from your sales manager buddy though, so you know. GTFOH with your nonsense
  
  Like
- Daniel J on Feb 23, 2023
  
  I think they are practical for those who have garages where they can charge and own an ICE vehicle for long range driving. The problem is that many/most don't fall into that camp.
  
  1
- Astigmatism on Feb 23, 2023
  
  The average American household has 1.88 cars. I'll fully admit that families with only one car probably shouldn't have that car be a BEV, but that's not the most common case. For suburban households with multiple cars and at least one person doing a relatively local daily commute - which describes tens of millions of American families - having one of those cars be a BEV makes a lot of sense.
  
  Like
- 95_SC on Feb 23, 2023
  
  NO WAY!!! IT SHOULD BE A JACKED UP SILVERAAAAAIIIIDO BECAUSE MUH FREEDOM!!!
  
  Like
Bkojote on Feb 22, 2023

If all you do is supercharge the numbers are slightly ahead of breaking even, but if you charge at home hell yeah. I have a few friends with a Model 3 + Solar at home. Their 'fuel' costs when charging at home (which is 90% of their driving) is dirt dirt cheap.

Considering the unstable fuel prices we've had (thanks refineries for safety violations) it's definitely the way to go.

1 Reply
- 95_SC on Feb 22, 2023
  
  Yep.
  
  Like

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