On EV Charging
There’s been some super weird discourse the last few weeks about electric vehicles (EVs) on Threads, particularly with regards to charging vs. filling up a gas tank, time-wise.
I love EVs. I love my EV, in particular. It’s my daily driver, and has been for almost two years at this point (bought it in June 2022). BUT, we do no one any favors when we aren’t honest about the challenges of driving and charging EVs in the current environment. So, here’s my comparison.
I own and regularly drive two vehicles:
2022 Kia EV6 AWD Wind (electric, daily driver)
2021 Subaru WRX STI Base model (internal combustion engine (ICE), mostly weekends and trips)
I love them both. They’re both really good at the things they do well, and marginal at the things they don’t.
In general, EVs are ideal for people who:
Don’t regularly drive more than 100 miles in a day.
Have regular access to reliable tier-2 charging for long periods of time at places they routinely spend time (home, work, etc.).
Don’t do a lot of unanticipated road trips.
The first one applies to most people (the average American spends about 27 minutes commuting each way; unless someone is driving close to 120 mph, they’re not going more than 100 miles/day). The second one is much less common; around 65% of Americans live in detached homes, but some percentage of people who don’t do have access to chargers either at home or at work. The third … is unpredictable.
I fit the first two categories neatly. My regular commute to Seattle is about 60 miles each way, but I mostly do them on different days (up one day, down a couple of days later). I have a Tier 2 charger in my driveway at home, which is rarely blocked by another car, and I have free Tier 2 charging at work (and I rarely have a hard time finding one, except during Home weeks). My mom also installed a Tier 2 charger at her house, the place I spend the most time other than my house or work. The third … well, I’m the most-likely caretaker for my mom when she gets sick. This isn’t an issue most of the time, but when it becomes an issue it can be a harsh one.
So, let’s look at a trip to Hood River from Olympia to see my mom. It’s around 170 miles, door to door, with no detours (and I’m frequently tasked to stop at Costco for her on the way). The last fifty or so miles is through the Columbia River Gorge, which can be pretty dicey in bad weather, is often super windy which impacts range in unpredictable ways, and charging options in the western Gorge are limited to Tier-1 charging, so I mostly try not to enter the Gorge without at least 100 miles of range (in a pinch, I’ve done it and dropped down to around 10 miles of range when I arrived, but man was the range anxiety real when I did that).
My EV6 has a theoretical range of around 274 miles. (In winter, it’s closer to 240, and in summer closer to 300.) If I want to hit the Gorge with 100 miles of range left for safety, I need to leave Olympia with at least 220 miles of range or so. That’s not bad for planned trips; I can just plug in my car overnight and get a full charge. The challenge comes with unplanned trips. For a lot of reasons, mostly having to do with battery longevity, I try to keep my EV6 charged between 20% and 80% most of the time unless I know that I’m going to be doing a long drive. At 80% battery, my best-case, driving-65-with-minimal-headwind, range is 192 in winter, 240 in summer. You can see the problem here. It gets worse if I need to stop somewhere else in Portland or along the way. And this isn’t an EV6 problems; it’s almost the best non-Tesla option for this exercise, as it’s got a pretty big battery, a high-voltage architecture, and battery preconditioning for Tier-3 charging. As a result, it’s one of the fastest charging EVs on the market. Can a different car avoid having to charge? Maybe. There are a few cars that theoretically have better range than the EV6, but not many (and no, the Tesla Model S doesn’t count as one given what we know about their batteries and how much they lie to you about range), and they’re all a lot more expensive than the EV6 (which ain’t cheap itself).
Basically, this boils down to a need to charge en-route most of the time when I go see my mom. Which is fine, right? There’s a Tier 3 charger at the Outlet Mall in Troutdale right before I head down the Gorge. The EV6 runs on a high-voltage architecture, which means that it charges pretty quick. Under optimal conditions, it should take me about 15 minutes to go from 20% charge to 80% charge. I mean, it’s happened once in almost two years so it’s totes possible. Usually, though, it’s more like 30 minutes from the time I plug in.1 But that’s fine too; that’s long enough to let Denali sniff some plants and go to the bathroom, and for me to walk across the street and get a cup of coffee, or maybe do a couple of Duolingo lessons. Is it slower than filling a gasoline engine? Sure. But marginally; I’d still probably let Denali out and stretch my legs anyway.
The problem, of course, is that 15-30 minute timeframe is from *when I plug in.* If, miracle of miracles, there’s an open Tier 3 charger when I pull in, I’m fine. That basically never happens, though. Electrify America, the operator of those chargers (and a lot of the other public ones) has an abysmal maintenance program. I think I’ve seen all four of those chargers in operating order maybe twice in two years. They were all replaced last summer (a fun thing to discover as my car hit 20 miles of remaining range as I pulled in to see the palleted chargers!), and they still haven’t all been up at once since. Between a limited number of functional chargers, and a population of folks either driving up or down the Gorge or spending the afternoon at the Outlets with their car plugged in the whole time, I VERY rarely get to plug in when I pull in. My average wait the last year or so has been between thirty minutes and an hour before I can plug in. Which means that that 15-30 minute charge is now more like a 1:00-1:30 charge. For a three hour drive.
Contrast that to my Subaru.2 The range is around 300 miles on the freeway, depending on how I’m driving. Because it’s really just a weekend car and there’s no reason not to leave it full, I almost always fill it up on my way home and it’s usually sitting with at least 250 miles of range. I mostly don’t need to stop on the way to Hood River, unless I feel like filling with cheaper gas. The worst case scenario is that I have to stop somewhere and refuel. I happened to fill up at Costco in Portland on Saturday around noon (the nightmare scenario a Threads EV-booster used to question why anyone would choose an ICE car over an EV). I waited in line for ten minutes, and it took me about 5 minutes to fill the car. A total of slightly over 15 minutes for a three hour drive. I could have stopped at a dozen gas stations near Costco with no lines at cut the stop to 5 minutes for slightly more money.
Fueling for a trip to Hood River
Before anyone fights the hypo:
“That’s silly, Phil. Go somewhere else!” Tried it. Same problem; very few chargers, many non-functional, people leaving their car sitting for long periods of time. The systems that are supposed to tell you if chargers are open are also pretty inconsistent/shaky; I’ve seen Troutdale marked as 0/4 in use and pulled in to see the three functional chargers occupied and two additional cars waiting.
“Charge somewhere else along the way!” Tried that too. Haven’t yet found a place between Olympia and Hood River where I can get consistent charging. The earlier I charge, the longer it takes (see previous footnote about non-linear charging rates).
“Plan better and fully charge before you go!” I do my best. But when you get the call that your mom is being admitted to the hospital, you pretty much have to go and figure it out on the way.
The super shitty thing is, of course, that while I’m sitting at the Troutdale Tier 3 chargers fuming at the asshole in the Polestar who’s taking 30 minutes to get his battery from 95% to 100% (for example), I can look fifty feet and see a dozen open Tesla chargers that I can’t use because proprietary tech and a closed system. [This is why states need to start regulating EV charging as a utility and bar proprietary charging stations.]
I love my EV. It’s great 95% of the time. But, I bought my STI when I did because I got stuck in Troutdale for almost two hours while my mom was being admitted to the hospital because I couldn’t get a charge in Troutdale and I was sitting at less than 5% of my battery.
We need to be honest about the downsides of EVs. They don’t outweigh the benefits by any means. But when we pretend they’re not real, and consequential, we do a disservice to everyone.
1 EV batteries don’t charge linearly either; generally they charge much faster when they’re at low charge, and slow down a lot as they get closer to full. This is why anyone charging much above 90% at a public charger where there’s a line is an asshole and should be roundly mocked.
2 I keep wanting to call it my STI, but that’s just begging for confusion and mockery.
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