To One Degree, or Another
Regardless of your opinion on fully electric vehicles, it won’t be too much longer before it will be impossible to purchase a vehicle that isn’t capable of charging. General Motors is in the process of converting their entire lineup to Electric Drive only. Other companies are phasing in EV and PHEV vehicles into their lineup. This is a good thing.
My last fully ICE vehicle died in 2019. I went a whole year without a car of my own, relying on borrowing vehicles from friends and family, and using the local transit when I could. I bought a PHEV (Chevrolet Volt) in 2020 (about 4 weeks before lockdown), and haven’t looked back.
Are 100% EVs a perfect fit for everyone… No. But having that electric range, even if it only charges at 4 miles per hour off of your home outlets, is a great option. And 14kwh (the capacity of my vehicle), isn’t going to break the bank, adding a few dollars to your home electricity bill each time you have to fully charge, depending on your electricity cost.
The problem at this point is charging when out and about. Public chargers are slowly appearing, but too many people have the wrong idea on where to and how to set them up. We need Level 2 Chargers (those compatible with 99% of vehicles), everywhere. Restaurants, grocery stores, theaters, hardware stores, etc; cities really need to invest in the infrastructure to help draw people downtown, and help revitalize those communities. That way everyone can “top off”, when they are out and about. Charge or don’t, it doesn’t matter. People will make the decision best for them. We need DC chargers, as well. Both in a setup are ideal. More DC chargers are needed closer to highways and freeways, with the ability for many newer vehicles to fully charge in 15-45 minutes, places like McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, IHOP, Denny’s, Red Robin, and Olive Garden, should be investing in chargers at all of their facilities. Rarely is any stop at their facility, less than 15 minutes, but it could be a value add to the facility, and make them more attractive to the traveler. These DC chargers should also exist at Walmart, Fred Meyer, Meijer, Target, and other big-box stores, but in lesser quantities, than their food-based cousins.
What we don’t want is to replace gas stations with massive EV chargers, except for truck stops. EV charging should be convenient, and omnipresent, so that everyone has options.
However, that will all be a moot point if we don’t educate people on the benefits of adding EV range to normal vehicles. Imagine being able to run to the store for groceries, and never needing to buy gas. Or having your commute completely EV. Instead of buying gas weekly or biweekly, you buy it quarterly. That is what my experience has been. In the first year I owned my Volt, I bought gas the day I purchased the vehicle, and again after taking my parents to the airport a few weeks later. I didn’t buy gas again until 6 months later, and even then, it was only a half a tank. My vehicle log calculated at 515MPG fuel economy. In that time, I didn’t really do anything different than I normally would, even with lockdown, I was still driving daily to work, still had to do grocery shopping, etc. Since then, I’ve been a bit more adventurous, driving from Seattle to Portland and back, in a single day, getting 60MPG combined in the process, but fuel wise it was only about $40 (at $5/gal), for the whole trip, much better than any other ICE vehicle I have ever used for the same trip.
So imagine, if you will; your new car will still be able to use gasoline, but you have that battery you can just use when you aren’t going too far (30-60miles), and you can plug in nearly anywhere you go. It would be like phone. Simple, easy, affordable, and omnipresent. You won’t HAVE to be fully electric, but once you get used to it, you may be tempted to go that way. I know I have certainly been tempted, and may make the leap in the near future.