[Mike]

Megan McCardle from the Washington Post sums up the pros and cons of
ELECTRIC VEHICLES. I used to be an electric car skeptic. I’ve changed my mind
and am seriously considering a trade-in on my fuel.
MEGAN MCARDLE | WASHINGTON POST
It’s the worst possible time to buy a car, but events recently forced my family
to do it. I regret the shudder-inducing premium we paid to get our hands on a
little piece of CarMax’s pandemic-depleted inventory.
But I also regret having to buy now because I’d hoped we could hold onto our
old vehicle long enough to make our next purchase electric.
Once an electric vehicle skeptic, I gradually came around as the technology
matured, and automakers got serious about electrifying their lineups. A big
order from Hertz boosted Tesla’s market capitalization above $1 trillion
Monday. Governments are also behind this push; President Biden wants EVs to
make up half of all U.S. car sales by 2030, up from about 2% now.
There’s a lot to like about an all-electric future. EVs are cleaner, obviously.
They’re quieter, too. And of course, they reduce our dependence on a
commodity currently soaring in price.
Then there are the personal benefits: On average, electric vehicles accelerate
faster, cost less to maintain and fuel more cheaply (at least, if you charge at
home) than cars with internal combustion engines.
Plus, my husband and I are nearly the ideal case for an electric car: urbanites
who drive fairly frequently, but not very far, so we don’t need to worry much
about range.
And yet, we did not buy an electric car for two reasons: the cost of the
vehicles, and our inability to figure out where the heck we’d charge it.
Even with tax credits, and even with lower costs for fuel and maintenance, EVs
still seem pricey compared with their internal-combustion counterparts. That’s
a problem that I hope will be solved in coming years, as mass production

generates cost efficiencies. But now, there’s often still a significant premium
for going green.
Yet with all the other benefits, we might have been willing to pay extra, except
for one major problem: Like many people who live in dense, walkable
neighborhoods, we park our car on the street, leaving us nowhere to charge it.
OK, not literally nowhere; we could have paid to get an outlet installed in front
of our rowhouse, and hoped we’d be able to find a spot out front often enough
to keep the car powered. Or we could have planned our weeks around finding
public charging stations where we could regularly top up. But both seemed
rather speculative for such a major investment, and in the case of public
chargers, quite inconvenient. Road trips also posed a quandary — if we did
want to go more than a couple hundred miles, how long would we have to
stop just to recharge the battery? (Answer: It varies by model and charger, but
can run from 30 minutes, in the best case, to hours.) We’re not alone in having
this problem, says Loren McDonald, a consultant working on EVs and EV-
charging projects.
He told me that 35 to 40% of households lack access to easy charging, and
ironically the problem is greatest among the people who otherwise should be
the natural market for electric vehicles: urbanite apartment-dwellers.
As for road-trips, McDonald calls them the “noose around the neck of electric
vehicles.”
Neither problem is insoluble.
There are still plenty of garage owners able to install a relatively inexpensive
charging station that can power up their vehicle overnight. As those folks shift
toward electric vehicles, it will become more economical for stores and other
public places to install charging stations where you can pay by the kilowatt
while you’re inside.
Apartment managers will also presumably face pressure to install chargers in
their garages or risk losing tenants.
But that still leaves the street parkers with a problem that local governments
and utilities will probably need to solve for us. And there’s no guarantee that
any of it will happen on the ambitious timetables suggested by automakers
and the president, unless all levels of government work to provide a push.

I’m not just talking about the billions the administration has proposed to spend
building charging stations, which is at best a down payment. We also need to
make grid upgrades and rationalize the patchwork of state and local
regulations and utility rules that take time and money to navigate. Chris
Nelder, who used to work in the carbon-free mobility practice at the Rocky
Mountain Institute, and now runs a podcast called “The Energy Transition
Show,” told me, “Because this process is so complicated and so messy, we
found that developers would actually have to develop 2.5 sites to get one
through.”
That’s a problem the market can’t solve, no matter how cheap or attractive
electric vehicles become. Nor is it likely to be solved entirely by farsighted local
governments and utilities voluntarily preparing themselves for the future long
before it arrives.
It will take uniform state and federal standards, and probably some financial
assistance, to clear the roadblocks that currently stand between millions of
Americans and our first electric car.
Follow Megan McArdle on Twitter, @ asymmetricinfo. FROM THE
WASHINGTON POST.

[John]

I recently read an article about how people who park on the street find it
hard to choose an EV due to no electrical outlets. If you drive a Tesla, you go to
the Supercharger for a few minutes as needed just like you go to the gas
station now with your ICE vehicle. Tesla is the only manufacturer that planned.
Tesla provides a vast network of their owned super-fast charging filling
stations, "Superchargers", all over the USA and internationally. As a Tesla
owner you do not have to rely on the hard to find and less powerful public
chargers. Good information is key. Misinformation and myths can hide reality
and solid facts. I do agree that being able to charge at home where you park is
great, but it is certainly not mandatory with a Tesla. Adopting Electric Vehicles
is a key to saving our planet. Also, if you think an EV is pricey wait till you
experience the depreciation cost of the recently purchased ICE vehicle!

[Todd]

This is a well written article. Having been an EV owner ourselves in the
days when we had an abundance of rooftop solar for charging, owning an all-
EV was the most satisfying (and lowest cost of ownership) driving experience
ever. As we were a 2-car family, we kept one ICE to address the concerns many
have expressed here. However, as with the introduction with ANY new

technology, there will always be a spread of attitudes depending upon the
individual’s comfort-level. This is a good thing in a free-market society as this
range of people is what keeps innovators busy searching for new and improved
solutions. Do what you feel comfortable with, in the knowledge the technology
WILL adapt to address any concerns you may currently have.

[Linda]

My hubby converted Saturn Vue into EV in 2008. I bought Tesla S in
2013. Husband bought Tesla X in 2017. We have Solar Panels and Battery
storage system. Love EV and solar.

[Author]

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