The juice runs out
The typical American road trip is as ingrained in pop culture as apple pie and rock’n’roll. It’s also what keeps many people from giving up their gas guzzlers and going all-electric.
Imagine this: You take three, maybe four friends on a cross-country road trip—say, from New Jersey to Nebraska—in an electric vehicle from your favorite automaker. After a few hours, you’re probably looking for a place to refuel—but you can’t find a charger. This is an experience familiar to many electric car owners, whether they own a Government bigwig in a hybrid minivan or the Head of one of the largest American car companies in a fully electric SUV.
Although great strides have been made in expanding access nationwide, thanks largely to the efforts of companies like Tesla or EVPassport, most people worry about finding a charger, even if they are not planning on making a big trip. This fear – the fear of charging – is one of the biggest reasons people do not buy an electric vehicle, especially since it is not exactly unusual that chargers break.
Let’s go through some of the twists and turns of electric vehicle charging. No outlets required.
By numbers
$6,000: Cash US automakers lose for every $50,000 electric car they sell in America. Some lost even more, like Ford Motors $132,000 loss per vehicle in the first quarter.
40 hours: Minimum time needed to charge a battery electric vehicle from full to 80% using a Level 1 charger. Level 2 chargers can take between 4 and 10 hours, while fast chargers reduce this time to 20 minutes to 1 hour.
206,800: Electric vehicle charging stations are currently in operation in the USA and Canada.
500,000: President Joe Biden has promised to install public electric vehicle charging stations across the United States by 2030.
33 million: According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s mid-adoption forecast, electric vehicles will be on U.S. roads by 2030. The country would need 28 million charging stations to serve these cars, most of which would be located in homes and workplaces.
Explain it to me like I’m five!
Burn
One problem with the proliferation of electric vehicles is that it is progressing faster than the number of chargers built each year. More than 30,000 New public charging stations were built in the US last year. That’s good – and definitely an improvement – but 1.2 million electric vehicles were sold in the same period. In addition, hundreds of chargers need to be replaced due to their outdated technology.
And in the next few years, more and more electric vehicles will inevitably be on the road. Why? Well, it’s because the earth is getting warmer. Last month, the 12th month in a row Record temperatures. This is the second longest streak in recorded history. As Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, explains, the Earth will only get hotter, bringing with it extreme weather conditions, unless the world gets its carbon dioxide emissions under control.
This is a big problem and has prompted most automakers to commit to phasing out yesterday’s gasoline-powered cars in order to reduce exhaust emissions. even if it puts a strain on the power gridJeep and Chrysler parent Stellantis plans to stop selling gasoline-powered cars in Europe by 2030 while halving sales in the US; General Motors has set a deadline of 2035 to stop selling gas guzzlers; Ford Motor, along with companies like Mercedes-Benz, has committed to stopping selling gasoline-powered cars by 2040. It doesn’t hurt that at least 12 states will ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars after 2035.
But as with all things, there is a silver lining. You don’t necessarily have to find an electric car charging station and wait for hours for your car to charge – just install one at your home. Or, if you live in an apartment building, try to convince the person in charge to do it on your behalf. According to several case studies collected and presented Here, the provision of chargers by the federal government can help encourage the adoption of electric vehicles and attract environmentally conscious renters.
Listen!
Powering an electric car or truck is designed for people with private garages or those who live in a large city with plenty of accessible charging stations. Residents of rural and suburban apartments can’t simply run wires out their third-story windows to charge their vehicles from a 140-volt outlet. That would take days.
If we want to have any chance of transitioning to greener vehicles, how can we accelerate access to electric vehicles for all? In episode 2 of the podcast Quartz Obsession, season 8, host Rocio Fabbro gets answers from Quartz reporter William Gavin in Electric vehicle chargers: The geographic factors driving electric vehicle adoption.
🎧 Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pandora
👓 Or, Read the transcript
Surprise quiz
The Biden administration invested $7.5 billion two years ago to build new charging stations for electric cars. How many have been built since then?
A.8
B. 48
C.200
D.456
Continue to the end to find the correct answer.
Short Story
1891: The first electric car in the USA was built by William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa. It was equipped with an electric motor that drove the right rear wheel and with the batteries newly developed by Morrison.
1914: General Motors introduces the Electrant, the first direct current charger of its kind for electric cars. A few years earlier, General Electric introduces the 6 kW Wattstation, a prototype charger for electric cars.
1922: The popularity of electric cars slowly declines in the 1920s, as prices are still higher than those of the popular gasoline-powered cars. As of 1922, fewer than 2,000 electric cars are produced annually, compared to 1.8 million cars total in the United States.
1990: General Motors presented the prototype of the Impact electric car at the Los Angeles Auto Show and, six years later, launched the EV1, the first mass-produced electric car in decades. Just over 1,000 units were produced.
2000: With the Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid, Toyota Motor is bringing electric cars back into the mainstream.
2024: The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2030, nearly one in five cars in the United States and the European Union will be electric. 17 million electric vehicles are expected to be sold this year.
Fun fact!
At least two US presidents — or their wives — drove an electric car during its first wave of popularity. While President Howard Taft preferred to drive his steam-powered White Model M, First Lady Helen Taft owned at least two electric two-seater Baker Queen Victorias. Although Taft’s successor Woodrow Wilson never learned to drive, both his first and second wives drove Helen Taft’s Baker electric car.
Look at that!
Cybersecurity experts tell the Wall Street Journal how easy it is to hack electric vehicle charging stations – and why it is a problem for the power grid.
Opinion poll
What’s stopping you from buying an electric vehicle? Or, if you already have one, what’s been your biggest concern?
- Too expensive
- Range anxiety
- Concerns about battery performance
- A lack of nearby chargers
Tell us in our 1-question survey!
💬 Let’s talk!
In last week’s survey on Drug namesSpikevax and Skyrizi were almost tied for drug names you liked best. Something about those names with S.
🐤 X this!
🤔 What do you think of today’s email?
💡 What should we think about next?
Today’s email was written by William Gavin (would have a Car with AA battery operation with a donation of $20) and published and produced by Morgan Haefner (afraid of what to make for dinner).
The correct answer to the pop quiz is A., 8. At the end of 2021, the U.S. government allocated $7.5 billion to fund electric vehicle charging stations, but only eight stations have opened so far. Most of the charging stations funded by the program are expected to open by 2027.
