Malls and far ends of Walmart parking lots are the worst spot for fast DC charging. Forcing drivers to deal with loads of traffic (malls), navigate parking lots/parking garages, plug in and (if it works as advertised), have 20-30 minutes to what? Shop?
It’s barely enough time to walk across the giant parking lot, pee, and walk back. Then god forbid the charging session fails.
Malls/big box stores where you want to linger are ideal for Level 2 chargers, not Level 3 chargers.
Fast L3 chargers should be at coffee shops, quick-eats shops, with plenty of clean, close restrooms. That’s all that’s needed.
My point about the RZ is that’s it’s not a great vehicle. It’s Toyotas half-assed attempt to have something on the market because they f*ed up and put all their resources into hydrogen.
EA experiences are obviously hit and miss, and I’ve had some bad ones. But I suspect the experiences tilt very regional. For example, EA just put a new site in my town, and it’s rarely used and pretty great. I also road trip up and down the Northeast in my IX (and Model 3/Y before that) and have had 80% good EA experiences. I don’t mind the additional delay considering the cost savings of free charging on road trips. In addition to EA I use EVGo, Chargepoint & Livingston Charge Port (aka Juicepimp) locations.
I had a pretty good experience with EA today but that’s really the sticking point. At it’s best it does what you expect it to do and nothing else.
At its worst, It’s truly miserable and anyone aside from an expert or very seasoned EV traveler is going to be considering alternatives after a few strikes.
You’re absolutely right - a little bit of research and road trips are no problemo in an EV.
All those scare stories written 6-8 months ago by journalists doing no research and winging it in an EV then writing how horrible it was because they thought they could pull into a Chevy dealer in Mississippi at 3am and charge up were sadly mistaken.
Those who do a little pre-planning have no problems on road trips. I’ve taken many and know where I’ll be stopping and understanding the requirements of the vehicle I’m in.
Americans are generally idiots. I was at a Hertz recently and a woman returned her rental so upset that the seat had an uncomfortable lump in it. The kind agent told her about lumbar controls and asked why she didn’t call. (Or at least gOoGlE search!)
(Thus, foisting EVs on unsuspecting rental customers (idiots) is the worst practice known to man, BTW)
+1 to all of this. My MIL is a very intelligent person but if a 76 year old can figure out 1500 mile round trips in a 2019 Bolt in Appalachia then so can you.
But, she plans it out. Rental counters handing over a surprise EV in a place you’ve never been is asking for problems.
I made an active decision to not bother with free charging once I picked up my car, because I did not want the car to run my life and how I did things. We have a level 2 charger in the apartment which charges $0.30/kWh, which isn’t cheap, but still cheaper than regular gas for an equivalent car.
Most of the time it’s kind of difficult! And I catch myself thinking, “am I really doing this to save $10?” After a month of EV ownership I’ve been much better at controlling myself - though every time I actually get free charging because I am going to the mall/restaurant/whatever, I feel an immense amount of happiness
I don’t drive that often/long distance, so that helps in making sure like I’m not “losing out” on free driving
I suppose I should read up on how that actually works… but how does it know when you actually want to change vs when you’re just checking to the side? Is it actually reliable? It sounds gimmicky (based on zero actual research, so I could be entirely wrong!)
