Nothing really to do with EVs and more of āLets do away with the Dealership model requirementā
They just shoehorned āEV / Tesla / Rivianā in there but anything will work as long as they donāt want a dealership.
Fighting battles in 50 state legislatures against entrenched vested interests is not simple at all.
By far the bigger hurdle for most consumers is the lack of a good charging network for EVs that are not Teslas.
Change the perception from āthis is my next commuter or around-town carā to āthis is my do-everything-I-currently-do carā and demand will skyrocket.
Author talks about how Florida and NY have about same population, NY has more EV incentives but somehow Florida has way more EV registration.
Of course, author omits to mention that despite having similar populations, Florida has 3.6 million more vehicles. So itās not really surprising Florida has way more EV registrations.
Thatās on its way. More charging stations are popping up at shop/eat destinations and carmakers are making fast DC charge models like the Ioniq 5 that can get to 80% in less than 20 minutes that will help sell lower range EVs.
I think the big hurdle is the psychological one. Many people can work with even a 150mile range vehicle, they just think they canāt. I thought PHEV hybrids was the answer to this but after converting to full EVs, itās really just a mental thing for meā¦ especially as the charging networks grow.
Electrify America was supposed to be a game changer and that hasnāt happened yet. IDK if anyone seriously harbors any more expectations that EA will be a game charger. From inop chargers to a clunky payment system, does anyone choose EA when they have a different option?
Itās going to take something bigger than the piecemeal rollout thatās currently happening.
Itās not going to be gas stations, for the most part. They are just too entrenched in fossil fuels and they donāt have the available real estate.
Ever since e-commerce changed retail, itās become obvious big box stores donāt need anywhere close to the entirety of the parking lots they built. If the outer periphery of every Walmart, Target, Costco, BJās, HD and Lowes had chargers with better uptime and UX than EA, that would really make EVs go mainstream.
Not only would it be a way to directly monetize those underutilized parking spaces (through rent or royalties), imagine the amount of money spent by a captive shopper who has 20-30 minutes to kill.
Range anxiety is an issue but we still have the problem of lack of available models, although that is rapidly resolving with bigger family friendly SUVs and more affordable smaller battery pack options coming on the market.
Iām also really curious to see the demo of F-150 lighting buyers. There is a strong partisan divide in opinion of electric vehicles and if anything is going to appeal to the group that is more apathetic to EVs it is a full size pick up.
I will say that while opportunity charging (especially if free) does make me look fondly upon a place of business, itās not a deal breaker for me if itās not offered.
I agree EA has been bad. I use ChargePoint more and havenāt had issues with their charging stations.
I wouldnāt count out Big Oil. They see it coming and it would behoove them to put solar panels on their gas station overhangs and start installing fast chargers. Some are already doing that in SoCal I believe.
I see EV stations popping up in some weird places (even Superchargers) so there is real estate available. I friend of mine who works for a city just put in 4 stations in their parking lotā¦ that will never happen with a gas pump. 
Honestly for me in SoCal CP has been the worst, many chargers OOS or just plain broken. Also using the DCFC is a bit cryptic on some of them. Also a lot of them charge Parking fees on top of the charging fee so you get hit with a double whammy. I found one that charged $10.25 an hour for level 2!
EA on the other had has been good to me, Free Charging Weekends, Stations all over the place (At a Premium $$$ of course) and quick to fix as well as multiple DCFC at Walmarts and Targets. Once I found an issue, a quick phone call solved it.
If it is SCE, thatās because they are paying companies and cities to put in stations right now.
Interesting. The parking fee for CP that Iāve seen only kicks in if your car is full chargeā¦ itās to prevent squatting. However, that charge is set by the operator not CP because my friend at the city is able to change all those parameters on their CP units.
My EA experience was only one time but there are not many EA ones I guess near where I goā¦ more CP like at Disneyland or other shopping centers.
Either wayā¦ Tesla Supercharging is super simpleā¦ no app or credit card other than what you have already for your Tesla anyways. That is the advantage that Elon has.
Oh im highly jealous of elons supercharging, the other oems could never figure it out as anything done by a committee takes forever and is usually fād up because of no oversight. But you hate EA because of one charger? Lol, i hate CP because of 15 chargers two of them at downtown disneyland. And the parking fee was at a local gas station dcfc, 30c kwh, plus1.20 hr parking fee starting immediate. Thats like 50c per kwh
Big Oil doesnāt own many gas stations. I think 4-5% of all the stations in the country was the number a few years ago, and theyāve only sold more since.
So gas stations would be another piecemeal expansion strategy requiring negotiation with each owner.
They are not all standalone operations, many are owned by distributors who each own a few to a few hundred. But itās still dozens or hundreds of separate negotiations vs hypothetically getting one agreement with Exxon the big corporation whose logo hangs on ~15k gas stations.
Sorryā¦ I donāt āhateā EA because of one experienceā¦ I just have had a bad one and have read others have a bad experience with EA too (ie ID4 owners). But I donāt hate anyone trying further electrificationā¦ the more the merrier!
I donāt mean Big Oil as the companiesā¦ just Big Oil as an entity that represents the gasoline infrastructure. Whether itās the actual companies, distributors or mom&pop gas stationsā¦ eventually they will have to look into EV charging.
The gas stations best suited to expansion in EVs are comprehensive service stations like sheetz and wawa, stations that offer sit down service will have an edge.
Both have started installing super chargers, and 350w electrify America chargers even in hick PA. They get blocked by diesels a lot but hey thatās life.
Buc-eeās, Pilot, Loveās, TA, Petro, Kum&Go etc.
Welp, I spent so much time I ended up on Chinese youtube. NGL the styling isā¦ eyecatching
thatās actually kind of cool