The Expert Podcast

So this video is being recorded on Memorial Day weekend, but it really doesn't matter when it's being recorded. The subject is the same. The subject is: can electric vehicles be charged properly, meaning is there enough capacity to charge vehicles? Obviously, the Memorial Day weekend is the start of the summer travel season, and a lot of people are driving during that period of time in the summer. The question is: can you take the American road trip in an electric car? Are you able to get charged battery range and access enough to take the same trip you would in the gasoline car?

According to the article, it says it depends on where you live if you want to do it without fear of running out of juice. Well, you don't want to have fear when you're driving a cross-country trip. It says the infrastructure needed to support electric transportation is ahead of where it was last year but nowhere near where it needs to be. If you are in California, you're pretty good. But what about other metro areas? Put a message in the comments where you live.

Do you see a lot of electric vehicle charging stations? Would you be comfortable taking a thousand-mile road trip where you have to stop maybe every 100 to 150 miles? Do you think there's enough charging stations that could keep you on the road for your road trip? And if so, do those charging stops make your trip take too long? For example, if you have a car that has, let's say, 100-mile range, 120-mile range — some cars have a 200-mile range — but let's say you want to not push the limit and maybe stop every 150 miles.

Well, if you're gonna go on a trip that's 500 miles each way, that's three stops. Each stop is an hour. If you were going to drive 500 miles, you average 60 miles an hour, that might take you eight hours. You're now adding three. Well, eight hours pushing it — you could drive eight hours in a day — but can you drive 11? Does that change your trip because it adds an extra day each way? How does that work out for logistics of a road trip? How big of a deal is it? Well, according to the article, the ability to make long trips is the single biggest factor consumers are watching before switching from gas-powered vehicles.

Maybe that's why gas-powered vehicles are still 98% of all the cars on the road. Maybe there's not enough people that are comfortable with the trip. So if you have an electric vehicle, tell us what it's like to take a long trip. Can you find places to stop? A lot of people we've talked to with an electric vehicle — it's not their only vehicle. They have another gas car, and when they go on a long trip, they take their gas car. Is that you? Is that how you approach it?

When you don't have an electric vehicle, your number one concern is lack of charging and range. It says when people do have them, they are satisfied with the charging. Is that true? Do you have an electric vehicle and feel satisfied with the charging? Charging stations are coming along rapidly, with the number of stations growing 58% to 50,000 charging stations. Sounds like a lot, but if you divide it by 50 states, that's a thousand in each state, compared to how many gas stations — tens of thousands.

And what about the time there versus time at a gas station to fill up in a minute or two? Is there enough charging station capacity right now for these trips? Will there ever be that much? What about the level of charging? There are three types of chargers: level one, level two, level three. So at level two, you add 25 miles of range per hour of charging. Well, if you want to add on 100 miles range, that means you've got to wait there for four hours. Four times 25 is 100. A level 3 — you can charge in 6 minutes a small EV.

Are there enough level threes out there to charge that fast, or do you have to wait an hour to get your car charged? Well, according to the article, 18 states have fewer than 100 level 3 chargers. That's 18 states. California has 6,000, so that's good. And level three is what you need to have to make these trips. Is there enough on the route that you would want to take in order to be comfortable launching on that trip to the beach or to see your relatives in an electric vehicle? Tell us what you think.