Fact and Fiction: Nowhere to Charge
While the range of electric cars today is more than sufficient in the vast majority of cases, having access to chargers, knowing where they are, and ease of use is vital. The second most common myth uttered by the uninitiated is that there is nowhere to charge.
The most common comments I hear are “there is nowhere to charge”, “electric cars can't go mainstream for years until there are thousands of chargers installed”, “every gas station needs to be converted to electric before people will be able to charge”, “there's not enough chargers and when you get to them, they're always occupied so you have to wait hours”.
These are just an example of the comments I hear repeatedly when the subject of charging comes up, usually made by people who have never even driven an electric car before.
For example, in Ireland there are over 1100 public charging stations across that small country. This doesn't include destination chargers, which are chargers at hotels, restaurants, shopping centres, and supermarkets etc. There are lots of chargers in Ireland, that’s not really the issue. The question is firstly where they are and secondly, and more importantly, are they working and available. Connectivity between the car, the driver and the charger is more important than the number of chargers. I'll explain in the next chapter why this is the case, and how Tesla have gotten this right while many others have not.
The perception is that there simply are not enough chargers for electric journeys today, thereby providing an excuse not to choose an electric car. This is not true. I'm not saying that there are enough chargers going forward, that's different, we need thousands and thousands more chargers in Europe and the US to deal with the rapid mass adoption of electric cars. But as far as today goes, there are already enough chargers for almost every journey use case you could imagine, unless you plan to go off the grid and deep into a wilderness somewhere.
The problem I see, from my own experience and from the thousands of electric journeys our customers have made, is not the number of chargers, but how easy it is to find them and use them. Knowing if they work, are available and if the payment for the charging is integrated and simple. This isn't the case at all today, which makes electric car adoption more difficult and gives some truth to the statement that electric cars are not easy.
In the US there are over 48,000 public charging stations containing around 100,000 charge outlets across the country. There are already almost half the number of charging stations as there are gas stations in the USA.
In Europe the number of charging stations is higher, with around 250,000 charging points. This number grew from just 2,500 stations a decade ago. Globally, as of 2020, there are over one million charging points across the world. These numbers are growing exponentially. The European Union
has set a target for one million operational charging points by 2024. Within five years there will be more charging stations and more charging outlets than there are gas stations and gas pumps in the USA, European Union, and UK.
Terminology is important here as it's not that easy to find out just how many charging stations and individual charging points (gas pumps) exist. Often the word ‘charging point’ and ‘charge station’ are interchanged, but they both meaning different thing. For this book, and most references, a charging station is to be regarded just like a gas station which can contain multiple charging points.
China has over 800,000 charging points, having installed over 500,000 in 2020 alone. China is installing over 1,000 EV charging points every day. You may be wondering where all this electricity will come from when everybody is driving an EV; I'll cover that in a later blog.
To find all these chargers, there are lots of charging apps and online charging maps. Examples of charging apps include ChargePoint, PlugSurfing, Chargehub, Zapmap and now even Google Maps can show you where the chargers are.
The big problem is these are often community monitored, meaning people update the status of a charger based on their last experience. Not all charging apps and charging maps are the same, some show you different networks while others exclude some networks. Some apps have greater connectivity in real time to chargers while some don't.
Although the world of EV is still relatively new, many of these chargers were installed 10 years ago and do not have any connectivity, these are dumb chargers. What's worse is many of these chargers need pre-registration, credit card type swipe cards, and have multiple different payment systems. Hence why, I refer to it as the Wild West.
Even with all of the charging infrastructure being built out today, even with all the public charge points in hotels, restaurants and supermarkets, there is still always the last resort option of plugging your charging cable through a window and into a normal 120/220-volt socket if you really need to.
Remember this option doesn't exist for gas cars, unless everyone you know keeps a spare can of gas at their home, or you want to siphon some of their petrol. Indeed, the concept of siphoning, is also about to become mainstream for EVs as new car models will offer the option to share charge. Many car manufacturers are planning to offer this feature, and some already do.
The number of chargers is not really the issue, making them as easy, or even easier than gas pumps to use is the issue. I am astonished how many times, in this 21st century, the user experience is badly considered. The world has become busier, and we are all bombarded with endless information, apps and features. What we need is hassle free, time saving user experiences, not new technology or services that consume more of your time. Sadly, many of the charge point operators, apps and electric car manufacturers are truly missing this point. I’ll explain my view and how this should be made even simpler than using a gas pump later.
FICTION: There is no widespread charging network in place. Chargers are hard to find and don't always work. Most countries haven't put enough chargers in place for the number of electric cars on the road today. It's dangerous to attempt a long-distance journey currently due to a lack of chargers.
FACT: There are already enough chargers for most of your driving needs and with the rate of buildout now taking place it's going to become a non-issue very quickly. Unless you plan to go way off the grid, you will be able to find a fast charger for your journey. The real issue is ease of use and connectivity to those chargers, and this needs some work.
