Electric Cars have been receiving more and more attention since their introduction to the market. Creating a mode of transportation not reliant on fossil fuels, means reducing pollution in our environment. With the pros of not needing to pay for gas, saving the environment, and now featuring increasingly technological features like the ability to self-drive, electric cars are becoming an obvious choice for future car buyers.
Although electric cars have been picking up attention recently, they are still a small minority of new car sales. There are several factors contributing to a lack of sales, mostly price range as electric cars tend to be more expensive than their gas or hybrid counterparts. There is also another problem keeping people away from electric cars.
As nice as electric cars are because they don’t run on gas, they still need to run on something. To keep your car charged you need to take it to charging stations regularly. Meaning a whole new world of infrastructure needs to be built to support traveling by electric.
Just like how you see gas stations everywhere, charging stations need to start showing up to. Nobody wants to buy a car that can only be powered somewhere an hour away when you’re not at home. Some places in the US don’t have any charging stations.
You can charge your car at home and most electric vehicles come with a level 1 charging cable. This nice as you can just charge your car at home like you would a phone. Now imagine it took your phone a couple hours to charge to about 7%. Charging from home takes a substantial amount of time unless you have something like a level 2 charger. To have a level 2 charger installed however you might be spending up to around $1000.
Even when you have a charging station, unless it’s a level 3 station, you’re going to need to wait a few hours if you want your car fully charged. Compared to the short amount of time you’d spend at a gas station for a conventional car, a ton of accessibility is lost for electric cars because of this.
It’s sort of a catch 22 because to have electric cars you need charging stations, and to have charging stations you need electric cars. Most charging stations out in the world are gas stations or service stations that also feature charging stations. Until charging stations are as abundant as gas stations and just as convenient, electric cars are going to be a tough sell for a lot of people.
Are There Enough Charging Stations?
The US Department of Energy provides a map of all charging stations throughout the country. A quick glance at the map would make you think there are a ton of charging stations already and this isn’t a real problem.
However, zooming in and looking around, the actual number of stations is small. Whole cities on the map could only have a couple of charging stations, you would not want to own a conventional car if there were only 2 gas stations spread across your whole city. Of course, large population zones like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago have way more stations than most towns throughout America but having that ease of accessibility only in a relatively small place won’t sell more electric vehicles.
Currently in the US, there are around 25,000 charging stations out in the wild. This number is completely dwarfed when compared to the around 170,000 gas stations that exist today. Something needs to be done if the public is going to make the shift from gas to electric in the near future.
Future of Charging Stations?
The push to electric vehicles seems to be backed up by many local governments and even our own federal government. Green tech seems to be the way of the future and adjusting our lives to fit that future might be necessary sometime soon.
A great idea going around is implementing charging stations at workplaces and grocery stores to allow people to charge their car at work or while they shop, reducing the annoyance from having to wait at a station for your vehicle to charge. If companies and businesses are willing to do this, electric cars will be much more flexible for people who own them, removing the stress of worrying about your car’s battery life all day.
Automotive companies seem to be taking steps forward to electric as well. More and more models of electric vehicles are displayed every year and the number of electric cars a consumer can buy has grown tremendously in the following years. GM has even announced that it is moving away from gas powered cars, planning to introduce 20 all electric vehicles by 2023.
It might be time soon to sell your current vehicle for an electric one. Even if you have a damaged or totaled car, there are websites online that pay cash for vehicles near you.
Electric cars seem to be the future of transportation, but without the infrastructure to support them, consumers will be hesitant to make the switch. The charging station problem needs to be fixed if we are going to have an all-electric future.
