It’s never been easier to own an electric car, we’ve been told.
There are plenty of models to choose from. The government will subsidize your purchase, as well. And, above all else, it’s easy to find working chargers anywhere you go, right?
Yes, well, about that: One reporter in America’s heartland decided to see how easy it was to juice up a series of EVs. As it turns out, things weren’t quite as rosy as they are with regular gas stations.
According to the Cowboy State Daily, Wyoming-based automotive journalist Aaron Turpen test-drove a series of EVs to the Electrify America chargers at Target parking lots in the state capital of Cheyenne. Things didn’t go smoothly.
“My goal was to try the charging stations, talk to the people who also use them, and find out what the current (see what I did there?) state of EV charging is in this part of the world,” Turpen wrote in an article published earlier this month.
“My conclusion is that it’s still pretty hit and miss.”
Turpen used three electric vehicles, none of them downmarket slouches: the Mercedes-Benz EQE, a BMW i4, and Genesis GV60. All of them use the same charging protocol and plug, the SAE CCS1.
Furthermore, all of the charging stations in the Target parking lots use the SAE CCS1 standard, which is the protocol for almost all fast-charging EVs that aren’t Teslas. It’s worth noting, however, that Tesla’s NACS standard has won out and automakers will begin changing over next year — but that’s not exactly the point of the story.