Buyers curious about Making the switch to electric vehicles has made this clear questionnaire after questionnaire after questionnaire: Charging makes them a little crazy.
In many ways, drivers report having a EV is the same if not better than owning a gas car. But refueling an electric vehicle is different and can be tricky depending on where you live, and is therefore sometimes frightening, even for those who interested in buying electricity.
The majority of today's American EV owners charge at home, but… more than 20 percent of American households do not have access to consistent off-street parking where they can hook up at night. The public charging network, meanwhile, can be spotty, and that's also the case for motorists complained that chargers are not always properly maintained or even function.
The good news is that automakers, governments and other policymakers realize the US has a charging problem. They want more people in electric cars. Automakers are scaling up production of electric cars and want people to buy them, and lawmakers are realizing that replacing gas-powered cars in favor of zero-emission electric cars will be a key part of averting the worst effects of climate change.
As a result of early efforts to transition to electric vehicles, the US currently has 188,600 public and private charging ports and 67,900 charging stations, according to data collected by the US Department of Energy – figures that have more than doubled since 2020. Another 240 stations are currently planned. Compare that to today's gas infrastructure: The country has about 145,000 gas stations, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
At WIRED, the whole situation got us interested in a thought experiment: If we could magically snap our fingers and make every car electric, how many charging stations would the US need to add?
Number breakers Culturea research and advocacy organization for alternative fuels, analyzed the figures:
The result? The country needs to build many more chargers before achieving full electrification, a point that experts say should come in the 2040s. But the task may not be as insurmountable as it seems.
The number of public chargers will need to grow by a factor of six, as estimated by Matthew Metz, Coltura's executive director, and Ron Barzilay, its data and policy officer. “We're not necessarily off track,” Metz said.