5 years ago, the most common EV on the road only went 84 miles to a charge and couldn't charge faster than about 45 kW. Today, you can get EVs with 500 mile ranges and charge at over 300 kW. By the mid-2030s when EVs are supposed to be the only thing on new car lots, they'll probably take less time to charge than pumping gas did.
There's also no reason cars really need to charge that fast. Most people park their cars for hours at a time, either at home or work or a store.
Imagine if every parking spot in an apartment had a slow charger that could charge your car overnight. Simply plug in and activate and it properly charges your apartment.
And now your employer makes it a free perk, or teams up with the electric co. so that you could do the same at work and get charged market rates directly.
Perhaps malls or larger stores provide a similar slow charger without the insane upcharge of Level 2 chargers. Heck, imagine something similar to parking validation. If you make purchases at the store or see a movie or whatever, then you get a code to "validate" your charging so you get the cost (or a portion) waived.
With infrastructure like that, then you only need fast chargers when you travel long distances, such as between states or cities.
People need to get over their mental view of "refueling" being a thing you do when your tank is almost empty and then you fill it to the brim.
It's perfectly workable to charge 50km of range while you're at the grocery store, maybe 100km while you're at work and another 100-150km overnight at home.
I've got a 230V/12A capable plug on my parking spot and I don't bother to plug in every night. A full charge would take around ~18 hours (10% to 100%), but my daily drives rarely take me under 50% and I don't charge to a 100% because the manufacturer recommendation is to keep the car at 80% unless you're going for a longer trip.
The only time I visit a fast charger is when I go see my family, who live a bit beyond my car's comfortable max range. I stop half way for 20 minutes to top up a bit from a 50kW charger (old car, slow charging =) ) and grab some food from the local shop while I'm at it. I don't need to charge to a 100% during the stop, 15-20% of charge is perfectly enough to get me to my destination - where I have a 230V/10A plug to charge overnight.
Seems like a pain, having to top your car up all the time like an old phone. Prefer one 5 min stop a fortnight to fill the tank up, until an EV can do similar they will remain a niche product.
It takes me literally under 20 seconds to plug in my car at home. Get out of car, walk to the back of the car, grab Type 2 cable from wall holder, poke charge port to open, plug in. Do the reverse when I leave.
That's it, I don't need to drive 5-10 minutes to tank up.
And given that my daily driving is well under 50km, I don't even need to plug in every night at home, maybe 2-3 times per week.
Also it costs me 2,25€/100km to drive. With our current prices (~2€/litre) it's the equivalent of a car that does 1.1l/100km. I'm willing to spend the extra 30 minutes to drive back home when I'm saving 50€+.
I assume many (most?) cities have the same rules as mine and you aren't allowed to run an extension cord from your house, across the sidewalk, to the street.
You're commiting the sin of assuming your workload is representative of everyone else's.
You do you, but it doesn't tend to make you many friends. Then there's the old diddy of "to Assume is to make an Ass of U & Me".
If you haven't actually sampled a sufficiently diverse set of people's travel use cases, making statements such as yours is at best ill informed and disingenuous.
And you're making the assumption that everyone has to have the same type of vehicle. There's nothing to say that the person who needs to drive 100-200mi per day needs to be using an EV. Even then, those people would likely still be fine with a Level 2 charger provided they can plug in overnight.
As for the diverse set of travel, the various DMVs and highway safety groups have done that for us. The average daily drive is under 40mi. When talking about core infrastructure here, assuming a daily drive of 40mi and basing the average charging infrastructure around would go a long way.
If EVs don't fit your life, then don't buy one. Though most people thing they drive much more often than they do, and fixate way to much on this once per week "fillup" charge idea when the daily partial charge is far more viable for the average driver.
Might seem that way, but after switching to an EV I'd never go back. Going to a gas station is a real annoyance, now I just spend 5 seconds plugging my car in whenever it gets below half.
You're comparing the most common EV on the road five years ago with the longest-range option available today. What you're saying could be true even if EVs hadn't advanced at all!
Interesting, wonder what the hard limits on voltage are? 350 amps @ 1000V must have one hell of a cord! Would be interesting to see what this station looks like.
Type "Electrify America" into Google and hit the images tab. The majority of their 788 sites include one or more 350 kW stations. The cords are probably over an inch thick, I've never measured, but no thicker than a fuel hose for a gas pump. They're liquid cooled to carry that current without overheating.
Lucid Air. Dream Edition trim is EPA rated over 500 miles, and achieved over 500 miles in Edmunds' real-world range testing. It's also the car that charges the fastest, I believe.
