Electric Cars For Dummies by Brian Culp

Author:Brian Culp [Culp, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119886198
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2022-08-10T00:00:00+00:00

Examining Level 3 charging claims from EV manufacturers

The question “How long does it take to charge this thing?” is such a prevalent question/obstacle for EV manufacturers that their boasts about charging speeds have been front and center in their marketing campaigns almost from the word go.

IF YOU MAKE FREQUENT ROAD TRIPS, READ THIS SIDEBAR ASAP

I can’t recall where I heard this, and am thus unable to give appropriate credit, but I once listened to someone say that every Tesla is born with a trust fund in the form of the supercharging network. This situation may someday change, but at the time of this writing, I still wholeheartedly agree.

Having a supercharger network along almost every major highway across North America makes for road trips with zero mental overhead about figuring out where to charge. Whenever my wife and I are on the road, we simply punch in our destination using the big touchscreen and then do whatever the car tells us to do.

Tesla’s Level 3 charging experience is baked into the ownership of the car. You cannot separate the two, and that’s a good thing. All other manufacturers rely on third parties to provide the fast charging experience — the location selection, the maintenance, the software compatibility, and so on. This is no small feat.

What’s more, ramping up Level 3 chargers is one of those chicken-or-the-egg conundrums for other manufacturers. For example, companies like Ford, Rivian, or Lucid have little incentive to spend their resources on a profitable charging infrastructure when Electrify America (the only other major builder of fast charging infrastructure in the US) is being forced to do it anyway. (Electrify America is the company Volkswagen was forced to spin up as part of their diesel-gate settlement with the EPA.) Electrify America, on the other hand, has little incentive to build out stations until a lot more Fords, Rivians, and Lucids are on the road charge at Electrify America (EA) stations so that EA can see a return on investment.

Tesla’s supercharger efforts predated the build-out of Electrify America (and others). Tesla had little choice in the matter, and now, whether it was superior strategy or just blind luck, the supercharger network is certainly a competitive advantage.

So although this advice may not age well, my two cents is that if you’re in, say, Kansas City and will be hauling kids to soccer tournaments in Wichita, St. Louis, or Des Moines every other weekend, Tesla is the BEV for you and your offspring.

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