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Comment by markab21 | Hacker News Reader

The claim is dead-right.

I own a Tesla Model 3, my wife drives a BMW i3, my daughter has a leaf.

The ONLY car we can effectively travel outside of the greater Tampa area without major headache is the Tesla.

The ONLY car that I would try to drive to New York from Florida in is the Tesla. (Yes, we've done it.. but would only try it in the Tesla)

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I have wanted to get into an EV and it is the long distance travel issue (for that 1% of the time) that has been keeping me (and I imagine a lot of people) from making the switch. Tesla is the only model to have come close to solving that issue.

One thing I have been waiting to see is a push to have gas stations adopt EV charging on a large scale. Gas stations, particularly ones along interstate routes, often double as rest stops and usually have large parking areas with small marts, and a couple of fast food options. If companies partnered with a major gas pump operator like chevron, shell or mobile to offer even a small number of charging stations with each gas station (even just 2 to 4 at each site in the 50-100kw range.. though the wiring would most likely need to be upgraded to support this) things would shift rapidly I think. I know charge times remain an issue, but if you are taking a rest stop anyway.. the 30-40 minutes of charge is not as big of an issue.

A government subsidy could also be introduced to help offset some of the cost of upgrading these gas stations. An increased tax on Gasoline could go towards paying for such a subsidy. Also I think we need to take another look at nuclear power to help charge those EVs, but that is another conversation.

> If companies partnered with a major gas pump operator like chevron, shell or mobile

They're doing that in Europe:

https://electrek.co/2017/09/27/shell-new-electric-car-chargi...

Walmart and Target in the US are partnering with charging networks to put fast chargers in their parking lots:

https://electrek.co/2018/04/18/vw-electrify-america-walmart-...

https://electrek.co/2018/04/24/target-tesla-chargepoint-elec...

Actually if you download the PlugShare app it has all kinds of charging stations, not just the Tesla Superchargers and I was honestly shocked at the number of chargers there are around the US, they are literally everywhere now. Many of the non-Tesla charging places only charge $1-$2/hour, so while it might take you longer your electric road trip is going to be a lot cheaper. I think you could easily do long distance trips in most electric cars in the US now with a little planning. Walgreens for example has level 2 J-1772 chargers at over 400 locations in the US, which are almost as fast as most Tesla superchargers:

https://www.walgreens.com/topic/sr/sr_electric_vehicle_charg...

Teslas come with a J-1772 adapter so you can charge them there as well. Many hotels, airports, malls and parking garages have chargers now as well. I really think we are at a tipping point, one of the annoying things now is when you get to a charger it's busy. Some of the busiest Tesla superchargers you have to wait 15-20 minutes sometimes for a spot to open up.

There is a big difference between Level 2 charging and the Tesla Superchargers. Level 2 J1772 charging tops out under 20 kW, but most cars can only handle 7kW. Most of the current DC fast charging points (ChargePoint etc) are 50 kW. Faster ones are coming, but most of the current cars (Bolt, Leaf, i3, Kia) can only accept less than 100 kW. Tesla Superchargers are currently 145 kW, but new installations are 250 kW.

Electrify America and EVgo are installing 350 kW chargers:

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/electrify-america-350-kw-...

https://insideevs.com/news/341596/evgo-launches-350-kw-ultra...

And in Europe Fastned and Ionity are also installing 350 kW chargers:

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/ionity-launches-first-350...

https://fastned.nl/en/blog/post/fastned-opens-its-first-350k...

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