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Comment by parineum | Hacker News Reader

> 64% of Americans live within 2 miles of a public charging station.

If this includes AC chargers, leaving your car for 8 hours 2 miles away is an absolute pain.

If it doesn't, the question becomes are the chargers occupied? Are they operational?

Waiting at a gas station takes a minute, waiting at a charger takes 30.

I've been driving an EV for more than 5 years and pretending that charging isn't a significant hindrance to EV ownership is disingenuous. It's actually gotten worse because more EVs are on the road and the chargers haven't kept pace with the rising demand.

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I’m lucky to be able to charge quickly at home.

I’m currently on a road trip and was leaving the car at a nearby charger which was walking distance from where I’m staying - I can’t imagine owning one where either this wasn’t available or there wasn’t a fast charger I could spend 10 minutes at.

The actual long distance drives were super easy thanks to Superchargers - 5-10 minute stops keep you driving for hours! It doesn’t feel disadvantaged compared to gas so long as the infrastructure is there.

> It's actually gotten worse because more EVs are on the road and the chargers haven't kept pace with the rising demand.

It is curious that this is the case. If chargers were profitable a couple of years ago, you would expect more chargers and more profit today.

I haven’t noticed much growth in chargers where I live but I have noticed more EVs on the road.

I think the difficulty is the installation process. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the challenge of getting that much run to convenient places isn't always that easy and, combined with the regulatory burdens likely involved in something providing that much power is scaring away potential installations.

You have to think a lot of the low hanging fruit locations are taken by now and, even if it's profitable, it doesn't make any profit while you're building it and I've seen a "coming soon" sign on top of what looked like a finished installation for more than a year at a mall near me.

And how many gas stations were there in 1930? We can build more charging stations, and they’re way more environmentally friendly that gas stations.

https://www.axios.com/2022/07/15/gas-stations-prices-closing

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