If you haven’t noticed, the use of electric vehicles across the United States is growing. Thanks to the federal government’s insistence, it seems people right and left are trading in their gas-guzzling machines for these new-fangled cars.
There’s just one major problem with this, though. Well, actually, there are a few.
First is that, much like with the COVID-18 vaccines, the government is trying to force us to buy electric and “go green” instead of letting us decide for ourselves what is best.
Secondly, is that, again, like the vaccines, most electric vehicles can’t really do what they say they can. And they definitely aren’t comparable to what we are used to.
Need some proof? Don’t worry; I have plenty.
Let’s start with EV owner Alan O’Hashi. O’Hashi lives in Colorado and frequently uses his EV. He goes to work and back, to the grocery, etc. And for the most part, those short trips around town go off without a hitch.
However, he’s found taking his EV back to his state of origin, Wyoming can be a bit of a hassle.
For example, O’Hashi recently took his EV for a trip back to Wyoming, where he traveled from Cheyenne to Casper. The cities are about 180 miles apart, so in a gas-powered vehicle, it usually takes him about three hours.
This time, while using his EV, it took him a whopping 15 hours.
As O’Hashi told the Cowboy State Daily, “It was very difficult.” So what was it that took him so long?
Well, as you might have guessed, it all comes down to charging. Firstly, the EV can only travel a few hundred miles or so between normal charges. But what makes this even worse is that charging stations are not exactly everywhere, as gas stations are.
This means that on several occasions, O’Hashi was forced to travel quite a bit out of his way to find a charging station. Then once arrived, it wasn’t uncommon to wait in lines for hours or find that some charging stations weren’t operational.
Then, of course, there is the fact that for most charging stations, it takes hours to receive even a partial charge.
If you didn’t already know, there are currently three types of charging stations available to most people. A Level 3 charger is the fastest, allowing most EVs to obtain a full charge in about three to four hours or so. Level 2 is slightly slower. And a Level 1, which most people purchase for their home, requires a two to three-day wait for a full charge.
There are, of course, a few “superchargers” out there, which supposedly can work as quickly as 10 minutes or so. But these are even fewer and farther between and usually only found at specific Tesla sites.
One site in Germany even offers a “Super Pool,” as well. So while you are charging your EV, you can take a dip in what is basically a dumpster filled with water and heated, using Tesla’s solar power.
But I digress.
For most of us here in America, such amenities aren’t available. And so O’Hashi spends hours charging just to drive a few more miles.
Now, I say only a few more miles because, while a full charge is supposed to get him another couple of hundred miles, the roads he’s driving on in both Colorado and Wyoming aren’t exactly the smoothest or straightest.
If you’ve ever been to either state, the roads tend to be a bit on the hilly side, if not all mountainous. And this, according to research, can sap the battery of an EV by as much as half. Of course, the same can be said if you choose to tow something with your EV, as well.
One test between an EV Hummer and a diesel Ram truck pulling an identical 6,100-pound ATC Toy Hauler trailer found that while the cost of refueling was clearly much higher for the Ram, it took much longer and was much more difficult to make the same distance for the Hummer, according to Fast Lane Truck’s YouTube channel, which managed the event.
Kase van Reese of the FLT team noted that the Hummer was indeed “impressive, as far as horsepower and supposed capability. “But when it comes down to practicality – towing a trailer long distance, and also purchase price, it’s hard to beat the old-school diesel truck.”
O’Hashi had the same thoughts about his EV for long trips. While it works fine in town, clearly, the US is not at a stage where EVs are practical for average Americans.
