From WesternJournal.com…
Electric vehicles are supposed to be the next big thing. So, why did one Wall Street Journal reporter, after taking a road trip with one, say that the fumes of expensive gasoline “never smelled so sweet”?
In a piece published by the Journal on Friday, Rachel Wolfe described charging a Kia EV6 for more time than she spent sleeping during a trek from New Orleans to Chicago.
Wolfe’s opening statement, which should serve as a portent to anyone who thinks the charging infrastructure or the capabilities of electric vehicles are there yet: “I thought it would be fun.”
Spoiler alert: It was not. Despite the fact that the EV6 is a hot new vehicle and the fact Wolfe had made several long trips in her (relatively) antediluvian 2008 Volkswagen Jetta, the experience turned into a nightmare of public-charging infrastructure frustrations and waiting around.
(Here at The Western Journal, we’ve chronicled some of the serious issues with electric vehicles — and this is hardly the only one, as we’ll discuss in a bit. We’ll continue to point out how EVs aren’t ready for prime time yet, despite President Joe Biden’s administration insisting they’re the answer to slashing America’s carbon emissions. You can help us bring readers the truth by subscribing.)
Wolfe wrote that she “plotted a meticulous route” using an app that showed public chargers along the 2,000-mile round-trip route. Most of the chargers, however, were only Level 2, which means they would take eight hours for a full charge.
Fast chargers can get the car to 80 percent of its full charge in roughly a half-hour — “Longer than stopping for gas — but good for a bite or bathroom break,” Wolfe noted.
“Over four days, we spent $175 on charging. We estimated the equivalent cost for gas in a Kia Forte would have been $275, based on the AAA average national gas price for May 19. That $100 savings cost us many hours in waiting time,” she wrote.
Over the trip, she noted that the vehicle had lower range than advertised, charge stations had slower speeds than advertised, many had problematic cords and plenty of the country had almost no fast-charging stations at all.
Take, for instance, what happened when Wolfe and her traveling partner couldn’t find the wall-mounted charger at a Kia dealership in Meridian, Mississippi, during the first day of the journey — an experience that perfectly encapsulated the trip.
“When I ask a mechanic working on an SUV a few feet away for help, he says he doesn’t know anything about the machine and points us inside. At the front desk, the receptionist asks if we’ve checked with a technician and sends us back outside,” she wrote.
“Not many people use the charger, the mechanic tells us when we return. We soon see why. Once up and running, our dashboard tells us a full charge, from 18% to 100%, will take 3-plus hours.
