A long, strange, EV trip: Father-son drive from L.A. to Seattle illustrates road ahead on charging needs

As reported in Bloomberg, in the past year, the US joined Europe and China, collectively the three largest car markets in moving beyond the 5% tipping point. The US is the latest country to pass what’s become a critical EV tipping point: 5% of new car sales are powered only by electricity. 

But the question which keeps coming back: “Is the charging infrastructure ready to support this ‘society-altering shift’ ?”

Published on Geekwire , this is the story of Aaron Blank traveling from L.A. to Seattle for a two-week trip with his 10-year-old son, Ermias. The report brings details of what Blank had to deal with – lack of charging stations/malfunctions of charging stations and much more. Although Aaron is not naive about EVs, he ran into problems traveling in Ford Mustang with a Universal charger

I planned this trip, planned the stops,” Blank said. But driving a car with a universal plug left Blank with fewer charging options than the Tesla drivers he encountered along the way. At many stops, Tesla’s own Superchargers — the company boasts 35,000 units worldwide — far outnumbered universal chargers from other providers such as Electrify America, EV Go and Charge Point.