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

Distance:
2272 miles / 3635.2 km
Trip Date:
2022-07-16
Starting Place:
Los Angeles
Destination:
Seattle

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.

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