With drivers transitioning from gas to electric vehicles, Vox recently explored how the experience of fueling up is changing.
It detailed how many existing gas stations have upgraded with high-speed EV chargers, and some are even installing solar panels over those charging areas to make up for the added electric demand. Better still, public charging points are cropping up as amenities for all kinds of businesses, not just gas stations.
Soon, EV drivers can expect a more seamless billing experience that doesn't require the manual input of credit cards or installing apps. This will be thanks to the proliferation of new secure communications standards.
While the gas station experience will remain familiar, the Vox author described a more distributed approach to fueling up. In particular, the vast majority of EV owners charge at home and only occasionally need to use public charging stations. As charging infrastructure grows, the fear of running out of battery is becoming less of an issue.
The author remained optimistic about the trajectory of EV adoption, despite the growing pains involved with installing new chargers. EVs are cheaper to fuel and healthier to drive than gas-burning cars, but those aren't the only advantages they have to offer.
With zero tailpipe pollution, EVs help tamp down light-duty vehicle carbon pollution and the destructive weather patterns that come with it. These can include storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires, which, in turn, impose steep costs across ecological, housing, agricultural, and other sectors. Even when accounting for the environmental footprint of manufacturing EVs and the pollution generated by grid energy sources to charge them, EVs still come out ahead of gas cars.
One expert who spoke to Vox was quite clear on how drivers needed to overcome range anxiety, given that charging infrastructure is becoming more robust and the average driver doesn't come anywhere close to exhausting an EV's range every day.
"The mindset of 'I need a vehicle that can do 400 miles and be recharged in 10 minutes.' That has to change," said John Eichberger, executive director of the Transportation Energy Institute.
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