Electric vehicle drivers get candid about charging: 'Logistical nightmare'
&gt; YouTube personality Steve Hammes leased a Hyundai Kona Electric sport utility vehicle for his 17-year-old daughter Maddie ... Now, the upstate New York resident has a dilemma many EV owners can relate to: finding available charging stations far away from home.<p>This is why you buy a Tesla. Although Tesla isn&#x27;t perfect, its charging network is a LOT better than the others.<p>&gt; Even Quiroga&#x27;s team of reporters has to carefully plan and calculate how far EV charging stations are when they conduct comparison tests among manufacturers. &quot;These comparisons tests are a logistical nightmare. We need to have the battery at 100% or close to it to test a vehicle&#x27;s performance.&quot;<p>This is absurd. The average driver does not need to run comparison tests for magazine articles. The average driver just needs to charge to 80% or 85% and continue their trip. The difference is significant. Charging to 100% is much slower than charging to 80%. It&#x27;s ludicrously irresponsible, bordering on fraudulent, to single out charging problems that are specific only to reporters who review EVs for a job, and extrapolate these problems onto the general public.<p>It&#x27;s especially infuriating that this mendacious lie is what the headline writer chose to put in the headline. This entire quote is based on nonsense.<p>&gt; Quiroga&#x27;s sister, who lives in Northern California, takes her internal combustion car -- not her Tesla Model S -- when she needs to drive across the state.<p>California might be the one place in the country where you routinely have to wait in line for a public charger. Let&#x27;s see if Tesla steps up to match demand.<p>Also, if you&#x27;re buying an EV, pay attention to <i>charging speed</i> -- not just in terms of energy per hour, but how far that energy gets you, i.e. efficiency. A Model 3 doesn&#x27;t charge any faster than a Model S in terms of energy per hour, but it charges faster in terms of drivable miles per charging hour.<p>&gt; [John Voelcker] does not expect Tesla to commit to additional charging stations. &quot;Tesla does not want its highly reliable and tightly integrated charging network to be clogged with people whose cars can&#x27;t charge as fast as Teslas,&quot; he told ABC News.<p>This is just false. Tesla specifically stated that they are using federal funding to build additional charging stations which will be open to all, and making them open to all is a legal requirement in order to get the federal funding.<p>&gt; &quot;The incentive right now is to get stations in the ground,&quot; he said. &quot;It&#x27;s not making sure they actually work.&quot;<p>Again, this is why you get a Tesla. Tesla alone, out of all charging network companies, has a clear incentive to make sure that their charging network actually works.<p>&gt; In December, Quiroga was in Florida driving BMW&#x27;s luxury i7 all-electric sedan. He watched as its range dropped from 240 miles to 220 as soon as he turned on the heat. &quot;You use the luxuries ... and the range plummets,&quot; he said.<p>Again, this is why you get a Tesla. Teslas have heat pumps which are much more efficient than traditional heaters.<p>&gt; The sales associates at his local Hyundai dealership were unknowledgeable and poorly trained about the intricacies of EV ownership, he explained. &quot;The dealership experience is so far behind. I get solicitations for oil changes. The staff is so disconnected from the product they&#x27;re selling,&quot; he said.<p>This is why Tesla has no dealers and insists on having no dealers.<p>Pay attention to the conspiracy, folks. Non-Tesla automakers are sandbagging their EVs in order to sabotage the market for EVs. Consumers buying non-Tesla EVs get frustrated by their ownership experience and go back to gasoline cars. This suits non-Tesla automakers just fine since they&#x27;re losing money on EVs and making money on gasoline cars. The media goes along with it and amplifies the FUD because Tesla doesn&#x27;t advertise on paid media, and other automakers do advertise on paid media.