Electric cars are great — charging them when you’re away from home, not so much
I love my electric car and will never go back to a gas-guzzler, but I’ve got to speak a little truth to power here: Sometimes, public charging stinks.
And that’s too bad, because it’s scaring away would-be buyers.
For instance, as much as I enthusiastically talk up the Chevy Bolt I’m leasing, I’ve never been able to persuade a single person to make their next car an all-electric.
If anything, I’ve turned people against EVs.
This is what I typically hear when the topic comes up: “After I’ve seen what you go through, I would never buy one.”
Then they apologetically mumble something about maybe getting a hybrid next time.
What do I do to alienate them?
I tell stories.
There’s that time I was down to 12 miles and had to choose between spending the night in some dot-on-the-map town or risk being stuck on the side of a road at 2 a.m.
Or the time I had to borrow a car because I forgot to plug mine in overnight and there were no fast chargers within a reasonable radius.
Or the time that .... well, you get it.
Sure, if I wanted to make some converts, I could just focus on the positives — like not having to pay nearly $5 a gallon for gas.
Or I could caution against taking any cues from me, because as EV owners go, I am definitely among the least responsible. I mean, forgetting to plug in the car the night before an out-of-town trip? Who does that?
But here’s the thing: You really shouldn’t have to be a persnickety Felix Unger to be a successful EV driver.
If California is serious about phasing out gasoline-powered vehicles, it’s going to have to accommodate those of us who flunked Organization 101 — probably because we forgot to mark it on our calendars.
That means — are you listening, Gov. Newsom? — we need a lot more public chargers in easy-to-get-to places like, oh, gas stations, rest stops, shopping centers, parks, beaches and workplaces. And definitely apartment complexes, because you shouldn’t have to own a home with a garage in order to have an EV.
This isn’t just about convenience. It’s a matter of safety.
Parts of California are veritable charging deserts where you can go miles and miles without seeing a single dot on those handy online maps that show where charging stations are (or aren’t). In other words, the possibility of getting stranded is real.
SLO leads the way
Lucky for us, the city of San Luis Obispo is ahead of the curve; it’s one of the few cities that requires full-fledged EV chargers in most new developments, including multi-family housing complexes. (California also has EV charger requirements, but the spaces need only be EV-capable, meaning they’re wired to support chargers down the road, but don’t have them yet.)
Thanks to its aggressive stance, San Luis Obispo has a decent number of public chargers, though it could use at least a half-dozen more fast chargers; the one at Marigold Center is great, but how about a few downtown?
I’m not the only one asking, by the way. Check out this plea a SLO EV driver recently posted on Yelp:
“I don’t know how to get anymore put in anywhere, but I beg the universe to hear the cry of those of us who can’t afford a Tesla, but drive an all electric car ... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add more fast charging stations.”
(A DC fast charger can charge EVs up to 80% power in 20 to 30 minutes, while a Level 2 charger gets you between 25 to 30 miles for each hour of charging.)
As for the rest of the county, there are pockets of chargers in places like Paso Robles, Pismo Beach and Grover.
In other areas of SLO County, not so much.
For instance, if you don’t drive a Tesla, good luck finding a charger in Atascadero. And in Avila Beach, the PlugShare map show only two charging stations — one at a hotel — for a community that draws thousands of visitors.
So whose cage do we rattle to get more chargers?
That, it turns out, is complicated.
There are no requirements for owners of existing buildings to install them, and if they are interested, expense can be a hurdle. It can cost as much as $7,000 more per EV space to retrofit an existing parking lot for chargers, according to a 2015 report by the California Air Resources Board.
Rebates can help add charging stations
Help is on the way.
Starting next month, a CALeVIP rebate program will provide $2.3 million for installation of 18 fast chargers and 200 Level 2 chargers in SLO County.
The funding comes from the California Energy Commission and some local partners, including the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District, which is scheduled to kick in nearly $734,000 — subject to approval by the APCD board.
Applications are accepted starting July 21. Interested parties, be forewarned: The money goes super fast.
During a previous round of funding in another part of California “money was spoken for within minutes,” said Vince Kirkhuff, air quality specialist with SLO County APCD.
Information on how to apply is at calevip.org/incentive-project/south-central-coast
Will 218 more chargers suffice?
Probably not — but it will put a lot more dots on our map.
And who knows? It might help me gain a convert or two.
This story was originally published June 21, 2021 at 6:30 AM.
