this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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BEVs aren't compatible with the gas station model because they take too long to charge. ICE vehicles and even FCEVs are in and out of a gas station in five minutes, so you don't need a big footprint to fuel up a lot of vehicles. BEVs need to park for a while to get a substantial charge, not even full one. The fast chargers get Teslas to 80% in something like thirty minutes. So, if these fast charger were installed adjacent to gas pumps, the price to charge your BEV would have to be something like 6x the cost to refuel in order to cover the missed fuel sales.
As for what type of vehicle a someone should own for the scenario you describe, a long range BEV is overkill. Either keep a ICE car for all your driving or keep a small BEV for local trips and rent a more appropriate vehicle for infrequent long trips. Better yet, take a train or bus for those long trips and rent a short range BEV closer to your final destination.
That's why my point was "truck stop level gas station". IE those huge gas stations off the highway, several in most cities... huge lots, and most importantly have at least one, sometimes a few restaurants inside. IE they are already designed as a good place for truckers to take a half hour to an hour to, re-organize themselves for a long trip. Not a totally unreasonable process for a road tripping family etc... to hit every 3-4 hours that an EV can drive.
I can't fully disagree on the potential of renting a car if it's extremely infrequent to make long trips. Public transit would be nice, though gotta say there's a lot of places where that's pretty non-viable. Least from where I live the nearest bus station from me is about 30-45 minutes away by car.
What you're describing only works if an increasing number of parking spots have chargers installed at them. I just don't think it's sustainable or feasible.
My main contention is that long range BEVs are a bad idea. They might mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, but that comes with the above infrastructure problems, increasing demand on the problematic battery industry, and in turn creating more battery disposal problems. Furthermore, they perpetuate the living room on wheels paradigm that holds us back from the real solution to transporting people over land: rail. Meanwhile, short range BEVs are great because they make the most of their batteries, barely require any new infrastructure, and save their owners the hassle of needing to visit a gas station or find a "fast" charger at all.