This isn’t the flex they think it is.
One of the ultimate dreams of those pushing for an electric car utopia is having more charging stations than gas stations in a given geography. That’s been realized in Manhattan as the New York City borough leans more into electrification. According to a report from Bloomberg, there are 320 public chargers on the island versus just 29 gas stations.
See the cardboard concept car the French created here.
The celebration is a little odd considering most of the public chargers only serve two vehicles at a time versus gas stations which can serve many more cars at once. Just under that logic, having over ten times as many EV chargers than gas stations isn’t the victory Bloomberg is spinning this into. But wait, there’s more.
Let’s just say for the sake of argument it takes 1 hour to fully charge your EV using these public stations (in all likely, it’s probably far longer than that). Also, let’s say it takes 5 minutes to fuel up your traditional ICE car (it’s probably more like 3 minutes). Just using those obviously overly-generalized figures which give electric cars more of a benefit of a doubt, in the time one EV charges up 12 gas-powered cars can be fueled up.
In other words, even with more than a 10:1 ratio of chargers to gas stations, the charging stations are less convenient when it comes to time required for refueling, even if they were able to service the same number of vehicles at once.
Wait, you might argue that charging your vehicle while at work, watching TV at home, shopping, etc. means you aren’t waiting for your EV’s battery to be topped off. While true, what happens when the chargers nearby are all taken? What about if someone has their car plugged in for hours on end, even after the battery is fully replenished? These problems are discussed rather openly in many EV owner forums and social media groups, so they’re not rare in the least. Some turn to desperate measures, even parking on the sidewalk sometimes.
The fact of the matter is comparing the number of gas stations and electric car chargers in any area is like comparing apples and oranges. The way they work is completely different, so a comparison of sheer numbers just isn’t useful. Still, for media outlets who are trying to convince you that not owning an EV makes you a backwards person, these types of narratives are critical.
If you take some time to truly analyze what you’re being told these sorts of stories collapse rather quickly. If you don’t, it might feel like the whole country is buying EVs except you, even though sales make up well under 10 percent of the market.
Read the article for yourself here.
Images via Twitter
