According to Mapquest, It’s a 416.4 mile trip to visit my Mom in Oregon from my Reno, NV home. My 2017 Mustang with it’s 2.3 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine typically get 29.5 mpg on the highway. With the 16 gallon tank, it’s entirely feasible to make the drive on a single tank of fuel. Of course there’s always at least a couple stops. But it’s still feasible.
So, my friend Hunter has been touting the advantages of his 2023 Mustang Mach-E. That’s the Ford SUV leveraging the cache of the Mustang name to sell a sporty image. And evidently it does a fairly good job of filling that image. But how would it fare with a trip to see Mom?
In a previous post, I referenced a site maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designed to address “Electric Vehicle Myths.” (https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths )
Myth #5 is “Electric vehicles don’t have enough range to handle daily travel demands.” Now I will readily concede their statement “EVs have sufficient range to cover a typical household’s daily travel, which is approximately 50 miles on average per day. The majority of households (roughly 85%) travel under 100 miles on a typical day.” But that’s not really applicable to my situation.
And I really love that they include the statement “And automakers have announced plans to release even more long-range models in the coming years.“ So what? This is a potential, maybe, possible claim being used to refute a “myth” of not enough range? Hmm.
According to this site, https://coltura.org/electric-car-battery-range/ there is only one car capable of making my trip on a single charge. That would be the $87,400 Lucid Air which has a range of 516 miles. Even the next closest car, the $89,880 Tesla S, falls just short of making the trip. Oh,did I intend to use the heater? Again, according to the EPA, “… driving conditions, including hot and cold weather, also affect the range of an EV; for instance, researchers found on average range could decrease about 40% due to cold temperatures and the use of heat.” That would drop the Lucid Air range to just over 309 miles.
But let’s use Hunter’s Mustang Mach-E as a reference point in examining the question of range. It’s probably in the top 1/3 of the comparable range ratings. So what is the range of the Mustang? According to a site maintained by the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality, www.fueleconomy.gov, the Mach-E varies between 224 and 312 miles of total range. This is in variance with Ford’s own figures which claim a range of between 250 and 312 miles. Note the 312 miles is a “California Route 1” edition including an extended range ( a larger capacity) battery with a base price of $56,995, some $14,000 above the base vehicle.
Typically when making this trip, I stop in Black Butte, just south of Weed Ca. There’s a Taco Bell and Pilot Travel Center with reasonable bathrooms. So can I make this my first stop in the Mustang Mach-E? Well, again according to Mapquest, this would be a 266 mile slog from Reno. So, with Ford’s official specs, I would be 16 miles short. But I am also fond of using the heater and windscreen defroster. That means we factor in that 40% penalty. Whew, we ain’t even in the ballpark.
But Mapquest shows a way around this problem. Susanville has a Chargepoint at the Diamond Mountain Hotel and Casino. According to the Chargepoint website, this is the world’s largest network of electric vehicle charging stations in North America and Europe. There are two chargers. But these are 6.6 Kilowatt stations, rated to charge at 19.8 miles of range per hour of charging. So we’re looking at what, maybe 3 hours of charging to assure we can get to Black Butte while using the heater?
Okay, in Black Butte there are two chargers. One is also a 6.6 KW charger rated at 19.8 miles per hour. The second is a 62.5 KW (DC fast) rated at 187.5 miles per hour of charge time. If that one is available, we should need less than two hours of charging to top off the batteries.
The rest of the trip will go along in a similar fashion. Forget the Mapquest estimated trip time of 6 hours 52 minutes.
Now we’re shading into the EPA’s Electric Vehicle Myth #4. There is nowhere to charge.
There are basically three levels of chargers out there. I’m not gonna even touch the plug compatibility issue. A very simplified description is provided by the governments Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) publication https://afdc.energy.gov/files/u/publication/electric-drive_vehicles.pdf where they answer the question of how long does it take to recharge?
“Level 1” charging units add 2–5 miles of range per hour of charging.
“Level 2” charging units add 10–30 miles of range per hour of charging.
“DC fast” units can add 100–200+ miles of range in as little as 30 minutes
Level 1 is essentially just an ordinary plug-in that you’ll find in your house. Level 2 is usually a 240 volt plug-in such as your kitchen range is plugged into. And level 3 is way beyond what would be found in a home.
So how does this relate to Hunters Mustang Mach-E? Let’s look at Fords site to see a discussion of charging their electric vehicles. www.ford.com/electric/ev-home-charging-benefits/?gnav=vhpnav-homecharging
Please take note the final bullet point on the Level 3 graphic. “Should only be used occasionally to maintain battery health. It’s not the preferred, daily method of charging an EV.
As of the date this is being written, the governments Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) website’s map of EV charging locations lists 72,599 electric vehicle charging stations in the United States and Canada. If we decide to drop Canada out of the mix, we show 61,572 here in the States. That’s all of the public charging stations including 179 of the lowest capacity Level 1 units. The Level 3 DC Fast chargers number 9,296 stations. For the whole of the United States.
Toyota has been at the forefront of adopting EVs. But at the Davos summit in January 2023, Toyota Chief Scientist Gill Pratt pointed out some of the challenges involved taking an all-in approach to the EV market. “These shortages — not only of battery materials (lithium), but of charging infrastructure — will make it abundantly clear that one size does not fit all,” Pratt said.
While nearly half of US shoppers are considering switching to an EV in the next 24 months, most are concerned that they won’t be able to find somewhere to charge them. According to a J.D.Power study “Despite the increase in public charging stations across the United States, customer satisfaction with public Level 2 charging has declined to 617 (on a 1,000-point scale), 16 points lower than a year ago and the lowest level since the study began in 2021. Though purported to be the wave of the future, satisfaction with DC (direct current) fast chargers has declined even further, dropping 20 points to 654.”
Interestingly, one of the key findings of that same survey involved unsuccessful charging visits. “The study finds that 20% of all users say they visited a charger but did not charge their vehicle. Reasons range from the charger being inoperable to long lines to use the charger.”
In a move that promises to exacerbate the whole perception that “there’s nowhere to charge” these EVs is a rapidly building, government driven, movement to push consumers to transition to EVs.
President Joe Biden has set a goal of having half of all new vehicle sales in the US be electric by 2030. And while there’s not an outright prohibition on new, Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) powered vehicles, Biden’s Federal Sustainability Plan does require government agencies to transition to only buying zero-emission light-duty vehicles by 2027 and medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by 2035.
While the federal government has not prohibited ICE cars, the same cannot be said of some states. In 2020 California Governor Gavin Newsom directed state agencies to draw up a plan to ban the sale of new gas cars by 2035. In August of 2022 the California Air Resources Board voted to implement the Advanced Clean Cars II regulation officially implementing that ban. The regulation phases in gradually over the next decade. Starting in 2026, 35% of new cars must be all-electric, rising in a near-linear fashion to 100% in 2035.
So what’s the bigger effect of California’s new regulation? It’s just in California, right?
California is the only state permitted to create its own emissions standards under the Clean Air Act. Although States besides California are not permitted to develop their own emissions standards, Section 177 of the Clean Air Act authorizes other States to choose to adopt California’s standards in lieu of federal requirements. States are not required to seek EPA approval before adopting California’s standards.
At this time, there are 12 section 177 states following California’s lead.
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- New York
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Vermont
- Washington
Source: https://electrek.co/2022/08/25/ca-finalizes-2035-gas-car-ban-a-huge-deal-but-why-not-sooner/
Those charging stations are going to become a lot busier in the coming years.
To address these concerns, the Biden administration announced the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Plan in early 2022. NEVI is making $5 billion available to states to help build out their charging networks. The plan outlined standards and requirements states receiving funding over the next five years to build the planned 500,000 chargers in an effort to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles by American drivers. In addition to requiring the adoption of a single plug, all stations will be built with at least four DC fat charging points. And each point would need to provide at least 150 kilowatts of power. There is also the requirement that the charging infrastructure be available to the public. The proposal states that hardware must be accessible by the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week and on a year-round basis.
The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation has a site listing the approved plans and apportionment for each state here.
According to a publication by S&P Global, “EV market share for new vehicles is likely to reach 40% by 2030” “To support that vehicle population…. Looking further to 2030, with the assumption of 28.3 million units EVs on US roads, an estimated total of 2.13 million Level 2 and 172,000 Level 3 public chargers will be required – all in addition to the units that consumers put in their own garages.”
McKinsey analysts estimate that if the US wants to reach its goal, it will likely need 1.2 million public and 28 million private EV charging stations.
That’s approximately 20 times more charging stations than are currently installed in the United States in 2023.
That projection of needing 2.2 million charging stations is a far cry from the 500,000 units that NEVI is looking at providing. In short, it seems to be pretty premature to legislate and incentivize a move to EV’s without a clear-cut path to having the infrastructure in place.
The encouraging part of this story is that the private sector is moving to address the issue of charging stations.
In April of 2023, Walmart announced it was adding thousands more chargers to the nearly 1,300 already installed at more than 280 Walmart and Sam’s Club locations nationwide.
The Cinemark movie theater chain has free Volta EV charging stations at more than 160 locations, with more planned for 2023.
Kohl’s has more than 375 EV charging spots spread across 170 stores nationwide. The company averages more than 105,000 charging sessions a year, a Kohl’s spokesperson said.
Macy’s started providing free EV charging at select stores in 2014. It expanded its partnership with Volta In 2021 and now offers 124 charging stations spread across 51 locations nationwide.
In March 2022, Starbucks announced a pilot program that would see DC fast chargers installed at shops along the 1,350-mile route from Denver to the company’s headquarters in Seattle.
Petroleum giant BP announced that it would purchase around $100 million in Tesla EV charging hardware for deployment within its growing BP Pulse EV charging network. BP also said it will invest up to $1 billion in EV charging across the US by 2030.
Bank of America is letting customers set up financing home electric vehicle charging stations alongside their car loans.
Still, it’s advisable to download an app like PlugShare or ChargeMap to see which stores have charging stations near you and read reviews to see if they’re in service.
Here’s to hoping an EV trip to visit Mom will be much less of a logistic problem in the future.
Don Alexander has been producing videos since 1982. He has worked with the SAAC, Sierra Nevada Community Access Television, Washoe County, Nevada The City of Reno, Nevada and PBS-Reno. He has also been involved racing cars for over 40 years.
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