When people write or talk about switching to an electric car, one of the big terms that’s thrown around a lot is “range anxiety”. The anxiety that’s caused by the thought that you might run out of electricity and you wind up sitting on the side of the road.
Here’s the thing.
For the most Part, (Not totally) those of us who own electric vehicles don’t really suffer from range anxiety. However, what we do suffer from, from time to time, is charging station failure.
I have been in situations in the past where a charging station that I would rely on if I’m going to and from Seattle, for instance was not operational. This has happened to me a couple of times. Happily, it did not ruin my trip.
Most EV drivers today no longer suffer from range anxiety because they have developed a skill called “planning ahead”.
I don’t know if you’ve heard about it. It’s where before you take a trip, you plan your route so that you can stop and charge when you need to. I know it’s a radical idea. If you’re the kind of person that goes on long road trips on the spur of the moment. Maybe an electric vehicle is not for you.
These days, the odds of finding an available charger on the way to and from, say, Seattle or Spokane, have gone way up because now my car (a kia) can charge at most Tesla charging stations. I have an adapter because the plugs are not the same. I can roll up to a charging Tesla stations In Ritzville, North Bend, Coulee City, Moses Lake, Entiat, and now near downtown Wenatchee.
Where in Wenatchee?
The latest Tesla charging stations are going into the parking lot at the Wenatchee Winco Foods. A week ago, there was nothing going on there. This week, they almost have them completely installed.
Tesla has gotten installing charging stations down to a science where they actually prebuild not just the chargers, but the slab that they’re installed in, along with the internal wiring and the power cabinets. Then they load the entire thing onto a flatbed in one piece, take the whole thing to where it has to go, and just drop it in the hole at the pre-prepared site. At that point, all they have to do is hook up the final electric connections, do a little testing, and they are in operation.
The odds are that I will never use these charging stations because I can charge at home. But it’s nice to know that they are there, and just for fun and giggles, I may go ahead and use one anyway just to say I did.
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Gallery Credit: John Riggs