Totally serious. I'm happy to pay...cheaper than gas!

I can't think of a better place to spend 25 minutes while the car charges. Shopping, food, people watching, incredible bathrooms, a man in a beaver costume. America! Worlds longest carwash. Why is it long? Because. Does it clean the car better? No...but it cleans it 3 times!

They are building a Bucees along 81 on my way to WV!

 

Bucee's really would be the perfect place to charge. I've used a super charger at a WaWa and that was fine - I ordered a sandwich, grabbed a drink, but you can productively kill more time in a Bucee's for sure.

 

not necessarily cheaper.

i just looked up a local chargepoint charging station and it's $4 flat fee + 80c/kwh.
to convert that, comparing with home charging, i charged 27kwh for a cost of just $3.24.
at that charging station that would be $25.60.
that 27kwh at 3mi/kwh for example, is just 81mi. of range added.
so if a gas car is 20mpg and gas is say $3.50, that's ~4 gallons or $14.
so that chargepoint fill up is almost twice as expensive as gas.

checking electrify america app, a local charger is 56c/kwh (better) and no flat fee.
so example above would be $15.12 for 81 mi. or still a bit more than gas example.

charging at home - cheaper. charging on the road if you have to pay - likely not.

and of course if one charges at bucees and 'shops' there, it's definitely not going to be a cheap recharge. but certainly fun it sounds like!

 

I agree that it is not that cost beneficial when charging at a supercharger as I have found out on my past two trips. My last trip would have cost me a comparable amount to drive compared to my X7 if I were to use public chargers the entire time due to the low range of my car but not many people I know solely use public chargers so most of the time they are likely only used on road trips.

 

It’s nice when your electricity costs less then gas, but if you’re on a trip and a location delivers fast, reliable charging with plenty of space to accommodate vehicles of all sizes and myriad charge port locations - along with the usual rest stop facilities - then I’m more than happy to pay a premium for their electricity.

 

Most people are going to be traveling, and even gas is more expensive on travel routes. Especially when comparing to home charging. That said, I still end up paying half of what my gas cars cost because of efficiency. So far, most I've paid at a Tesla supercharger is 0.44 cents a kWh

 

at 44c/kwh if you're getting 4mi/kwh (big if) that's 11c/mi. A gas car can certainly be double that (esp. in taxifornia) so you're right.

 

Even if it’s not cheaper for that one charge, it’s still much cheaper overall because you’re only paying that when traveling, that’s what I was getting at.

 

Haha especially when gas here is above $5, on travel routes it's above $6. In some places it's $7. And summer travel is just starting here....

 

i feel bad for people there who can't afford an electric car (or couldn't charge it at home anyway) and have to shell out so much for gas.

 

So do I. It's actually funny, you find all the cars with big engines like Mustangs, Chargers etc in the blue collar neighborhoods, and EV's and hybrids in the wealthy neighborhoods. The other day I pulled into the gas station (to get a car wash), and this younger guy who obviously was from a shadier part of town pulled in a Charger SRT, put in $10 and took off. Probably worked for Amazon or one of the warehouses in that area

 

Pumping gas at a Meijer station reminded me of the old days. I usually only swing by for propane exchanges or to grab some lottery tickets, LOL. Checking the gas prices, I can't say I miss those $50 fill-ups every few weeks. It's a relief to see how much money I'm saving now! Having an EV would be a no-go without home charging. I'll only hit up a charging station on trips!

Seeing all the ICE cars gave me some lyrical inspiration.

Alright stop, collaborate and listen,
ICE is back with a brand new invention. Gas tank grabs a hold of me tightly,
Fueling up my ride daily and nightly.
I see those EVs rollin' on the highway, saving their owners cash in a smart, fly way.
Can't help but envy the money they're savin',while I'm here at the pump, sadly payin'.

 

Another reason for cooling EV enthusiasm: Ezra Dyer in The New York Times writes:

Driving them is "boring". The anesthetic quiet and cleanliness of an electric car is "like a sensory deprivation chamber." For drivers, it's dull. Sure, some EVs can accelerate like a sports car, but they also "commodified and muffled that aspect of performance." It's missing the "analog mechanical brutality" of internal combustion that "activates some primal lobe deep in our brains, the one that catalyzes noise into adrenaline." Automakers lost sight of "the noises and nuances that make driving fun."

 

They are totally fun to me, especially when I blow away cars that are supposed to be fast....

 

In other news, I used a supercharger for the first time today. I didn't really need to, but there is one a few miles away, so I wanted to try it to be sure everything would work when I needed it to. 14 kWh @ 35 cent /kWh. $4.90 total charge. Took 7 minutes. At about 3 miles per kWh, that's about 42 miles of range.

Trouble getting the app to save my credit card info. Had to add it about 5 times before it finally saved.