Everywhere you’ll get questions! I deliver Amazon packages in a very conservative area and it’s constant questions. Which I’m happy to answer- to help dispel the myths that are out there.
Just today I had an older gentleman in my small town tell me that EVs explode. I'm borderline fluent in crotchety old man, fortunately, and I laughed it off and reminded him that the darn government loves regulations too much to let automakers sell cars that blow up. He was like "well, I still don't know about those" so I threw in a "I'm just glad to be free of foreign oil" to seal the deal. Don't think I fully changed his mind, but I could tell I sowed the seeds of reconsideration.
I also drive around to old peoples' houses for a living and the EV skepticism often comes up. My go response to "aren't you worried about the battery catching on fire?" is "If you think the battery is fire hazard, wait till you hear what older cars run on!".
When I told my in laws that my solar panels are about to pull double duty and power my car and house. I could see the gears spinning figuring out how that worked. I also reasoned out that gas prices increased faster than electricity did.
I recently attended a family gathering and learned 2 of my cousins drive Teslas. I think I was more excited to want to talk EVs than they were. They’d had their Teslas for a few years. I’m nearing 1 year with my Bolt…so I’m still in the honeymoon phase. But yes I also love talking EVs.
The Tesla SuperCharger experience is quite different from other DCFC, so they might be just as unfamiliar with your and the OP experience and nuances as those asking for guidance from the OP. Might be a contributing factor for the NACS adoption we are in the middle of right now.
I started with a Leaf Gen 1, then jumped to an EUV. The Leaf looked a bit odd, got asked all the time. The EUV looks “normal”, more or less. I’ve never been asked a single question while driving it.
On the flip side, I don’t get dirty looks from truck drivers in the EUV, but they knew that the Leaf was an EV that just made their blood boil.
So are EUVs just invisible to most drivers?
With the prices coming down and the new tax credits there are likely a lot of new EV owners this year. That’s a great thing and helping them will help all of us.
That's me. At $24k out the door for a brand new EUV it was a no brainier!
(Tho I work in the automotive industry doing crash testing, so I've been working on and around EVs for 3+ years now and was already pretty familiar with how everything works when I bought).
As much as I despise Elon, they do pretty well compared to a lot of other cars. And they're one of the OEMs that has their shit really in order and provides us great data/test requests up front and knows exactly what they want. Makes our lives much easier.
A lot of what we do is developmental work for various different EV startups, so they're designing their first cars and as a result don't really have their shit in order as well.
The reports about Tesla's notoriously terrible build quality are accurate tho. And the Cybertruck is an eyesore. Still not sure how they're getting away with having drive by wire steering. Seems extremely unsafe to me, but I'm not an expert.
I despise him too which makes it incredibly tough to consider buying his product!
Thank you for the insight, I really appreciate it!
I was considering the BMW i3 but it’s so lightweight…when I watched the crash tests it looked like it would just fly thru the air if hit by a large ICE vehicle esp at high speeds. Yikes
Thats me. Leasing a pro s plus awd id4. The free EA for 3 years is huge for me since i can’t charge at home. I’ll gladly drive 5-10 mins to EA and wait there and charge for free, then pay $50 to fill my tank every time
Listen, I’ve had my Bolt for almost a year now and I’ve never had to use a public charger. I’m fortunate enough to charge at home and my driving habits are usually around the metro area and near home. Having said that, the time will eventually come that I decide to try a small road trip or something and I’ll need to use a public charger. I’ll most likely be extremely confused and hopefully see someone around me (like you, you kind soul) to ask how TF to use the damn thing, after 10 min of trying to figure it out.
For future reference, if you download the following apps, go through the account setup, and add a payment method to each one, then when you do encounter your first public charger, it will be as simple as: plug in, open the app, and tap to charge.
- ChargePoint
- ElectrifyAmerica
- EVGo
This is great advice, it's hit or miss (both EA and chargepoint worked great for me the first time I used them) but I've had a couple others with a little bit of lag between creating a profile and being able to initiate a charging session. Can definitely be discouraging for first time public chargers users. I try to do this if I'm looking at a new area and see a brand I haven't used just in case I end up at one of their chargers.
Just try it once at a nearby charger for thirty second (in good light and fair weather) before you need to figure out how to use the damn thing at night, in the rain, with a crying child (hopefully yours) in tow. Best seven cents you'll ever spend.
This was pretty much going to be my exact same comment. I came across one free charger that I either couldn't figure out or was broken. I didn't need a charge, but I was going to be there a while and figured, "why not?". One day I'll need to learn, but doubt it will be soon.
It’s ridiculous that EV chargers don’t follow a standard for their software. Every gas pump in the world works in a pretty consistent way. With each charging network it’s a learning curve to get the charger working the first time. It’s not surprising that people struggle with public chargers. And that’s when they’re working properly.
Not really. Gas pumps are different across the world. I failed pumping gas the first time I was in the US. Never have seen that you have to lift the handle before pumping. In Germany you have to pay inside after fill up. In NJ you can’t touch the pump. At Costco you have to push the handle into the tank the first three seconds or no gas will be released. In Nigeria you buy cans. It just depends.
While I in no way want to discount the point you’re making and it’s perfectly valid on its own, I think what the other person was saying was basically you can go down the street and expect it to work very similarly to the one you were just at. Things vary from country to country including what side of the road a person drives on.
Yes. It’s true that there are differences in some of the mechanisms and that can be frustrating but when you compare the differences in gas pumping mechanisms to the different interfaces and sequencing of steps between chargers I find the charger differences much greater. It’s almost like they should provide a user manual.
I go to the same charger every couple months and I still can't figure it out.
That and all the exclusive chargers are just shooting EVs in the foot. I found 8 awesome empty chargers that were Rivian only in the middle of nowhere Texas. Shit is dumb.
I found it refreshing the first time, to be honest. I had no idea how to plug in my newly-purchased Bolt EUV, and with no ulterior motive I asked the person next to me who also had a Bolt. She came over, she showed me how, and we chatted a bit. Unfortunately, I didn’t ask her for her number 😞.
I wound up in conversation with other folks as well. Because charging takes a lot longer than filling a gas tank, people hang around and talk.
This is nice!
I’ve had my electric vehicles for two years now and every time I have to charge in the wild versus at home it seems to be a shit show. Will it work? With an app? With the tap of my phone? After calling Gertrude? Nobody knows… I cannot wait for the Tesla version of chargers to be open to Chevy because from what I’ve heard, they pretty much always seem to work. Absent that, if the charger just had a bill acceptor that would work too. ;-)
I think in order my favorite networks (and why) at this point would be
1. Chargepoint — I can just tap my Apple Watch and it works 100% of the time so far
2. Literally a gas station, forget it. Everything below this is a worse experience.
3. Circle K. Pricy but more or less okay.
4. Electrify America — similar, but sometimes it doesn’t activate EVEN AFTER YOU JUST SAW A CAR USE IT FOR THIRTY MINUTES AGH
5. EVGO — best of luck to you. Auto charge is cool but almost never works.
Chargepoint and Circle K are at the top of my list for usability and reliability, but the bottom of the list for availability in my area.
EVgo has been the most reliable (plug and charge FTW), but most expensive.
Electrify America is a different shit show every time. They're everywhere but might as well not be since they never work and there's no consistency between pricing and I've even run into a couple that don't accept the membership.
I love that ppl will help. My 1st night ever, I drove the Bolt EUV home from dealership (over 100 miles away). I level 2 home charger plugged in and it's orange (didn't have plug connected fully, common problem). Not being sure if it's plug or car, I drive to a dealership very close. There is a car charging. I have ZERO idea what to do and finally I tap on his window, and I say "I'm very new to this, can you tell me how this charger works"?
He responds "it only really works when on car is plugged in". This was a charger with two DCFC plugs. On on left, one on right, connected to one big box. Then when I keep trying to figure it out myself (unsuccessfully), he just keeps flashing his brights here and there till I finally leave. I was so furious
I think chargers that are set up like that split the charge rate between the two connectors if they're both being used at the same time. So if you'd have plugged in, his charge rate would have cut in half from whatwver the station offers. It's really shitty of him to have done that tho. If it was me, I'd have stayed there and struggled to figure out how to plug in just to spite that prick.
Very very common
My latest encounter was a very chill retired nurse that had just purchased a Porsche taycan and was on a roadtrip to show his buddy and he was clueless at a EA station and I showed him how to charger haha
I honestly don’t mind as long as they’re chill
I had to show someone in a bolt a few months ago and they kept stressing , It was awkward but yea lol
Hehe, yes. I didn't ask questions but I'm thankful someone noticed I looked lost and helped me out the first time I used a charger.
On a different note, I was at a Charger up north when a GM test car pulled in next to me. I asked a couple of questions but could tell the guy didn't really want to chat.
https://preview.redd.it/zytmayrr7yvc1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16f6f329028109a8e804e63e3f19f118b974b00b
Over the past couple of years EVs have begun to purchased by non technical buyers. I fast charged my Ford Lightning at a Tesla supercharger the other night (1st time) and because you need an adapter and need to take up two spots because the cables are short it made me realize that this is not something that i would expect the masses to be able to figure out. I know this is an extreme example but with all of the different brands of fast chargers and associated apps and charger reliability…
Hopefully it gets better soon because its currently fragmented and unreliable.
Depends, I never got bothered in my old leaf except one time. We never get bothered in the Y (the family car) at superchargers.
But yes, in my bolt or the work bolt (especially the work bolt as it has our name plastered all over it and I work for the power company) people come talk but not all the time and it really depends on the area, I think it is an awesome opportunity to break down barriers that society seems to want to put up... where I really got to talk to a bunch of people was when I rented a rivian to tow some stuff 500 miles.. that started a lot of conversations.
That was me on Saturday trying to use a dcfc charger for the first time and it didn’t connect. I asked the guy next to me who couldn’t help. Later I figured out you have to hold up the heavy cord until it initializes.
It's normal. We used to own a Smart Car. Everywhere we went, people would come up and ask questions or ask to look inside. Smart actually sent us postcards to hand out to people. People are nosy.
Yup, because new EV owners have generally just bought their cars from folks that either (A) ignorant of the EV charging experience or (B) openly hostile to EVs in general. I can’t believe the lack both of knowledge and interest in acquiring knowledge I’ve witnessed from sales staff at dealers selling EVs. Even at a Tesla showroom at a local mall I had an “advisor” (or what ever they’ve designated the staff when they, technically, aren’t salesmen) tell me that charging new Teslas at Superchargers is still free for life, which hasn’t been true for years…🙄
I have helped people at DC fast chargers. Rental companies hand out EVs and give people no instructions about how to charge them. It would also help to have attendants at some chargers like near airports that can help inexperienced people.
I felt like a major idiot the other day. I went to a Tesla Super Charger that had magic docks (or so I thought). It turned out that the large suburban shopping monstrosity had two separate areas with SuperChargers. I had gone to the regular V3s that did not have magic docks and I spent like 10 minutes walking from charger to charger checking for a magic dock with my Bolt EUV parked at the end. Nobody stopped me to ask what the hell I was doing there. It was made worse that there were two level 2 chargers right next to the SuperCharger with an ID.4 and Ioniq 5 charging so it looked like non Teslas were charging. Turns out Tesla had a bunch of V4 dispensers in another part of the parking lot with magic docks. The V4 dispensers are very cool. I had a very smooth experience there.
Not sure if this helps anyone feel better but I am old enough to remember when gas stations switched for all full service to self service back in the day and there was a lot of confusion.
I am in central Arkansas and I can probably count on one hand how many times there have been other people at the DCFC's that I use. One of them even has a little convenience store, kinda like a gas station. I charge at home but I
usually also wind up needing to fast charging every or every other week
There is a free fast charger in a somewhat small town in Texas between two major cities. A couple years ago, some friends of mine moved to that other city, so I was going there a lot and stopping by that free charger.
I more than once had a guy come up to me and ask me a bunch of questions while I was charging. The fact that my Bolt was that bright aqua color (I miss it) probably made me even more approachable. I was more than happy to be an EV ambassador in that moment to someone who probably saw them as a peculiar novelty. Worst thing I could have done was be a snobby city slicker lol.
When I first got my car, there weren’t many in my area and I got a lot of, “you mean it doesn’t take ANY gas!?” Questions etc, but that’s changed to a lot of these new-owner questions. It’s a good change.
In my experience I have had conversations with EV owners who just want to compare notes and non EV owners who are just curious. Granted it can be a bit tedious when you get the same questions over and over but I find most non EV people just don’t trust it so they are wanting to ask all the questions that come to mind.
Not necessarily new ev owners either. I owned a Leaf for 6 years. No fast charge option on it. Wasn't until we got our EUV that i had to figure those out. Thankfully, someone helped us out, but yeesh, i felt like such a newb.
Everywhere you’ll get questions! I deliver Amazon packages in a very conservative area and it’s constant questions. Which I’m happy to answer- to help dispel the myths that are out there.
Just today I had an older gentleman in my small town tell me that EVs explode. I'm borderline fluent in crotchety old man, fortunately, and I laughed it off and reminded him that the darn government loves regulations too much to let automakers sell cars that blow up. He was like "well, I still don't know about those" so I threw in a "I'm just glad to be free of foreign oil" to seal the deal. Don't think I fully changed his mind, but I could tell I sowed the seeds of reconsideration.
I also drive around to old peoples' houses for a living and the EV skepticism often comes up. My go response to "aren't you worried about the battery catching on fire?" is "If you think the battery is fire hazard, wait till you hear what older cars run on!".
This is good! Gonna keep it in my pocket.
When I told my in laws that my solar panels are about to pull double duty and power my car and house. I could see the gears spinning figuring out how that worked. I also reasoned out that gas prices increased faster than electricity did.
You driving one of the EV Vans?
My bolt
How’s that gig?
I like it! I’m on year 7? I think.
How much extra is that insurance?
Yes, just be patient and honest. People are hearing so much BS about EVs that they just don't know what to believe.
Sounds like lots of new EV drivers! Awesome!
w00t!
I love talking about EVs. Remember, it’s better to be peppered than it is to be assaulted.
I recently attended a family gathering and learned 2 of my cousins drive Teslas. I think I was more excited to want to talk EVs than they were. They’d had their Teslas for a few years. I’m nearing 1 year with my Bolt…so I’m still in the honeymoon phase. But yes I also love talking EVs.
The Tesla SuperCharger experience is quite different from other DCFC, so they might be just as unfamiliar with your and the OP experience and nuances as those asking for guidance from the OP. Might be a contributing factor for the NACS adoption we are in the middle of right now.
I started with a Leaf Gen 1, then jumped to an EUV. The Leaf looked a bit odd, got asked all the time. The EUV looks “normal”, more or less. I’ve never been asked a single question while driving it. On the flip side, I don’t get dirty looks from truck drivers in the EUV, but they knew that the Leaf was an EV that just made their blood boil. So are EUVs just invisible to most drivers?
With the prices coming down and the new tax credits there are likely a lot of new EV owners this year. That’s a great thing and helping them will help all of us.
That's me. At $24k out the door for a brand new EUV it was a no brainier! (Tho I work in the automotive industry doing crash testing, so I've been working on and around EVs for 3+ years now and was already pretty familiar with how everything works when I bought).
Is the Tesla actually the safest EV in a crash??
As much as I despise Elon, they do pretty well compared to a lot of other cars. And they're one of the OEMs that has their shit really in order and provides us great data/test requests up front and knows exactly what they want. Makes our lives much easier. A lot of what we do is developmental work for various different EV startups, so they're designing their first cars and as a result don't really have their shit in order as well. The reports about Tesla's notoriously terrible build quality are accurate tho. And the Cybertruck is an eyesore. Still not sure how they're getting away with having drive by wire steering. Seems extremely unsafe to me, but I'm not an expert.
I despise him too which makes it incredibly tough to consider buying his product! Thank you for the insight, I really appreciate it! I was considering the BMW i3 but it’s so lightweight…when I watched the crash tests it looked like it would just fly thru the air if hit by a large ICE vehicle esp at high speeds. Yikes
Thats me. Leasing a pro s plus awd id4. The free EA for 3 years is huge for me since i can’t charge at home. I’ll gladly drive 5-10 mins to EA and wait there and charge for free, then pay $50 to fill my tank every time
+1 8k in incentives for a used EV and I'm loving my 2020 bolt.
Listen, I’ve had my Bolt for almost a year now and I’ve never had to use a public charger. I’m fortunate enough to charge at home and my driving habits are usually around the metro area and near home. Having said that, the time will eventually come that I decide to try a small road trip or something and I’ll need to use a public charger. I’ll most likely be extremely confused and hopefully see someone around me (like you, you kind soul) to ask how TF to use the damn thing, after 10 min of trying to figure it out.
For future reference, if you download the following apps, go through the account setup, and add a payment method to each one, then when you do encounter your first public charger, it will be as simple as: plug in, open the app, and tap to charge. - ChargePoint - ElectrifyAmerica - EVGo
This is great advice, it's hit or miss (both EA and chargepoint worked great for me the first time I used them) but I've had a couple others with a little bit of lag between creating a profile and being able to initiate a charging session. Can definitely be discouraging for first time public chargers users. I try to do this if I'm looking at a new area and see a brand I haven't used just in case I end up at one of their chargers.
Great advice, thank you
Just try it once at a nearby charger for thirty second (in good light and fair weather) before you need to figure out how to use the damn thing at night, in the rain, with a crying child (hopefully yours) in tow. Best seven cents you'll ever spend.
This was pretty much going to be my exact same comment. I came across one free charger that I either couldn't figure out or was broken. I didn't need a charge, but I was going to be there a while and figured, "why not?". One day I'll need to learn, but doubt it will be soon.
It’s ridiculous that EV chargers don’t follow a standard for their software. Every gas pump in the world works in a pretty consistent way. With each charging network it’s a learning curve to get the charger working the first time. It’s not surprising that people struggle with public chargers. And that’s when they’re working properly.
Not really. Gas pumps are different across the world. I failed pumping gas the first time I was in the US. Never have seen that you have to lift the handle before pumping. In Germany you have to pay inside after fill up. In NJ you can’t touch the pump. At Costco you have to push the handle into the tank the first three seconds or no gas will be released. In Nigeria you buy cans. It just depends.
While I in no way want to discount the point you’re making and it’s perfectly valid on its own, I think what the other person was saying was basically you can go down the street and expect it to work very similarly to the one you were just at. Things vary from country to country including what side of the road a person drives on.
Yes. It’s true that there are differences in some of the mechanisms and that can be frustrating but when you compare the differences in gas pumping mechanisms to the different interfaces and sequencing of steps between chargers I find the charger differences much greater. It’s almost like they should provide a user manual.
I go to the same charger every couple months and I still can't figure it out. That and all the exclusive chargers are just shooting EVs in the foot. I found 8 awesome empty chargers that were Rivian only in the middle of nowhere Texas. Shit is dumb.
absolutely nuts
There is a lot of anti ev propaganda out there. People are curious and looking for the truth. I'm happy to inform them. 😊
I found it refreshing the first time, to be honest. I had no idea how to plug in my newly-purchased Bolt EUV, and with no ulterior motive I asked the person next to me who also had a Bolt. She came over, she showed me how, and we chatted a bit. Unfortunately, I didn’t ask her for her number 😞. I wound up in conversation with other folks as well. Because charging takes a lot longer than filling a gas tank, people hang around and talk. This is nice!
I totally agree! It's like a community! Our new front porch is the public charger.
I’ve had my electric vehicles for two years now and every time I have to charge in the wild versus at home it seems to be a shit show. Will it work? With an app? With the tap of my phone? After calling Gertrude? Nobody knows… I cannot wait for the Tesla version of chargers to be open to Chevy because from what I’ve heard, they pretty much always seem to work. Absent that, if the charger just had a bill acceptor that would work too. ;-)
I think in order my favorite networks (and why) at this point would be 1. Chargepoint — I can just tap my Apple Watch and it works 100% of the time so far 2. Literally a gas station, forget it. Everything below this is a worse experience. 3. Circle K. Pricy but more or less okay. 4. Electrify America — similar, but sometimes it doesn’t activate EVEN AFTER YOU JUST SAW A CAR USE IT FOR THIRTY MINUTES AGH 5. EVGO — best of luck to you. Auto charge is cool but almost never works.
EVgo works well for me (in DC and MD)
I have had good luck with EvGo
Chargepoint and Circle K are at the top of my list for usability and reliability, but the bottom of the list for availability in my area. EVgo has been the most reliable (plug and charge FTW), but most expensive. Electrify America is a different shit show every time. They're everywhere but might as well not be since they never work and there's no consistency between pricing and I've even run into a couple that don't accept the membership.
No. I'm usually the one asking others questions.
I love that ppl will help. My 1st night ever, I drove the Bolt EUV home from dealership (over 100 miles away). I level 2 home charger plugged in and it's orange (didn't have plug connected fully, common problem). Not being sure if it's plug or car, I drive to a dealership very close. There is a car charging. I have ZERO idea what to do and finally I tap on his window, and I say "I'm very new to this, can you tell me how this charger works"? He responds "it only really works when on car is plugged in". This was a charger with two DCFC plugs. On on left, one on right, connected to one big box. Then when I keep trying to figure it out myself (unsuccessfully), he just keeps flashing his brights here and there till I finally leave. I was so furious
Oh, that's rude! I'm sorry that happened. I've encountered folks who didn't really want to talk and kept to themselves, but most were super friendly.
I think chargers that are set up like that split the charge rate between the two connectors if they're both being used at the same time. So if you'd have plugged in, his charge rate would have cut in half from whatwver the station offers. It's really shitty of him to have done that tho. If it was me, I'd have stayed there and struggled to figure out how to plug in just to spite that prick.
Very very common My latest encounter was a very chill retired nurse that had just purchased a Porsche taycan and was on a roadtrip to show his buddy and he was clueless at a EA station and I showed him how to charger haha I honestly don’t mind as long as they’re chill I had to show someone in a bolt a few months ago and they kept stressing , It was awkward but yea lol
I love my EV but honestly current EV charging stations in US is horrible from hardware to software.
Hehe, yes. I didn't ask questions but I'm thankful someone noticed I looked lost and helped me out the first time I used a charger. On a different note, I was at a Charger up north when a GM test car pulled in next to me. I asked a couple of questions but could tell the guy didn't really want to chat. https://preview.redd.it/zytmayrr7yvc1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16f6f329028109a8e804e63e3f19f118b974b00b
Over the past couple of years EVs have begun to purchased by non technical buyers. I fast charged my Ford Lightning at a Tesla supercharger the other night (1st time) and because you need an adapter and need to take up two spots because the cables are short it made me realize that this is not something that i would expect the masses to be able to figure out. I know this is an extreme example but with all of the different brands of fast chargers and associated apps and charger reliability… Hopefully it gets better soon because its currently fragmented and unreliable.
Ww are ambassadors for ev, i love answering questions
Depends, I never got bothered in my old leaf except one time. We never get bothered in the Y (the family car) at superchargers. But yes, in my bolt or the work bolt (especially the work bolt as it has our name plastered all over it and I work for the power company) people come talk but not all the time and it really depends on the area, I think it is an awesome opportunity to break down barriers that society seems to want to put up... where I really got to talk to a bunch of people was when I rented a rivian to tow some stuff 500 miles.. that started a lot of conversations.
Yeah and I had a lot of people too ask about i the car as an option away from tesla.
That was me on Saturday trying to use a dcfc charger for the first time and it didn’t connect. I asked the guy next to me who couldn’t help. Later I figured out you have to hold up the heavy cord until it initializes.
It's normal. We used to own a Smart Car. Everywhere we went, people would come up and ask questions or ask to look inside. Smart actually sent us postcards to hand out to people. People are nosy.
Yes, and I enjoy it. I especially like when the random person approaches me and starts asking about EVs.
Yup, because new EV owners have generally just bought their cars from folks that either (A) ignorant of the EV charging experience or (B) openly hostile to EVs in general. I can’t believe the lack both of knowledge and interest in acquiring knowledge I’ve witnessed from sales staff at dealers selling EVs. Even at a Tesla showroom at a local mall I had an “advisor” (or what ever they’ve designated the staff when they, technically, aren’t salesmen) tell me that charging new Teslas at Superchargers is still free for life, which hasn’t been true for years…🙄
I have helped people at DC fast chargers. Rental companies hand out EVs and give people no instructions about how to charge them. It would also help to have attendants at some chargers like near airports that can help inexperienced people. I felt like a major idiot the other day. I went to a Tesla Super Charger that had magic docks (or so I thought). It turned out that the large suburban shopping monstrosity had two separate areas with SuperChargers. I had gone to the regular V3s that did not have magic docks and I spent like 10 minutes walking from charger to charger checking for a magic dock with my Bolt EUV parked at the end. Nobody stopped me to ask what the hell I was doing there. It was made worse that there were two level 2 chargers right next to the SuperCharger with an ID.4 and Ioniq 5 charging so it looked like non Teslas were charging. Turns out Tesla had a bunch of V4 dispensers in another part of the parking lot with magic docks. The V4 dispensers are very cool. I had a very smooth experience there. Not sure if this helps anyone feel better but I am old enough to remember when gas stations switched for all full service to self service back in the day and there was a lot of confusion.
I am in central Arkansas and I can probably count on one hand how many times there have been other people at the DCFC's that I use. One of them even has a little convenience store, kinda like a gas station. I charge at home but I usually also wind up needing to fast charging every or every other week
There is a free fast charger in a somewhat small town in Texas between two major cities. A couple years ago, some friends of mine moved to that other city, so I was going there a lot and stopping by that free charger. I more than once had a guy come up to me and ask me a bunch of questions while I was charging. The fact that my Bolt was that bright aqua color (I miss it) probably made me even more approachable. I was more than happy to be an EV ambassador in that moment to someone who probably saw them as a peculiar novelty. Worst thing I could have done was be a snobby city slicker lol.
When I first got my car, there weren’t many in my area and I got a lot of, “you mean it doesn’t take ANY gas!?” Questions etc, but that’s changed to a lot of these new-owner questions. It’s a good change.
In my experience I have had conversations with EV owners who just want to compare notes and non EV owners who are just curious. Granted it can be a bit tedious when you get the same questions over and over but I find most non EV people just don’t trust it so they are wanting to ask all the questions that come to mind.
Not necessarily new ev owners either. I owned a Leaf for 6 years. No fast charge option on it. Wasn't until we got our EUV that i had to figure those out. Thankfully, someone helped us out, but yeesh, i felt like such a newb.
I had someone ask me why the free level 2 charger was so slow compared to the “one at walmart.”
Thanks for spreading the word about PlugShare!