No other manufacturer has a charging network like the Supercharger network, and that isn't likely to change anytime soon. Not being able to take a car on the occasional long-ish trip greatly diminishes its utility for a lot of people.

I'm guessing that most households who are likely to go for one are also multi-car households, and you probably aren't going to normally be taking _all_ of your cars on a long-ish trip at the same time. I'm guessing most of any potential loss in attractiveness represents anxiety more than it represents a genuine loss in utility.

How does the Bolt compare to what you expect to get from Tesla?

I test drove one. It was fairly ok, but the seats were uncomfortable.

The big objective thing that the Bolt is missing is a fast charging network. For now, nothing can touch Tesla's supercharger network in terms of charging speed and locations.

I wonder how valuable that charging network will end up being long-term. With the Bolt delivering 238 miles of range, and that number likely to go up some more in the next few years, it seems like a fairly small niche of people that actually benefit from superchargers. Especially as the number of end-point chargers increases.

Which isn't to say that it won't be a valuable marketing tool, however -- range anxiety is definitely going to be a thing for a while.

For one, Tesla superchargers in NorCal and SoCal are insanely busy, with lines and valets during busy hours, so the usage is definitely there. Head over to TeslaMotorsClub forums or Facebook group for owners to witness the mini-dramas playing out regarding hogged supercharger spots.

For two, if someone is considering buying a new car, and their daily commute is 3 miles each way, but once a year they take a 200-mile road trip (relatives, beach, mountain vacation), the lack of fast and convenient charging options severely lowers the chance they will consider that 238-mile-range vehicle.

Both the number and reliability of public chargers needs to increase drastically - there’s a couple of free Volta chargers by the grocery store I frequent, 70% of the time they’re taken and 20% they’re inoperative. Just a slight bummer for me, as I can charge at home, but a huge bummer for someone who is on a road trip down to their last 20 miles, and was planning to do a major recharge there.

> For one, Tesla superchargers in NorCal and SoCal are insanely busy, with lines and valets during busy hours, so the usage is definitely there. Head over to TeslaMotorsClub forums or Facebook group for owners to witness the mini-dramas playing out regarding hogged supercharger spots.

Oddly enough, two years ago, Hacker News insisted that I was an idiot for driving an ICE hybrid, because of how long it takes to stop for gas.

That's true... but if you added 400k more people trying to use those superchargers, would that network still seem useful?

Wait...what? Someone built a bunch of charging stations all over the place and they only work with one vendor's cars!?!?

Other car companies are free to make their cars compatible, since Tesla released the patents. It's just that no one has yet.

Note that Tesla has not offered an explicit license for those patents, so there's no guarantee that companies using the patents won't get sued. It was a pure PR stunt.