Trying to do that trip in an electric vehicle, in order to account for charging stations, would add 4 stops and around 2 hours for charging. Tesla's trips webpage also estimates that I'd save...$13 in fuel compared to gas.
The cars are more expensive, the number of required stopping locations is increased while severely restricted, and overall I don't save much money charging compared to buying gasoline. Overall it doesn't add up, and I think a lot of Americans see it this way as well.
In the US the automobile has historically been marketed and used as a tool of freedom, independence, mobility, etc. It's hard to market something as a provider of mobility when in my mind I see an orange extension cord tethering it to the cities and metro areas.
I'm curious about the route, because that's not that far. The first gen lucid air cars have a 500 mile range. That max range vehicle costs about 160k at the moment. Many cheaper cars are 300+ miles today, even the rivian truck has an epa range of 314 miles (and this is far from the best long range car). Tesla has 400 mile range cars today (latest model s at 396 miles), model 3 is 350 miles w awd.
Tesla superchargers make charging easy and fast generally for the entire area, with that distance and a tesla or other current gen car, and allowing 1 or 2 20 minute charging stops it should be easy to go that distance. I'd consider trying one of the websites that let you pick a route and input your car and they suggest distance and charging locations needed (e.g., https://aBetterRoutePlanner.com). With tesla you usually pay around the price of electricity; unfortuatenly electrify america charges double or triple local power prices. It's not that hard for me to go anywhere I want in my 7 year old model s.
I also tried adjusting the car type to a Ford Mach-e, and I only have to stop twice as long as I drive a 5-hour stretch at 55 MPH max. The speed limit on this stretch is 75 MPH.
I do understand that different vehicles have different functionality and targeted use-cases. In this case, I'm not pulling a boat or a trailer. I'm "just driving" which is a pretty standard thing to want to do in a car. My point still stands, if I need to spend $160k to drive 500 miles in an electric vehicle, I'd rather go buy a $40k ICE vehicle that can do it with fewer stops.
My last Vegas trip, one of the stops near a charging center had several cars waiting for chargers. I don't think I'd enjoy that at all.
I've thought about an EV for local commuting, but the costs just don't seem worth it. Let alone even less ability for independent repair or maintaining. And dropping $15-20k every few years on a new set of batteries is definitely less than appealing.
It is true that other markets have their own standards, China and Japan for instance but the number of cars moved between markets is very small.
In Europe, Tesla has switched to CCS. In the US, Tesla has committed to letting CCS cars charge on its network. The CCS network in the US is growing quickly and is in the same general size as Teslas. Thing are coming together.
https://www.tesla.com/support/non-tesla-supercharging
But to answer your bigger point: others networks aren't incentivized yet to push harder to compete. The demand just isn't there yet. For EVs to be successful in the US, there needs to be more than one successful company. This is a goal that is bigger than capitalism, and sometimes you have to work at odds with capitalism to accomplish those kind of goals.
I'll give you a few options: consumer choice, freedom, interoperability, less physical waste?
When we know something could be done, but currently isn't practical, instead of saying "Nope, we are building this charging network and we will have better batteries within 5 years", we say "Maybe someday, but right now we need gas".
We judge technology based on whether it works and is economical right now, even when there's a clear road map to making it work.
People still talk about whether the electric grid can handle the electric cars, and how windmills and solar are forcing coal offline, like as if we don't know how to upgrade things and build natural gas plants.
For a given individual, waiting a few generations makes sense, but it would be cool if big companies were just a little less obsessed with slow iterative development and rollout of tech that we pretty much already know how to do.
Everyone says batteries aren't sustainable and Lithium mining is bad, but the point isn't to make a billion lithium cars, everything now is just a prototype.
Building these missing technologies like energy storage should be as big of a deal as the moon landing was. The kind of "Make it work even if it costs 100 billion because our future depends on it" thing we just don't see anymore.
In the end, even if using the power of government there are finite people, time and resources. You have to choose what to spend on and what not to.
I know it's horrible that we don't live in a utopian society.
But it seems like it took a long time for even the big companies to fully trust that they would even be possible, and even the rich people looking for expensive toys didn't want them all that much till recently.
Think about it: financial support for elderly homeowners, overspending on end-of-life healthcare, political influence wielded by dead or dying industries, NIMBYism... People in the US firmly believe that government is for the old, holding back global changes so that old people can live the lives they are used to.
[1] - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/13/electric-...
> Total annual fuel savings of $12 billion/year relative to Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles translates to an estimated societal payback of 8.6 years to cover the costs of electric sector investments (7.2 years if GHG benefits are included)
That's quite the ROI, and arguably the spending must take place regardless to decarbonize electrical generation and transmission.
[1] https://www.brattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/19421_bra... (Slide 4, Key Findings)
The US is a big place and an EV is still a risky bet if you ever have to drive long distances. Available charging networks are still kind of unpredictable. Getting advertised charging rates is rare.
Most people I know want an EV, but they’re keenly aware that the next generation or two of EVs and charging networks will be substantially better. Waiting a few iterations is not a bad strategy.