If you just bought an electric car, you may be loath to admit it, but it's true: Although you're no longer a servant to Big Oil, you've signed up for another problem entirely—the urgent need to charge your car.
Sure, if you can design a driving routine around reliable charging sources, you may be able to get around your city—and even commute to work—with little disruption. But if your local charging-station infrastructure doesn't play in your favor, you'll begin to feel trapped within a gated community. Inside lies security. Outside lies risk. This is life on the fragmented edge of the electric-car ecosystem.
I've lived on that edge, having spent the past few months with two all-electric cars and one plug-in hybrid. Lacking a charging station at home or the workplace, I had two choices: Plug one of the loaner cars into my household electrical outlet overnight, or find publicly available charging stations as I tested the fleet vehicles throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
I quickly realized I was a have-not in this developing infrastructure. Last week was National Plug In Day, but I wasn't celebrating any time I faced the prospect of running out of battery power on a dark road. More stations are vital to attracting more drivers to the electric-car ecosystem. Automakers and public and private entities continue to invest in charging stations, but the economics are challenging.
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