If Everyone Had A Gas Station At Home…

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Here’s a funny thing I was just thinking: Imagine if the EV–gasmobile story were reversed and EVs were the dominant type of vehicle while gasmobiles were just becoming mainstream. Imagine also that gasmobiles only had a range of 60–80 miles, but that everyone had a gas pump / small gas station at home. If you had a gas station at home, would you care that there weren’t gas stations all around the city as well?

home gas station
The closest thing I could find to a “home gas station” on Shutterstock.

While this thought experiment is obvious to EV owners, I think it can help the rest of us to look at the charging story in a different light than we have been. The charging issue has been blown way out of proportion. Yes, it’s one of the few areas where EVs could still improve, but the reality is that charging an EV is already more convenient than going to a gas station to fill up your tank.

If I recall correctly, most EV owners thought before buying their EVs that they’d charge their cars every night, but they actually end up charging every other night.

I’ve said it before, but I feel like it can’t be said enough: The convenience of electric cars is one of their greatest benefits. The time savings from not having to go to the gas station is also a tremendous benefit. The lack of public charging infrastructure is a small issue that will be overcome.

The real concern for drivers, as I saw insightfully noted somewhere else recently, is when gas stations start going out of business because of the EV revolution. Then, people still driving gasmobiles will have a hard time fueling up their vehicles.

Keep up with the latest EV news and commentary here on CleanTechnica, and feel free to subscribe to our infamous EV newsletter — we won’t tell anyone.


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7324 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan