10 Top Characteristics Of Early/Short-Range EV Adopters — In My Experience
There are many people joining the electric vehicle (EV) movement every day, but we are still in the “early adopter” phase of the transition to electricity for transport. What does that make people who bought short-range EVs years ago? Super-early adopters? Ultra-early adopters?
There are indeed some special traits of those ultra-early adopters, as well as anyone buying a used short-range EV today or in the coming years. Below is a list of 10 top characteristics of this subset of EV drivers. The list is not from any scientific research, just my own experience.
1. Patience
4. Endurance
5. Consideration for children and their need for cleaner air. (We need to stop poisoning the lungs of children.) Additionally, concern for a sheer need for all of us to breathe in air that is not going to hurt our lungs.
6. Desire for peace of mind in the midst of one frightening disaster after another.
7. Ability to face the potential of a challenge without fear of being stranded, or fear of walking.
8. Enthusiasm to join the future … now.
9. Self-applied and self-oriented education that combines sourcing active information from reliable sources.
10. Personal strength of will.
At a recent EV charging stop at Electrify America, I had an interesting conversation with a young man. Even though he was young, he drove electric cars quite early on. He went for it before most of us.
He seemed to me to be determined to think about choices, to contemplate finances along with environmental goals on a tight budget. I kept thinking after our conversation of his patience and determination. He went through a lot with his first very low range EV. But he stayed with it, seemed determined to stay emissions-free, and now drives a Chevy Bolt.
With small-range EVs, these are some common situations owners may face: Dead ends, time lost, time lost, dead ends, charge lost.
If you are driving and your EV tells you that you need a charge, you can easily and safely look for the next available station on your route. Yet, if you are driving, you cannot look on an app to see reviews of the station (something, let’s acknowledge, a patient and self-motivated EV driver has left for other early adopters).
Perhaps, driving already, you hope for the best if there is not time or an easy opportunity to stop — you simply go to the station. I did that yesterday, and — oh dear, it was a dealership with gas cars blocking that wonderful ChargePoint fast charging station that I would be willing to pay for a charge at. Suffice it to say, this was not a BMW dealership, which by happenstance was the next spot my EV took me to. I’ve been blocked (ICE’d as we EV drivers call it) at one BMW dealership, but it’s unusual. I was not ICE’d yesterday at my local BMW dealership.
The picture below is from a very EV-friendly dealership. Off hours, I am sure any EV would be able to get a charge here, but I am not sure if staff at the dealership would complain to an EV driver who tried to use it with a model other than a BMW. Still, it’s good that the space was empty and even protected by a sign.
A conversation I had with another Bolt driver was also interesting. A coming article addresses some of our concerns looking forward to a large expansion of EV charging infrastructure that we both believe will be popping up. The most reliable network yet, in my experience, is Electrify America.
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