Electric Vehicle ‘Experts’ Clash with Realities of Life in Burien

Are electric vehicles really better than gas-powered ones?

by John McCallisterLocal Opinion WriterThe prevailing narrative among the supposed experts and elites clearly favors EVs, but reality continues to stymie their efforts to convert the masses into EV charger-dependent drivers.I say "charger-dependent" because, as is painfully obvious to anyone who has driven further than the grocery store and who pays attention to the EV mania, owning an electric vehicle is the opposite of the reasons many people own cars. Cars liberate us, free us, and empower us to go where we need to fulfill dreams, meet goals, provide for our families, get stuff done, and live our lives in the most efficient way.But electric cars take us in the other direction.[caption id="attachment_16373" align="aligncenter" width="396"]

Electric Vehicle (EV) at EV charging charging station (image 123rf.com)[/caption]Case in point:In a recent Bloomberg article, Tom Narayan, described as an auto analyst, says, “public charging fears are largely overblown.”What fears are those? Those of us who resist the EV push correctly point out that if you can’t reach a charging station in time, you are stuck. And there aren’t that many charging stations, especially in more remote areas when you’re on a longer trip. And if you can find a station, you’ll sit there for a while. Even the ‘high speed’ chargers take 30 minutes or more to fully charge. You can fill up your gas tank in five minutes.Is Narayan correct about these fears being overblown?Let’s take a look at Burien’s charging stations.EVgo has a station in the Fred Meyer parking lot on 1st Avenue. A quick look at the reviews makes one thing clear: Hertz, a nearby rental car company, regularly takes up all the available charging stations, leaving hapless EV owners desperately flailing to make their doctor’s appointments out of luck.Two reviewers complain that the charging speed is less than 50% of what is advertised – so it takes way longer to charge than experts like Narayan tell you it will. Even worse, cables have been cut on almost all the stations, leaving only two working chargers, one of which had a broken credit card reader at one point.Reviewer Jesse Williams sums it up: “Half the chargers are currently down, which is sadly normal for EVgo in this area. Chargers aren't even damaged so it's a company maintenance issue.”“Sadly normal,” he says. This is the way it always is. I’ll take Williams’ on-the-ground assessment over Narayan’s ivory tower cubicle. ChargePoint has a set of chargers in the parking lot with LA Fitness and Bartell’s. It has fewer reviews, but from the sound of it, the same problems. Reviewer Carissa Fay wrote, “All except one of the EV charging station plugs have been cut.... The one remaining station is not available for use.”When supposed experts like Narayan claim there are tons of chargers, are they aware of the reality that nearly all of them are broken? Or being used by rental car companies? Or take far longer to charge than advertised?

Furthermore, when it’s cold, all of this gets even worse. An AP article in the Seattle Times reported that EVs lose a lot of charge in cold weather, saying, “Studies found that range loss varies from 10 to 36%.” So when "experts" celebrate all the EVs coming on the market soon that will go 300 miles on one charge, consider that in common weather conditions, you’ll still be lucky to make 200.

And sometimes, they don’t charge at all in extreme cold, or if they do, it takes two or three times as long. Feel like sitting in a frigid vehicle for 90 minutes before you can drive it? Hope you’ve got enough coffee.The Bloomberg article goes on to claim that there is one EV charger for every 555 electric vehicles, which is comparable to the 530 gas-powered cars per fuel pump. And with home chargers, the ratio drops to just 202 EVs per charger.But this again is a horrendously misleading comparison.If half the charging stations don’t work, then those ratios get twice as bad. It’s also misleading because of the time it takes to charge. Again, I can fill up my car with gas in five minutes. It takes 30-90 minutes – or longer – to charge up an EV. That means those stations are occupied for much longer. So while 555 looks close to 530, when you factor in the time to charge vs the time to fill up, the ratio isn’t even close.Aren’t experts like Narayan smart enough to discern all this common sense reality? Why not?If the elites get their way, can EVs be widely adopted in Burien and elsewhere?From where we’re sitting in the real world, we’re not even close.John McCallisterBurien News Opinion Writer