Photo by Chase Lewis / Unsplash

By nearly all estimates electric vehicles are poised to take over the auto industry in the next few years. Tesla has already gobbled up a large portion of the luxury vehicle market that was once dominated by Mercedes and BMW. In this year alone we have seen multiple new EVs come to market from the likes of Nissan, Jaguar, Chevrolet, Tesla, Hyundai, Kia, and Audi. In spite of all this EVs still face the same issue they always have, access to charging.

Don't get it wrong, a lot of progress has been made. Tesla continues to expand its nationwide (also, global) network of superchargers, Electrify America is being forced planning to build nearly 500 new DC fast stations across the US this year, and a number of startups are continuing to add to their networks as well. If this sounds good to you, that's because it is. However there is big small issue most people are overlooking. Many of these stations do nothing for your daily driving needs.

Right Idea, Wrong Solution

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Adding more chargers is essential to the continued growth of electric vehicles. Even today we still have around 12 EVs for every one public charger. The simple solution is adding more public stations, then problem solved right? Well, not really.

The issue with copying the gas station model is EVs simply don't charge all that fast. Even supercharger stations (which are by far the fastest charging stations today at 150kW) are not that fast, able to "re-fill" a Tesla in around 45 minutes. While this is fine for long-distance journeys, it really isn't a great solution for daily needs. On top of that most of the fast charging infrastructure being installed by Electrify America and others charge at a third of the speed (50kW), meaning it will be a couple of hours to get a full charge.

Continually installing more and more public chargers is simply not a sustainable or sensible solution. There is a reason the industry leader in EVs, Tesla, has consistently said that the best way to own an electric vehicle is to have a charger at home.

Lots of Chargers, None Where You Need Them

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Getting lost in the commotion around all the massive EV charging infrastructure investment is that many of these stations are going in places that you really don't need them, shopping malls and grocery stores.

Shouldn't these vehicles fit into your life and not the other way around?

It sounds convenient but now you're being asked to plan your day around making a trip to Walmart. I have nothing against Walmart but shouldn't these vehicles fit into your life and not the other way around? The honest truth is the place you really want to charge up is at home or work. When you car is going to be parked for 4+ hours. Just like your cell phone, its better to simply plug in and charge up when you are done using it for the day. Having a charger at home allows you to get the best experience from your vehicle.

Put The Charger Where You Need It

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Just imagine using a charging network to power your iPhone. When your phone is running low you need to hunt down a space to camp out for a few hours while your phone powers up. For many of us, this is a terrible user experience. If you own an EV its really no different. You would never want an iPhone if it didn't have a charger that worked at home. Its so common you probably take it completely for granted, and never give it a second thought. Charging up your EV should be the same way.

Bringing charging into your home really depends on your situation. If you own your own home and have plenty of breaker space you'll have no issues, but living in a power limited situation or multi-family housing you may run into some issues and thats where EverCharge comes in.

While everyone focused on building out a public network, we focused on making EV charging possible for everyone. Leveraging SmartPower technology we are able to bring charging into any building regardless of power limitations. Not only does SmartPower allow for charging anywhere, it also eliminates additional electrical infrastructure meaning we can install chargers for the lowest cost possible just by using the power more efficiently.

Having chargers everywhere sounds like a great idea, but what we really need is chargers where we want them and EverCharge does exactly that.