I’ve driven from Brooklyn, New York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida (about 1,150 miles) in my 2018 Tesla Model 3 three times without range anxiety. The average stop time was between 15 and 20 minutes after a 200 mile ride or so. My first trip in 2018 took about two hours longer than the 2022 trip due to the slower superchargers. And today, you have many more stops along the route. The car shows you the charging stops. But you can opt out at any time and go to the next top-up station.
Now, the range of a Tesla Model 3 may be 358 miles, but if you choose a non-Tesla EV, I agree with the author of the March 20th letter, “Electric vehicles have a long way to go,” that road trips are problematic due to minimal and unreliable fast charging infrastructure like ChargePoint, EVgo, Electrify America, etc. But that will change quickly because of the billions in federal money that will go toward improving these chargers and the fact that Tesla is opening up its Supercharger. network to other Teslas in the United States (they are already doing it in Europe).
Finally, while it’s true that the price before the $7,500 tax break and potential state incentive for a Tesla Model 3 starts at $43,000, that’s about the average price car buyers are paying today for a non-electric vehicle. And the maintenance of an electric vehicle is much cheaper (the most expensive thing I had to buy in my four years was a set of tires). For non-EVs, there are oil changes, spark plugs, antifreeze, high gas prices, possible mufflers and catalytic converters, and other engine issues.
The automobile began to slowly replace the horse and buggy around 1900. But by 1910, automobiles surpassed cars. Today we will see the rapid shift to electric vehicles in 2033.
—Sam Anderson, Brooklyn, New York
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