It is never too late to go all-electric, but as an increasing number of drivers switch to EVs, charging stations are starting to become more crowded and that is reflected in the wait times.
This is something longtime electric vehicle owner Kyle Conner got to witness last week in Las Vegas, Nevada, as he was preparing for a road trip in the refreshed Tesla Model X Long Range.
Pulling up at an eight-stall Tesla Supercharger station on a Saturday at around 11 am, Kyle was surprised to see that not only were all the stalls taken, but also a line of Tesla EVs had formed. Mind you, this wasn't something isolated, as all the other Supercharger stations in Las Vegas were crowded at the time;only three stalls were available in the entire city.
In his first few years of driving electric vehicles, Kyle says he never had to wait at a charging station. That was the early adopter experience, but things have changed since then. EV sales have boomed over the past two years, but the expansion of the charging station network is not keeping up with it.
That's not surprising because installing chargers, especially DC fast-chargers, is extremely expensive. Because of this and the EV sales boom, Kyle predicts that charging stations are going to get increasingly busy in just a few years, particularly those belonging to public networks such as Electrify America, EVgo, ChargePoint, and Greenlots.
So what can be done to ease congestion at DC fast-charging stations until the infrastructure catches up with demand? Well, one solution would be to install more Level 2 chargers in more places, as those would help ease the pressure on DC fast-charging stations.
Kyle believes there's a need for more charging stations at apartment complexes, condos, office buildings, hotels and other places where a lot of cars are parked at any given time. That makes sense, and we'd also add that home charging is probably the best solution for EV owners who are not taking long-distance trips that often.
At the end of the Out of Spec Reviews video above, we also get to see some charging station rage as one Tesla owner cut in line and stole the spot Kyle and the crew had just finished using. Unfortunately, as charging stations get busier, these incidents are probably going to become more frequent as well.
