It’s Sunday, and I’m at my local Kroger grocery store in downtown Columbus seeking to get a few odds and ends before I start my work week. I’m a young single person who can’t figure out how to grocery shop efficiently, so I visit this Kroger several times a week. It’s a newer store with amenities designed to attract the new money young professionals that live downtown; we’ve got artisan cheeses and wine tasting, but also a four-stall EVGo DC fast charging station.
Yet on this particular Sunday, Every stall was full there. There was a Chevy Bolt with temporary tags splitting the 350 kW unit with an F-150 Lightning with out-of-state plates, while a Mustang Mach-E with a temp tag and a Carvana plate frame and a Honda Prologue driver puzzled over how the two remaining 100 kW units worked. All parties looked confused if not impatient; awkwardly pacing while their cars charged. Another EV waited off to the side, waiting for one of the stalls to free up.
Clearly, these were all new EV owners still figuring things out. I have no plans on shaming anyone for their charging habits, including the new Bolt owner connected to a charging lead that its 55 kW max speed could never hope to utilize. But, what I saw was just another sign that we had absolutely no clue how to effectively optimize our charging infrastructure.
Because there’s no chance that all four of those cars needed to DC fast charge at a grocery store that isn’t all that close to a freeway. Yet that’s exactly the kind of charger that’s getting the vast majority of funding to grow our electric infrastructure. It’s going toward a world where DC fast chargers, despite all their high costs and compatibility problems, are being set up to be replacement gas stations—which is counter to how EVs should work.
After piling 1,070 miles on a 2024 Hyundai Kona solely on AC power, I would wager that they didn’t need DC fast charging at all. Heck, I’m not sure anyone really needs DC fast charging outside of a road trip—or at least, not nearly on the level that our public policies are driving toward.
Charging Infrastructure is More than DC Fast Charging
Whenever I have conversations with EV shoppers, EV skeptics, or even other journalists, the topic of charging infrastructure is a point of contention. “Yeah, that’s cool and all, but I think the charging infrastructure isn’t good enough for me to buy an EV yet” is a common statement for all three parties—and one I don’t necessarily disagree with. Yet, when I try to talk about “charging infrastructure,” it becomes crystal clear that we are having two separate conversations.
EV coverage revolves around the trials and tribulations journalists and new owners have had with companies like Electrify America or EVGo, as drivers deal with long wait times or broken chargers. Teslas sell because of the “charging network,” but they’re not talking about the slower Level 2 destination chargers that can recharge a car overnight; they’re talking about supercharging.
A switch to Tesla’s NACS plug is believed to be so important because now other EVs will be able to use the vast network of available Tesla Superchargers, but Europe’s generally open CCS2 Tesla Supercharger network hasn’t exactly sent the Old World fully electric. Charging infrastructure is bad, but it’s clear conversations only revolve around DC fast charging.
But I don’t care about DC fast charging. And if we gave EV owners like the folks in that Kroger parking lot the skills and tools to stop treating fast-chargers like gas station replacements, they probably wouldn’t care either.
I’m a renter, so I don’t have a permanent Level 2 AC charger in a home garage or anything. Instead, while driving the Kona, I made do with the same 110v NEMA 5-15 outlet, EV-rated extension cord I would have used on my Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Otherwise, if I wanted to charge faster, I would need to use a Level 2 station.
The Kona’s basic specifications are admirable, if run-of-the-mill. It is rated for 261 miles of range and can handle Level 2 speeds of up to 11 kW, but those specifications didn’t really matter. For Level 1 charging, the Kona’s included cord will only safely max at 12 amps (80% of the Nema 5-15’s 15 amp limit), meaning I’d only be drawing about 1.3 kW per hour. Likewise, most public charging stations are just shy of 30 amps, so they’ll be limited to 6.6 kW. Both are well under the Kona’s max AC charging speeds.
The Kona would take more than 50 hours to go from flat to full on a Level 1 charger. The 6.6 kW level 2 stations are a little better at roughly 10 and a half hours, but substantially longer than the six-hour time quoted by Hyundai. The automaker’s figure assumes that it would be plugged into a Level 2 station that can utilize its max speed of 11kW.
Yet, over my two weeks with the Kona, I didn’t find myself in want of any more capability from any part of the charging process. I drove the Kona 1,070 miles over 14 days; that’s an average of 535 miles per week, 48% more than what the average American drives per week in a gas-powered car. The Kona satisfied all of my driving needs in those two weeks, including two different 125-mile round-trip jaunts. My secret? ABC: Always. Be. Chargin’.
Whenever I saw a plug or an outlet of any kind, I plugged it in. For the two weeks I had the Kona, I used it the same way I would have used my i-MiEV. If I wanted to work from home at a coffee shop, I’d probably choose one that had charging nearby—not always, but maybe 50% of the time. If I went to hang out with friends, chances are there was a public charger nearby I could use while I was hanging out. And of course, at home, I’d plug into my Level 1 charger until I needed to use the car again. These individual charging events never got me to 100%, but it didn’t matter. I had no plans to drive the full breadth of the Kona’s range that week. Even the 150-mile round-trip mini-excursions didn’t phase the car. About 40% of the Kona’s charging was done on public Level 2 stations, while the rest was done at home on “too slow” Level 1.
The key here is to stop thinking of chargers as gas stations—something that we’re all going to have to learn in the electric age.
The Gas Station Model Is Not Relevant
“Almost 90%, I'd say 90% of [EV] charging…happens at Level 2,” said Kitti Adams, the director of the nonprofit organization Adopt-A-Charger. Adams’ organization is focused on establishing charging services that are explicitly fair, equitable and fee-free, in spaces that might not be as well served otherwise. This could include a national park, library or museum; spaces that have what’s generally known as “long dwell time,” where drivers would have naturally spent more time than a quick jaunt to a gas station or DC fast charger.
Yet, Adams finds herself somewhat frustrated with the overemphasis on DC fast charging. She asserts that most of the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funding—some $5 billion allotted for all charging infrastructure—is going toward DCFC charging stations. Although noble, it’s not necessarily the right use case for EV drivers. “My goal is to make charging reliable, accessible and affordable… and Level 2 is the answer for a lot of that,” Adams said.
DC fast charging is naturally more expensive, and the stations themselves are pricier and more logistically difficult to build out. That means they can’t be made available at every commercial outlet. Those costs, plus the additional strain on the grid, are passed to the consumer in the form of high recharge costs. Here at InsideEVs, some of our DC fast-charging during vehicle testing can easily touch more than $50, occasionally leading us to wonder if this is really an upgrade over a car that runs on a tank of gas.
And Adams is right; DC fast charging is expensive. To illustrate, let’s consider how much I spent on the Kona.
Over 14 days, and 1,070 miles, the Kona used 267 kWh worth of energy. I spent $61.86 total on charging for a rough average of $0.23 per kWh. About 167 kWh of that energy was done via Level 1 charging, at an average of $0.16 per kWh, while the rest was done at Level 2 public stations averaging out to $0.33 per kWh.
By comparison, if I had done all of my charging at a DC fast charger, I’d be paying at least $0.59 per kWh. My charging costs would have been at least $157, not including any fees or taxes. That’s not cheap at all, especially compared to a reasonably efficient gas-powered car that would use about the same amount of money in gas, to go the same distance.
But, unfortunately, we’ve gone all-in on the gas-station model when we’re supposed to plug in our cars for a short while, then drive away. It’s not helping anyone as it is; charging service providers are frustrated because they’re not making any money, while new EV drivers are disappointed because recharging isn’t much cheaper and definitely not faster than refilling a gas car, with a more frustrating user experience. Manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai have attempted to sweeten the pot and get drivers behind the wheel by offering free DC fast charging for a time, but it could be argued that these promotions haven’t done anything but choke up DC fast chargers by encouraging people to use them when they really don’t need to.
“You don't need a fast charger,” said Brent Gruber, the Executive Director of JD Power’s Electric Vehicle Practice. [It’s] like drinking from a fire hose: If you have the time, you might as well hook up to a Level 2 charger and take advantage of that.”
Gruber said that his firm asks respondents how far their commutes are. The answer, he said, is around 26 miles. “So when you think about that, it's pretty easy to replenish 26 miles a day with a Level 2 charger,” Gruber said. “Whether it's Level 1 charging at home, or public [Level 2] charging, you're going to get a decent amount of juice over an extended period of time.” Likely, more than enough than you’ve used that day.
Nothing Happened, But That’s A Good Thing
I wish that this challenge was more eventful, but I think that on some level there’s a certain hopefulness in the fact that nothing serious happened. Living with the Kona EV for two weeks without using DC fast charging was easy. I never ran out of charge. I never felt like there was any place I couldn’t go. There was no anxiety, or nervousness, or frustration that I’ve read by so many authors writing bad-faith articles about EVs. When the car was low (or when I saw a plug), I plugged in.
When I was ready to go, I unplugged, and drove away. I didn’t need the full 100% and 261 miles of range, because, like most Americans, I’m not going on an hours-long road trip every time I got behind the wheel. The strategy is clear: When you see a level 2 plug, plug it in.
But it’s not that simple, is it? DC fast charging infrastructure is improving, but we’re learning that its improvement is at the detriment of Level 2 charging. Conversations with both Gruber and Adams revealed real concern that America’s outside focus on establishing DC fast chargers has allowed level 2 AC charging to fall by the wayside. “Level 2 charges outnumber DC fast chargers considerably, [and] the usage of chargers level two also significantly outnumbers DC fast chargers,” Gruber said in an interview.
He added that JD Power found that three out of four public Level 2 charging events were mostly EV drivers topping up between charging sessions, often after using a DC fast charger. “Each has its place, and I think we need to do a better job of identifying what those use cases are and where each one is needed,” Gruber said. Add in the growing pain points due to the fact we still don’t have enough charging points of either type, and things get frustrating. How can anyone “always be chargin’” when there’s nowhere to charge?
To the habitual DC fast charger and EV skeptic, the speeds I used with the Kona are too slow. Level 1 has too little utility, and these slow Level 2 speeds would no doubt take ages. “It’s all fun and games until you need to wait eight hours to go somewhere,” said one person when I explained the premise of the test. Another on social media said, “Why don’t you go ahead and use an iPhone 7, then? Since we’re using outdated technology.”
Both comments feel needlessly antagonistic and fall into the trap that DC fast charging is inherently the solution to usurp AC charging, rather than just a seldom-used tool to make an EV driver’s life a little bit easier. It is true that cars are charging faster every year, but very real concerns of electrical grid stress or the inherently high cost of DC fast charging haven’t changed all that much.
I didn’t have any real charging issues during the two weeks I had the Kona. The common complaints that follow DC fast chargers, that they’re hard to use, barely work or never deliver the speeds advertised just didn’t happen with the Kona. Why? Because I didn’t use them. By in large, AC charging was reliable and easy.
Things were cheap and pleasant. Just like they should be.
Contact the author: kevin.williams@insideevs.com
Illustration: Sam Woolley for InsideEVs
