5 Minutes to Fill.
2 Hours to Charge.
EVs Have a Problem.

I am skeptical of electric cars. Not because the technology is wrong, but because the people selling it keep skipping the part where it is inconvenient.

It takes less than 5 minutes to refill the tank of a petrol car.

It takes more than 2 hours to charge an electric car, even with superchargers.

That is not a rounding error. That is a 25x difference in a task you have to do regularly. For anyone who drives long distances, lives in an apartment without a charging point, or needs their car available on short notice, the electric car does not solve their problem. It creates a new scheduling constraint and asks them to be grateful for it.

The honest version of the sales pitch would be: electric cars are currently best suited to people who:

• can charge overnight at home
• rarely drive more than 250 km in a day without a long stop
• have access to a charging network along their regular routes

That is a real and growing segment. But it is not everyone.

The gap will close. Battery density improves. Charging networks expand. Fast chargers get faster. But in 2019, the gap is real and the people who dismiss it have either never needed to refuel under time pressure or have arranged their life so they never have to.