Buying a car is a complicated decision, and the calculations get even more convoluted when you add electricity to the equation. The big variable comes in the form of two questions: Where do you plan to drive your electric vehicle? And where are you going to charge it?
After I sorted through all the options for the battery electric vehicles (BEVs) I was considering, I decided that none of them made sense for me[1]. But my decision, as I explained last week, has a fair amount to do with the geography of the Southwestern United States, where I live. For those who live in densely populated areas on the West Coast or in the Northeast, the math is very different.
It all comes down to network effects. Charging networks, to be specific. The availability of reliable, affordable places to pump electricity into your BEV matters a lot when you're on a road trip, and it's the reason why, for many people, Tesla is the only logical choice in that category right now.
Where will you charge?
If you use an EV mostly for local driving and commuting, you can probably charge at home (usually overnight) or at the office. Charging at home offers the best rates, by far, especially if your utility company offers lower rates for off-peak usage.
Home charging uses your local utility connection, at the same rates you pay for powering lamps, appliances, and computers. With a Level 1 charger that plugs into a 120V outlet, you can charge a vehicle, but very slowly. For a BEV with an average battery, that will take a long, long time, too long for any but emergency situations. That's probably a suitable option for a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) with a range of 20-50 miles, which