Electric cars could cut oil imports 40% by 2030, says study

The only way this would matter is if I drained the battery past the point where I can get my car through my first errand of the day AND I forgot to charge it AND I have run out of time and can't delay leaving by enough time to charge up enough to get to my first errand AND I have no other vehicle available to me.

So, since I live in a dynamic household, with multiple vehicles available, and I generally have few errands that are so urgent that I can't put them off for a few minutes, the most that will happen is that I might be annoyed and have to take another vehicle, or might have to delay leaving for a few minutes. Oh, darn.

How is this worse than if you forget to fill your gas tank, and run out of gas? Hell, if I'm home, I can just plug in. I gain 25 miles of usable battery life every hour I'm plugged in. If I have not drained my battery to zero the day before and was so distracted that I failed to plug in with the battery dead, I can still drive it - just not as far as I might like.

My normal daily driving average is only about 30 miles. That's 3 days on one charge. If I forget to plug in after the first day, big deal. I get in my car and only have 60 miles of range left? Oh, okay. I'll run to the grocery store and plug in there while I shop (there are two Blink EVSE's in the Kroger parking lot).

Or, maybe I'm going to the mall, 15 miles away. There are a dozen Blink Network EVSE's within an easy walk to the mall. I can stop at one of them, plug in and spend a couple of hours shopping, then come back to a mostly charged battery. No big deal.

Only if the battery is really, very drained and I have to leave immediately to drive farther than the batteries would allow AND there is no quick charger going that direction would it even matter.

If I have to head to the airport, for instance, 50 miles away and I only have 15 miles on my battery because I "forgot" to plug in yesterday and the day before? I drive 12 miles south of me and plug in the the Fast Charger. It can charge my car from dead to 80% in 30 minutes. Since I would only really need 40 miles, I could charge for 15 minutes, and be on my way, plugging up at the airport to fully charge for my return trip (there are LOTS of chargers down there).

So, really, planning ahead isn't completely, strictly necessary. A tiny bit of awareness is, and knowing how to adjust if I screw up. Or, was it impossible for people to drive cars before there was a gas station on every street corner? Should gasoline powered cars have failed, because you might have forgotten to fuel up before coming home, and your trusty horse can eat grass on the side of the road?

/r/Futurology Thread Parent Link - theguardian.com