One point about electric vehicle ownership that can intimidate and annoy, many potential buyers, is the concept of fast-charging. If you’re coming from a gas car, or drive many miles every day, you might assume that charging stations will be a common hurdle in your life.
That’s not necessarily true, regardless, Ford and Electrify America want to gently ease you into the electric charger ‘lifestyle’. On orders of the new Mustang Mach-e, the two companies will be giving away a complimentary 250 kWh of juice from Electrify’s network.
250 kWh will fill up a Mach-e three to five times, depending on the size of battery in the car. On some of Electrify America’s ~500 fast-chargers, it will only take 45 minutes to get from 10-80% charge. That’s over 60 miles per 10 minutes.
So, now’s time to take a little bit of juice out of this idea. This promotion will, in reality, only show most people how unnecessary fast-charging can be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have it when you need it, but don’t be surprised if that 250 kWh credit lasts you a year or two.
That may make it sound like it’s a lot of energy, but it’s just that you’ll likely charge at home, and even if you don’t… a non-fast charger will do just fine.
For instance, this weekend I paid $4 for electricity AND parking while out for three hours. It cost less than parking would have, but gave me 11 kW, or ~50 miles. Considering we only drove about 6 miles to the restaurant, more wouldn’t necessarily have helped.
Not to knock the program, this will be an attractive and educational incentive. Just know that, at home, that 250 kWh of electricity would cost you under $30. Most buyers would save the balance for a road trip or emergencies.
Fast-chargers are like that beer-chiller at your local beer store; sure, you could chill a beer really quickly, while you awkwardly stand there. Although, you probably would prefer just going home and using your fridge. Either way, someone’s clearly using the beer-chiller, and you’re glad it’s around… in case of emergency?