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I do know that not everybody who writes about EVs owns one, however I’ve had one in my driveway for a very long time. My first one was a 2011 Nissan LEAF, adopted by a Chevy Volt, a 2018 LEAF, after which a 2022 Bolt EUV. Whereas I’ve additionally often had a backup ICE car within the driveway, I figured that I’d by no means be with out at the very least one EV in entrance of the home.
What Occurred? Altering Transportation Wants
As a lot as I appreciated my Bolt, I simply didn’t drive it that a lot. The typical driver in america goes 12,500 miles in a yr, however I discovered myself driving solely about 8,000, and most of that mileage was highway journeys. At house, I used to be solely driving perhaps twice per week to run errands or go to household, and plenty of of these journeys had been solely a mile or two.
You already know what’s much more enjoyable than driving a mile or two? Driving a motorcycle. I discovered myself needing the train, and it’s simply good to get some contemporary air. So, the Bolt was seeing much less and fewer use. Regardless that my city’s infrastructure sucks, the urbanists had been proper.
Highway journeys modified for me, too. The Bolt was by no means an ideal highway journey car (50 kW charging sucks), however then I began to need to pull trailers. 50 kW charging sucks twice as unhealthy when your vary will get minimize in about half. The plan was to purchase a tiny A-frame camper and pull it round with the Bolt, however driving throughout the nation and again final yr pulling a trailer largely cured me of that want.
The plain EV reply to that is to get a better-towing EV — one thing like an F-150 lightning with the bigger pack choice, a Rivian R1s, or a Silverado EV could be unbelievable for pulling trailers. The final choice (the Silverado) is nearly good, with 450 miles of vary, which might translate to round 200 miles even pulling a decent-sized journey trailer. 350 kW charging would remove a variety of the ache, too.
However, the unhappy fact is that I simply can’t afford a $100,000 truck. I can’t even afford a used Lightning proper now, as those with the bigger packs are a g00d bit out of my finances.
To do what I need to do on highway journeys, I ended up shopping for a 2001 Suburban with low miles. It wanted a variety of work to beat 25 years of entropy, however now I’ve acquired an honest tow car and no automobile cost. Once I get to my locations and park the camper, I pull the bikes off the tongue and do a variety of my native “driving” on these.
This left the Bolt with not a lot of a job. Bikes took care of a lot of the native driving, and highway journey obligation fell to the Suburban. So, it simply didn’t make a lot sense to maintain it within the driveway anymore.
What Wants To Occur For Me To Get/Want One other EV
In some methods, it’s only a ready sport. I’ve seen that used rental fleet Silverado EVs are going for round $50,000 now. If they might drop by about one other $15,000, I’d be capable to decide one up with out difficult family funds an excessive amount of. It’s only a matter of time till the second proprietor decides to promote these, so we’re most likely 2–3 years.
As I stated above, the Silverado (even the work truck trims) would remedy a variety of the issues with EV towing. With my 5,000 lb journey trailer, I’m most likely getting about 200 miles of vary, which is over 3 hours of driving at cheap trailering speeds. 350 kW charging means not having to spend an excessive amount of time at these charging stops, and whenever you’ve principally acquired a bit of home to go chill in throughout charging periods, that’s not an enormous deal anyway.
The Different Maintain-Up (& Not Simply For Me)
However there’s one huge drawback with most of the charging stations. They don’t appear to be this:
If you’re pulling a trailer, particularly one with an equalizer hitch, it’s an enormous ache within the butt to unhook. Once I’m solely stopping someplace for one night time, I typically simply give attention to leveling, drop the stabilizer jacks, after which sleep. At fuel stations, you may refuel with out unhooking, so it solely is smart to unhook when you’re staying someplace for just a few days.
Most EV charging corporations make the error of pondering they wanted to reinvent the wheel. Positive, there’s no motive to duplicate the ICE refueling expertise with EVs, however fuel stations are the best way they’re for good causes. Canopies preserve the rain and solar off (and provides a superb place for hearth sprinklers). Pull-thru preparations imply that few folks might want to unhook a trailer, even when most individuals aren’t towing. Having a comfort retailer inside spittin’ distance that caters to drivers and truckers is crucial on the interstates.
As an alternative, “futuristic” charging stations that had been put in in the course of the 2010s and early 2020s had been nearly all single-space stalls. Many (particularly Tesla stations) had been designed to solely work for backing in, and had quick charging cables. This labored when no one was towing.
However electrical pickups weren’t an unimaginable factor previous to 2022. And there have been manufacturing facility electrical pickups and towing-capable SUVs for 3 years (and even longer when you rely the Mannequin X).
What’s extraordinarily unhappy is that many new charging stations in 2025 are opening with out pull-thru areas. Individuals noticed the Tesla monkey do one thing silly, and the previous “monkey see, monkey do” factor occurs. Even truck stops, that are more and more attempting to cater to RV drivers, are nonetheless placing in stations that require you to unhook to cost.
With a bit of 10-foot trailer behind a brief Bolt EUV, I used to be in a position to cross the nation with out unhooking by getting artistic about how I parked, however whenever you’re speaking a couple of 24 foot trailer and a full-size truck, it’s a LOT tougher to get away with.
I actually wouldn’t thoughts driving 2–3 hours after which charging for 30–45 minutes (vans have huge batteries), and even driving an hour and a half after which charging for 20 minutes. However when every of these stops requires going out within the warmth, the chilly, or the rain and doing handbook labor to unhook the trailer, I’m removed from the one one who wouldn’t be on board.
We actually must get severe about enhancing interstate charging infrastructure and ensuring each station has at the very least two pull-thru stalls (in case one breaks or is busy), if not 4. Firms placing in stations in 2025 that don’t have at the very least one must be mocked endlessly for poor decision-making.
All photographs by Jennifer Sensiba.
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