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Before you buy an electric car, you need to understand charging. It’s a huge deal. You think it works almost like filling the gas tank. It doesn’t. Before going on long trips, you first need to do math and a bit of planning.
The Math
Like BMW model numbers indicate engine size, Tesla model numbers indicate the size of the battery, so my "Tesla S P90D" has a 90kwh (killowatt-hour) battery, with a 286mile range. Their lowest end model is the “Tesla S 60”, which has a 60kwh hour battery, or a 208mile advertised range.
In the United States, a typical plug is a 120volt circuit with a maximum of 15amps. Doing the math, this is how long it’ll take for me to recharge the battery:
That’s right, 1.4 days (or 2.1 days for a 90kwh car). This is the absolute worse case scenario, mind you, but it demonstrates that you have to pay attention to charging. You can't simply drive up to a station, fill up the tank in a couple minutes, and drive away.
Let’s say you live in Austin, Texas, and you have a meeting in Dallas. You think that you can drive up to
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