We have previously noted the difficulties that people can encounter with plug-in electric vehicles, and that consumers really aren’t that thrilled with them.

Now, from good, green, but very, very blue California comes this story:

1 in 5 electric vehicle owners in California switched back to gas because charging their cars is a hassle, new research shows

Dominick Reuter | Friday, April 30, 2021 | 12:41 PM

In roughly three minutes, you can fill the gas tank of a Ford Mustang and have enough range to go about 300 miles with its V8 engine.

But for the electric Mustang Mach-E, an hour plugged into a household outlet gave Bloomberg automotive analyst Kevin Tynan just three miles of range.

“Overnight, we’re looking at 36 miles of range,” he told Insider. “Before I gave it back to Ford, because I wanted to give it back full, I drove it to the office and plugged in at the charger we have there.”

Let’s be clear here: “plugged into a household outlet” here means a standard, 110-volt wall receptacle. Those will never cut it.

Standard home outlets generally put out about 120 volts of power at what electric vehicle aficionados call “Level 1” charging, while the high-powered specialty connections offer 240 volts of power and are known as “Level 2.” By comparison, Tesla’s “Superchargers,” which can fully charge its cars in a little over an hour, offer 480 volts of direct current.

The only practical way to recharge your Chevy Dolt Bolt is if you have a dedicated 24 volt, 50 amp circuit available with which to power your Level 2 charger. As it happens, I have separate electric power in my garage/shop, and the knowledge, skills and tools necessary to add that kind of circuit. Though I do not intend to buy a plug in electric, as I am working on my shop, I’ll install such a circuit simply because it’s easier to do it with the walls still open, and, for me, it would be inexpensive.

I’ve looked at one of my sister’s garage; I could install such a circuit for her there as well, but it would be more complicated. She’s lucky that her favorite brother can do that kind of work.

But what about people who don’t have friends or family who could do that job? That means hiring a real electrician, and that could be well over $1,000, even for a relatively simple installation. If a sub-panel is required, due to the existing electric service in the dwelling, the dollars start to add up.

While I’m not poor myself, I do live in a poor, rural county in eastern Kentucky. While I have good, 200 amp service to my garage/shop, there are plenty, plenty! of homes in this area that have 100 amp service to their poorer homes, and it would not surprise me in the slightest to find some places which still have old 40 or 60 amp fused service rather than circuit breaker boxes.

That difference is night and day, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Energy by University of California Davis researchers Scott Hardman and Gil Tal that surveyed Californians who purchased an electric vehicle between 2012 and 2018.

Roughly one in five plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) owners switched back to owning gas-powered cars, in large part because charging the batteries was a pain in the… trunk, the researchers found.

Of those who switched, over 70% lacked access to Level 2 charging at home, and slightly fewer than that lacked Level 2 connections at their workplace.

They didn’t do their due diligence is what the article is saying. They got caught up with going green without asking the right questions. So much for the liberals being smart!

“If you don’t have a Level 2, it’s almost impossible,” said Tynan, who has tested a wide range of makes and models of PEVs over the years for his research.

Even with the faster charging, a Chevy Volt he tested still needed nearly six hours to top its range back up to 300 miles from nearly empty – something that takes him just minutes at the pump with his family SUV.

This is the part that the left don’t want to talk about. We have had fun with the story about Tesla TSLA: (%) drivers waiting for hours, in a half-mile-long line to top off at a Tesla ‘supercharger’ station. Even at a 480-volt supercharger, it can take more than an hour to fully recharge. And having worked with 480 volt three phase circuitry throughout my career in concrete plants, I’m not 100% certain that the general public ought to be handling them.

There’s more at the original, but it boils down to this: plug-in electric vehicles are a fine second car, useful for tooling around town, perhaps commuting to work, if you have a garage or dedicated, secure parking area in which you can have a Level 2 charging unit installed, and if you have a reliable gasoline-powered primary vehicle.

And that means: if you have plenty of money! You need to have the money to be able to afford an ‘extra’ car, and you need to have the money to afford the residence in which you can have that dedicated charging station. Somehow, some way, the oh-supportive-of-poor-people left just can’t understand that what they think everybody should do is not something that everybody can afford.