Why Electric Vehicles Are Such A Tough Sell In Rural Areas – SlashGear

Though electronic devices are generally designed with convenience and portability in mind, they’ll still inevitably spend a good deal of their lifespans tied to a charging device. With electric vehicles, the same is true. Energy.gov notes that EVs are equipped with the capacity to be charged from a 110-volt socket at home by default, where it’s practical to do so, but it often won’t be. This means that costly public units are needed, and these are more sparsely provided in rural regions.

The Alternative Fuels Data Center reports that there are 54,830 EV charging locations across the United States. California alone is home to 14,866 of them. This is the state with the most urban population, the United States Census Bureau notes, while Vermont, with the most rural population, boasts just 332 charging locations. While each location will offer multiple types of charging and, crucially, several ports with which to do so (there are a total of 844 ESVE charging ports in Vermont’s case), it’s clear that there’s a huge gulf between rural and urban areas in terms of their EV coverage.

Lots of drivers, regardless of how densely populated or otherwise their home region may be, are reluctant to buy an EV because the need to plug in can be seen as restrictive. It’s not just about the limited rural access to stations, though: it’s also about the tendencies of rural and urban drivers.