Electric vehicles (EVs) have been touted as the future of transportation. But when Canadian citizen Dalbir Bala decided to take his family on a 1,400-mile trip to Chicago in his Ford F150 Lightning EV, he encountered unexpected hurdles.
After spending a hefty $115,000 CAD on the vehicle, he soon would soon discover his expenditures were not just confined to his initial investment.
Ownership doesn't stop at the purchase price. Bala soon discovered that to accommodate his EV, he needed two charging stations, one each for home and work, leading to a $10,000 expenditure.
Moreover, he had to upgrade his home’s electric panel for an additional $6,000, making the cost of owning an EV quite substantial.
While EVs promise a green ride, the infrastructure seems lacking. Bala's experience in Fargo, North Dakota, involved paying $56 for a two-hour charge that powered the truck for merely 215 miles.
And that was not the end—encountering two malfunctioning charging stations in Minnesota highlighted the infrastructural issues plaguing EVs.
It's every EV owner's fear: seeing their battery percentage drop with no charging station in sight. Unfortunately, this became a reality for Bala, as he was faced with being miles from a reliable charging station with only 12 miles of charge left on his vehicle.
Bala described his family's ordeal, saying, "By now it was late afternoon. We were really stuck, hungry, and heartbroken." The solution? A tow to a Ford dealership and the rental of a traditional gas vehicle to ensure his family's trip continued.
The farce known as EV!
After spending a hefty $115,000 CAD on the vehicle, he soon would soon discover his expenditures were not just confined to his initial investment.
Ownership doesn't stop at the purchase price. Bala soon discovered that to accommodate his EV, he needed two charging stations, one each for home and work, leading to a $10,000 expenditure.
Moreover, he had to upgrade his home’s electric panel for an additional $6,000, making the cost of owning an EV quite substantial.
While EVs promise a green ride, the infrastructure seems lacking. Bala's experience in Fargo, North Dakota, involved paying $56 for a two-hour charge that powered the truck for merely 215 miles.
And that was not the end—encountering two malfunctioning charging stations in Minnesota highlighted the infrastructural issues plaguing EVs.
It's every EV owner's fear: seeing their battery percentage drop with no charging station in sight. Unfortunately, this became a reality for Bala, as he was faced with being miles from a reliable charging station with only 12 miles of charge left on his vehicle.
Bala described his family's ordeal, saying, "By now it was late afternoon. We were really stuck, hungry, and heartbroken." The solution? A tow to a Ford dealership and the rental of a traditional gas vehicle to ensure his family's trip continued.
The farce known as EV!
