Carbon impact is an abstract, secondary concern for daily drivers. EV adoption is a problem of infrastructure economics. Americans depend on older vehicles to get to work, to navigate family and life stops, and to survive in the gig economy. Drivers in auto-centric America have a core need: to get around, with confidence and efficiency. We need to go wherever the road goes without fear of running out of gas, or charge. As Steve LeVine has detailed, we need charging stations to be as ubiquitous as gas stations to trust EVs.

The market has maxed out the number of people willing and able to put up with limited, uncertain charging. A hundred years ago, range anxiety limited car use — including the fifteen million Model T’s — until “the growth of a nationwide network of regularly spaced fueling stations” made gas engines a transportation standard.”