I go by a Tesla charging station every day and see cars there for up to several hours. This seems like a waste of a huge chunk of your personal time so owning an electric vehicle sucks in that respect imo. What are people doing or can do that is productive during this wait time?
You’re completely wrong. A Tesla supercharger is a fast charger, so you usually don’t need to wait for more than half an hour to charge. And that’s something you’d only do when you go on a longer trip. If you charge at a level two charger, which does take a couple of hours, you don’t wait around. I usually change at work, i.e. I plug in when i get there in the morning, go to my office and get the car before going to lunch. Zero hassle.
Charging your car on public in no mans land is a weird american invention. In germany you can charge your car at home, at the grocery store and in the city. Its not perfect but its improving a lot imo. Obviously it depends on where you live too.
But the fact that people travel to their work place is another completely senseless idea. The absolute least I would want is sharing the load with the employer or work from home entirely.
The whole idea of traveling hours a day to go to work for a job literally 100 people closer to the employer could do is nuts, along with the idea that you need to work to eat.
OP never mentioned commuting to work you’re just on an unrelated tangent. And yes, believe it or not a lot of people have jobs that require making service calls or being on location.
They charge to 80% quickly so I think anyone staying longer than about 25 minutes probably found something to do nearby such as eat at a restaurant or do some shopping. I think most people that own EVs do most of their charging at home so the only time they use chargers is on long trips and they plan their charging stop(s) to be when they’d already be needing to pee, stretch their legs, and maybe eat a quick meal.
I had the same thoughts as you before owning an EV. Now it’s just something I deal with. I rarely use fast charging, I mainly use destination charging (at home, at work, at the shopping center). When I do sit at a charging station, I just find myself doing all the stuff anyone does while waiting for something. I browse the internet, write a response on @Showerthoughts@lemmy.world, send some work emails. Mostly stuff I would do when I’m at home as well. I just enjoy the down time and time for myself.
I don’t see fast charging as a chore, it’s just something that you “undergo” just as you would while waiting at the doctor’s office. Is it enjoyable? Not always, but it’s never a pain either. Do I hate it? No.
Several hours? Those people are parked and charging their car while they are doing something else. It takes about 15 minutes to get 200 miles of range at a Tesla charging station. People sitting in their cars, waiting will be there for far shorter periods of time.
A vast majority of charging also takes place at the drivers destination (such as the drivers home), saving on the time it takes to go to a gas station to refuel (not to mention the time saved from not needing oil changes, smog checks, etc).
As for what to do while waiting, I’ll either use the time to grab snack, go to the bathroom, or watch something on on of the streaming services available from the console.
