There is little doubt that some sort of electric vehicle is the wave of the future. Unfortunately, we live in the present. And, if you rent a car when you visit North-Central Florida’s dive sites, the last thing you want to be stuck with is an EV.
Case in point: Among our visitors last month was a woman who’d flown to Florida to complete her open-water training. When she arrived at the rental counter at Orlando International, the staff encouraged her to take advantage of a “manager’s special” on a Chevy Bolt EV. (The fact they had to discount this should have been a warning.)
When she arrived at Blue Grotto, the car’s computer told her she had less than 80 miles of range left. The woman had assumed there would be an EV charging station in Williston. There isn’t.
The closest EV charging station to Blue Grotto is more than 20 miles away in Gainesville. The problem was she was next headed to Crystal River, which is in the opposite direction.
There is a Tesla “destination” charging station in Dunnellon, 25 miles away on the way to Crystal River. Some Tesla charging stations have adapters to charge other makes of EVs. However, judging by the photo on Google Maps, this is not one of them.
The best solution for our guest was to hope she could make it to Crystal River, where there are at least three EV charging stations. It was 42 miles away. And in the process, she would drive past more than a dozen normal gas stations.
Will she make it?
In theory, our guest had nearly twice the range she needed to get there. The catch is the range your EV says you have left and what you actually have left aren’t always the same.
We will assume luck was with our customer, and she made it to Crystal River “on fumes.” It would be there she would encounter the next reality check concerning EVs.
To fully charge a Chevy Bolt on a Level 3 “super-fast” charging station takes at least an hour. This can come as quite a shock to drivers used to getting in and out of the gas station in five minutes or less.
But it gets worse. If all you can find is a Level 2 charging station, the time required jumps to more than five hours. And if there are people in line ahead of you and the charging station…
The problem isn’t limited to rentals
Occasionally, we’ll get inquiries from people who want to drive their shiny new EV to Blue Grotto from points hundreds of miles away. Bad idea.
Let’s say you want to drive that Chevy Bolt from Washington, DC, to Blue Grotto. It’s around 800 miles. That Bolt’s advertised range is 250 miles. Allowing a 50-mile reserve, you must stop to recharge four times.
Assuming you can find Level 3 charging stations at every stop, this will add at least four hours to an already twelve-hour trip. So, forget about making the drive in a single day.
Someday but not today
Toyota, a pioneer in hybrid vehicles, is a very smart and very successful company. Unlike others, they are not putting all their eggs in the EV basket. In addition to EVs, Toyota is developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. One, the Mirai, is already on the market.
The typical hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has a range of 400 miles. It takes just three to five minutes to fill the tank. All that comes out of the exhaust pipe is water vapor.
Of course, the catch is, trying to find a place to refuel your hydrogen vehicle. To say they are scarce is an understatement. They make EV charging stations look plentiful in comparison.
But, in time, this will change. So will battery technology, making EVs practical for more than just local driving. But we are not there yet. We’re not even close.
The bottom line is, if you are flying to Florida to dive, do not let yourself get stuck with an EV. It can turn what should be a fun trip into a nightmare of range anxiety and endless waiting.
While researching this article, we came across an interesting video explaining why industry giant Toyota is bucking the EV trend. Watch it here.