Tesla rolled out the "destination charger" program for such places. Lots of touristy small towns in California have many more destination chargers than public J1772 stations. Here's a map for the whole country:
According to the map, over half of the state has no stations within 100 miles. Moreover, between the LA basin and the SF bay area, the stations are placed so they're only useful for folks staying at the station or just going to the next station.
The Tesla site shows the locations. They look to have one in each city, but its not as big of an issue as your make out. The only need to make them convenient for travelers. Locals can always charge at home. That's something you can't do with a gas-powered car.
Tesla charging options are only plentiful is some parts of the US. In other regions of the US they are sparse even along interstates. In some regions with this property, like the mountain west, road closures that incur very long unplanned detours are a thing you have to plan for even as an ICE driver. Those detours can take you a long way from a charging station but you can find a gas station in just about every podunk town of 300 people.
There is a chicken and egg problem here. In parts of the country that rely on sparse networks of gas stations for their cars, few people would buy a BEV unless all of those gas stations simultaneously added chargers in the complete absence of local demand.
The inferesting places are not always private properties that are trying to attract people. On my road trips, I often end up stopping and stretching my legs at scenic overlooks, hiking trails, lakes etc, none of which are likely to sprout charging stations any time soon.
I just looked and near me (Iowa) the nearest charging stations are over an hour away. It looks like they are located near the major truck stops going through the state. That makes sense I guess, but you don't pass those places unless you are traveling long distance.
I see a fair number of Teslas around town, but I have to imagine they all just charge at home. I know of a single charging station in the area and it supports either one or two cars from what I remember.
How widespread is that really? After the first deployment (where every EV youtuber east of the Mississippi converged on one tesla lot in New York :-) I haven't seen it in tech news since, and looking in the app I see 2 private ("destination") chargers in all of MA, and none in CT...
My experience using a non Tesla EV in rural places in Europe is far far better than in the US.
Charging station availability is a solved issues, now they are at the payment consolidation and subscription. ( that part is still the Wild West, but it exists )
I live in LA, ( not L.A ) I’ve seen charging station cropping up only this years in non-metro area.
Look at a deployment map in rural Spain or France.
Neat idea, but electric charging stations are pretty well established, at least along coastal and central California. If you look at plugshare you might be surprised how many quick charge (>50amp) stations are available along, say, I5 or US101.
Those numbers are very inflated, tho. A lot of Charge Point locations aren't open to the public. Some Ikea stores in the US use them to charge delivery vans, and those aren't open to the public.
I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla has more public chargers than anyone else on this list.
"Sure businesses could install chargers in their parking lots but we have a LONG way to go for that"
Why's that? I've seen hotels in Spain with dedicated Tesla parking/charging stations. Gas stations will be retrofitted with charging/swapping options. Tesla/other may partner with other businesses to install charging stations on the street.
Cars will leave while you're hiking to recharge. National Parks may well install charging stations and have regular, automated shuttles running the most popular routes.
Plus you're talking about a very specific case to suggest this being an issue for "large portions of America".
Sounds like you live in the middle of nowhere. I live in what people consider the middle of no where and there are a number of Tesla charging stations near me.
Just browsed google maps. By my count there are more public EV chargers in a mile radius of my house (east bay) than hydrogen fuel stations in San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, and Alameda counties combined.
It appears that even among early adopters of new energy sources, the market has spoken.
Some of them, but I've also seen Tesla at various truck stops. In rural areas building at a convenience store make sense: they already have restrooms, some form of restaurant and various other things to buy on site - everything a traveler needs for a quick break to fill the car before getting back on the road.
In cities I think we will see less chargers as most people just go home to charge. However in poor areas they will be at places like grocery stores so you those who don't have at-home charging can charge and shop.
Well, that's US. I am in much more densely populated Central Europe - several orders of magnitude compared to California. For most people here, workplace is 15-30 minutes walk/public transit away, that's not going to solve anything about car charging.
Wind is now opposed by people here because it ruins the landscape. Funny but it's what it is. And there's not enough physical space for solar arrays of this size.
http://www.teslamotors.com/findus#/bounds/49.38,-66.94,25.82...
Note that you can't even see the California coastline anymore. It's mostly rural and touristy.
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