Throughout our travels, living in several states and working during the pandemic, we drove a Chevy Bolt as our primary vehicle. Anywhere we lived, the amount of dealer salespeople and other EV owners who were completely unsure of what to do with them, how the different level chargers work or how to use the many different types of chargers/apps available astonished us. The other crowd of people we would run into at chargers were those who were genuinely curious about EV’s and did not know where to start. We would walk people through the process of how to use their vehicle, utilize one pedal driving when available, explaining the benefits of regenerative breaking vs traditional breaking, how to /which app to use for the charger they are at, and how to use popular apps like “Plug Share” to use as a secondary source to verify chargers are operational, on route and help reduce the feeling of “Range Anxiety” while learning how to road trip/ travel in an EV. Naturally, we also would talk to other EV lovers, exchange tips and tricks, ask how they enjoyed their vehicles and things they wish were different. Some shared their annoyance of how difficult it was to secure an EV as a rental when their car had to go into the shop or if they were traveling via train/plane. Our travels brought us back home to Columbus, Ohio and we noticed we were still having the same experiences while stopping at chargers. We believed it was time for us to use our experiences and knowledge gained to do our part in helping with the cultural shift of EV life.
