A Two-Day Battle to Charge My Car Convinced Me We're Not Ready for EVs

A Two-Day Battle to Charge My Car Convinced Me We're Not Ready for EVs | WIRED

The real-world range of a Nissan Leaf is roughly 80 miles (84, according to the sticker on the window). That’s on par with pretty much everything else except theway more expensive, road trip-ready Tesla Model S. 
I left San Francisco with about 50 miles left in the Leaf’s 24 kilowatt-hour pack, and knew when I arrived that I wouldn’t have enough have enough juice to make the 35-mile drive back.

Once I’d wrapped up my meeting and gotten back to the car, I used the Leaf’s navigation system to find the nearest charging station. 
I figured I’d hang out for half an hour or so before heading north. 
The Leaf, like many EVs, will direct you to the nearest charging station. 
That system isn’t nearly good enough: 
First off, it doesn’t tell you whether the station is occupied. 
That’s a real problem: 
Unlike a gas station, it doesn’t take three minutes for each car to fill up and move on. 
It takes at least 20 minutes, and that means if the plug you need is taken, you’re going to be waiting a while.