This is my 15th blog post for the Blaugust 2026 community blogging project. Join me all this month for more blogging. Six months ago I bought an EV – my first. It’s been a (mostly) great experience and I’ve learned a lot. Or, more accurately, I’ve unlearned a lot. Much of what you read out there about EV ownership – specifically around charging – is fear mongering. Let me share what I’ve learned and see if I can dispel some of that. Chargers are confusing – at first I went into EV ownership with some baseline knowledge. For years before my purchase, I’d try to rent an EV every time I travelled, and so I drove quite a few models. (But never a Tesla, because fuck Tesla.) At first, I found the bit about “charging levels” and “charging plugs” legit confusing. I remember the first time driving into a public charge station at a car dealer outside New Orleans, plugging in, and being anguished that the charger said it would take six hours to charge. The problem is that I had connected up to a level 2 charger. What I needed for my top-off was a level 3 fast DC charger. Here’s a quick rundown: Level 1 – a charger, typically portable, that just plugs into an ordinary wall outlet Level 2 – a high voltage (240V) charger that people often install in their garage, and charges overnight Level 3 – a high voltage, fast DC charger, and charges in about 20 minutes That’s charging levels. Charging plugs are another thing. Here is a pretty good overview on plug types. So, I had this all sorted before I bought my car. It turns out even with that experience I had a lot to learn. Lesson One: Wall charging is fine I was nervous about getting a high voltage (level 2) charger installed at my house. How hard would it be? How much would it cost? And – most scary of all – would it require getting the electrical service to my house upgraded? Turns out the answer was: I don’t need a high voltage charger. I just putter around town, typically driving under 25 miles a day. I can recharge overnight with just a level 1 charger plugged into a wall outlet in my garage. If I drive more on a given day then it might take a couple nights to get to back to my top-off goal. If I’m severely depleted, say after a road trip, then I’ll drive down to a local DC fast charger. I haven’t done this in months. The surprising lesson was that, in my case, where I don’t have a big daily commute, charging is easy. I just use a level 1 charger plugged into a wall outlet. Lesson Two: Range anxiety is a myth You may have heard about EV “range anxiety”. It goes something like this: when you drive an EV you are constantly worried that the battery will drain and you’ll be stuck somewhere. I did have range anxiety at first. But it wasn’t due to charging issues. It was because I read so many articles telling me I’d have range anxiety. I got over it. Here is the reality of driving an EV: you always will have a level of awareness of your charge situation. But anxiety? Nah. Around town, I just recharge every night. On a road trip, I’ll do some planning. I’ll look at where I think I’ll be when my battery capacity is down to about 40 miles, and pick a spot for recharging just before that. I use the Plugshare app to plan my next charging location. It has crowd-sourced reviews of chargers and I find that indispensible. I stick to highly rated chargers – 8.0 and above – and have had universally good charging experiences. Below is a screenshot from their website. I always have a plan B, another good charging candidate down the road, within comfortable range. I’ve never had to use plan B, but that preparation forestalls anxiety. To be sure, the range estimate can be off, so you do need to be prepared to adjust your plan. For instance, I went to Ashland, OR last weekend. On the ride back I had a charging destination selected. The drive passed through a lot of hills and mountains and I found myself about 40 miles short of the range I had planned for my charging destination. No prob! I pulled off at the next rest stop and recalculated a new charging destination. So driving an EV does require some planning (and sometimes re-planning) that you wouldn’t need with a gas-powered car. But anxiety? Nope, not at all. Lesson Three: There are perqs All the lessons so far have been about fears and concerns that proved unfounded. This last one was the discovery that an EV can offer benefits that you don’t get with a gas-powered car. A couple of months ago we took a day trip to the Tillamook Creamery. When we got there, we found that they had level 2 chargers in the parking lot. And they were completely free to use! The car recharged while we were inside watching the cheese getting made. Fuel was free that trip. Another time we took a day trip to Silver Falls State Park. Again, there were level 2 chargers right in the parking lot. I did have to pay to recharge, but it was another road trip without a charging stop. During that trip to Ashland, the hotel we stayed at had free level 2 chargers in the parking lot. We didn’t have to pay for a charge even once the entire long weekend we were there. So, easy – sometimes free – charging is an unexpected benefit. Another awesome benefit can be parking. All three of the locations had crowded parking lots, and normally you’d have to park pretty far out. But the EV charging spots provided rockstar parking. That was an added and appreciated benefit. So, turns out sometimes road tripping in an EV can be better than a gas-powered car. Sometimes you get free refueling and the best parking. Conclusion I knew from my rental car experiences that I’d enjoy driving an electric vehicle. But based on what I’d read, I had apprehensions about owning one. It turns out some of the reputed downsides and risks weren’t true. Plus, there were unexpected benefits. Owning an EV has been a better experience than I’d hoped for.