In anticipation of getting my Model S in the spring I was playing around over the holidays looking for the presence of pubic charging stations on the longer trip routes that I drive most often. As I was disappointed in what I found (in many places the only listed charging stations were Nissan dealers, but fortunately Nissan's policy is to make them available to all EVs when they don't need them for Leaf charging), I decided to use publicly available data to look at the number of charging stations in each state then, because of the differences in state size and population, break that analysis down by the number per 10,000 population and per 1,000 square miles. I know that this analysis has a number of flaws (for, example, it does not take into account number of EVs in areas of dense population in each state) but it's a rough guide to the most progressive states as far as EV charging stations are concerned. Here are the top 12 states: Total number of charging stations: California 959 Texas 374 Florida 322 Washington 287 Oregon 276 Tennessee 249 Michigan 179 Illinois 178 Arizona 173 New York 163 Maryland 154 Charging stations per 100K population: Oregon 7.20 Hawaii 5.88 Washington 4.27 Tennessee 3.92 Arizona 2.71 Maryland 2.67 California 2.57 S Carolina 2.29 Mass 2.12 Michigan 1.81 Vermont 1.76 Charging stations per 1,000 square miles Washington, D. C. 162.87 Massachusetts 17.73 Maryland 15.76 Hawaii 12.46 Connecticut 11.15 New Jersey 6.74 California 6.15 Tennessee 6.04 Florida 5.97 Rhode Island 5.74 Washington 4.31
Also, basically all of those chargers are located within major city limits which does us basically no good when traveling the long distances in Texas.
And it may be that in many other states a good number of the charging stations are concentrated in a few metropolitan areas. In North Carolina, for example, Raleigh alone has 10 stations within what appear to be a 5-block range of the core city. This, of course, may have much to do with the presence of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Here's my source for the charging station counts: http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_locations.html
When traveling, you normally have three choices: 1. Where you're staying for the night -- here charging rate isn't an issue unless they only have 110V. 2. RV parks. 3. Superchargers (when they become available) or HPCs. 4. If in Canada there is Sun Country. Everything else is in the cities to help the non-Tesla EVs limp around.
When I get my 85 kWh Model S (hopefully) early next spring, it should take me everywhere I go except the occasional trip I make from Toronto to Chicago to see my daughter and (soon to be) son-in-law. If I look at that route, there seems to be only 30 amp stations, and that would turn a usual 8 hour drive into a 2-day trip. The trip is just under 600 miles each way. I would likely need to find two fast chargers along that corridor.
Agreed. Only way to justify it is to leave after work on Friday (for example) - drive til zero, stop at a hotel, charge, and make the rest of the way in the am. Still gives a hotel that we would not have budgeted for - but the savings in petrol may make up for it. 6 of one and a half dozen of the other.
Lately I've been thinking that some RV parks might do a good business with Tesla owners if they also provided accommodations during the night while our cars are charging. Never slept in an RV or trailer home but I assume the nicer ones might be the equal of a second or third class hotel. Otherwise, if you leave your Model S to charge overnight at an RV park, you'll need transportation to a nearby or not-so-nearby hotel.
Many RV parks have cabins for rent. Look up a few RV parks with cabins and you should be able to get a sense of what they offer.