Hmm. I travel mostly in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, and Virginia. I have a Tesla Wall Charger at home and haven't had trouble with Supercharging on the road. I can point to towns I wish had a Supercharger, and I've had more than my statistical share of problems at Superchargers (power out to the site, broken connector, abnormally low charge speed, though thankfully not lines/waits)... but still, I would disagree that there are "gigantic deficiencies" in the area in question. I mean, I'm only even considering the Tesla Supercharger network -- if we layer all other charging networks on top of that, I have to think the picture gets even better.
I'm sure we can point to parts of the country that have gaps. I'm sure we can point to charging networks that aren't as well-maintained as Tesla's. I'm sure apartment-dwellers with no home charging would find an EV less attractive. But really, to say an OEM should drag its feet on EVs until all customers are overserved by charging opportunities is nuts. It's pretty clear that there's a sizable and growing market for EVs, served by a sizable and growing supply of DC fast chargers, and the right strategy would be to get on board as quickly as possible and grow with the market. If there aren't enough home chargers, how about offering customers a discount on one when they buy the car? If 100% EV share by 2030/2035/whatever is unrealistic because apartments won't install chargers that fast, OK, but to say "we'll focus on the steadily shrinking ICE market and watch everyone else take over the steadily growing EV market"... what kind of a plan is that?
