Last week, a pair of Tesla owners听drove their electric vehicles .
The feat is not necessarily an impressive test of the car鈥檚 performance at high altitude or on rough terrain. Electric motors don鈥檛 require oxygen, so they can operate even in the vacuum of space, and EVs are routinely drive in sub-zero temperatures. Plus, Base Camp North sits at just 16,900 feet, and China completed a paved road to it (not to be confused with the Nepali Base Camp South, which requires a ten-day hike to reach). Busses carrying tourists routinely drive into the camp.
It鈥檚 also not an impressive indication of the EVs鈥 range. The distance from the camp to the nearest Tesla Supercharger station is only , and a Tesla Model 3 can return of range.听
What听is听impressive is the fact that there鈥檚 a Tesla Supercharge station located just 60 miles from Mount Everest.听
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_XO3chFvl0
China has听 EV charging stations, a number that鈥檚 increasing monthly at a rate that exceeds the total number of EV charging stations in the United States. The U.S. only has a total of ; China built in December, 2020, alone.
As a couple of Tesla owners driving right into Everest Base Camp North indicates, China鈥檚 EV charging station network also covers rural and remote areas. That鈥檚 a notorious problem here in Ameristan, where most stations听are concentrated in cities in only a handful of states.听
Take Montana, my home state, for instance. There鈥檚 a grand total of EV charging stations across the entire state, compared to the located in California. And that鈥檚 a problem for people like me, who would very much like to own a zero-emissions vehicle, but can鈥檛, since we just don鈥檛 have a place to charge them.听
This weekend, my wife and I invited a friend visiting from California to join us at our cabin, near Glacier National Park. But that friend had to decline, after mapping out the route, and realizing their Rivian R1T simply couldn鈥檛 make it. Meanwhile, a couple dudes in China just drove straight to Mount Everest in their Teslas, without any evident planning or hassle.听
The barrier to EV adoption in this country remains infrastructure. Without massive public investments in clean energy, transmission networks, charging stations, and more, we鈥檙e not only falling behind the rest of the world, we鈥檙e continuing to worsen the climate crisis even as we鈥檙e already experiencing its disastrous impacts.听