How long until you retire? If you’ve still got another thirty to forty years of wage slavery ahead of you then don’t worry about it. Just keep contributing and make sure to get all of your employer’s match, if any.

D:

What you’re describing only works if an increasing number of parking spots have chargers installed at them. I just don’t think it’s sustainable or feasible.

My main contention is that long range BEVs are a bad idea. They might mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, but that comes with the above infrastructure problems, increasing demand on the problematic battery industry, and in turn creating more battery disposal problems. Furthermore, they perpetuate the living room on wheels paradigm that holds us back from the real solution to transporting people over land: rail. Meanwhile, short range BEVs are great because they make the most of their batteries, barely require any new infrastructure, and save their owners the hassle of needing to visit a gas station or find a “fast” charger at all.

BEVs aren’t compatible with the gas station model because they take too long to charge. ICE vehicles and even FCEVs are in and out of a gas station in five minutes, so you don’t need a big footprint to fuel up a lot of vehicles. BEVs need to park for a while to get a substantial charge, not even full one. The fast chargers get Teslas to 80% in something like thirty minutes. So, if these fast charger were installed adjacent to gas pumps, the price to charge your BEV would have to be something like 6x the cost to refuel in order to cover the missed fuel sales.

As for what type of vehicle a someone should own for the scenario you describe, a long range BEV is overkill. Either keep a ICE car for all your driving or keep a small BEV for local trips and rent a more appropriate vehicle for infrequent long trips. Better yet, take a train or bus for those long trips and rent a short range BEV closer to your final destination.

Fuel pumps are operated by gas station attendants by law in NJ.

Maybe there’s a battery range/charge time sweet spot, but I think it’s easy to underestimate what common enough would look like. These chargers are going to have to be everywhere and they’re probably not going to be taken care of properly. It’s just more e-waste.

To answer your question: no, that is not my suggestion.

When these batteries burn, they can’t be put out except by cooling them down somehow because they contain their own oxidizer. So fire departments tend to just let them burn and send whatever metals and other chemicals into the atmosphere. A gasoline fire can be put out with fire suppressants that deprive it of air. Apart from that, the batteries are also hazardous in terms of their manufacturing and disposal lifecycle and also just by making vehicles heavier. Heavier vehicles mean more energetic collisions and they also require bigger brakes, which means more brake dust pollution.

Aren’t EV batteries already big enough? As in, you probably shouldn’t drive more than 8 hours or so in a day without taking a long break and getting a good night’s sleep. There many models on the market with that capability, right? Also, if that’s the type of driving you’re doing frequently, an ICE vehicle or ideally an FCEV would be a better choice, just in terms of avoiding battery wear and tear and reducing the amount dead weight you’re schlepping around. If you’re only going on long drives occasionally, just rent a suitable vehicle or consider another from of transit like a train or a bus and then rent a little EV near your destination.

I’m inclined to agree that all motorized personal vehicles and their attendant infrastructure should be eliminated. However, you’re making a false equivalency. I live in New Jersey, so it takes maybe five minutes for me to completely refuel my car with gasoline. My understanding is that it takes six times as long to charge a big EV to ~80%. Therefore, a single fueling station can serve many more people with a much smaller footprint. Furthermore, fuel gets consumed, whereas batteries are mostly dead weight that occasionally do the thermal runaway thing.

I don’t care about any particular EV brand. Trying to use battery powered EVs for such purposes means that they need to built with heavy, oversized, extra hazardous batteries. The responsible, proper use case for BEVs is short trips with plenty of time for charging at home or work.