Conventional wisdom suggests that electric vehicles are “city cars” and are unsuitable for those living in the countryside, especially so in more remote areas because there are few or no public charging stations for many miles. I hear this often from people who say that an EV isn’t viable for them since they live in the “boonies”.

I have always argued the opposite because access to an electrical plug is much more likely to be true at a home in rural settings rather than in the city. In the city not everyone has a garage; downtown apartments and condos are an example. In the countryside homes have ample parking space next to the home with access to multiple electrical outlets.

This week has brought home to me how more advantageous an electric car is compared to a gasoline vehicle. We vacationed near Granville TN, a small rural community with less than 500 inhabitants. The captain of a tour boat shared that the closest gas station is 13 miles away at Carthage, so to be sure to bear that in mind when exploring the countryside around Wildwood Resort and Marina where we were staying. I pointed out to the captain that I had just finished charging my car at the resort.

Captain Ted correctly guessed I had a Tesla. He shared that the owner of the resort owned a Tesla, which explains why a business in rural Tennessee has chosen to install two EV charging stations already. The two charging stations use the Tesla proprietary connector, which is great if you own a Tesla. Other electric vehicles that use the standard J1772 connector are out of luck. SInce Tesla vehicles make up a very large percentage of the electric vehicle fleet in the US this does make some sense, but as newer vehicles such as the VW ID.4 and Ford Mach-e are now being sold nationally this isn’t at all inclusive.

Many hotels and businesses install Tesla branded charging stations as “destination chargers”. These are ideal for an over night stay. As a result several companies now sell a J1772 to Tesla adapter which allows the driver of a non Tesla EV to charge at Tesla destination charging station. These adapters are relatively inexpensive starting at $160 on Amazon. Click here to visit Amazon.

While on our sunset boat ride Captain Ted pointed out many homes on the lake or up in the mountains near Granville. All of these home owners could wake up to a fully charged electric vehicle, much more convenient than the 12.8 mile drive to an Exxon gas station in Carthage.

Access to EV charging at the resort we are staying at makes day trips very easy, we know we can top off when we return, no need to hunt down a public charging stations at all. We don’t have to disable sentry mode or cabin overheat protection out of fear while parked that a week long stay will deplete the battery, we can recharge as often as necessary.