First-time EV owner shares ‘cautionary tale’ after it took 15 hours to drive 178 miles

Colorado electric vehicle driver Alan O’Hashi was ‘rudely awakened’ by his car’s slow charging infrastructure

After Colorado resident Alan O’Hashi purchased his all-electric Nissan Leaf — and became a first-time electric vehicle (EV) owner — he thought he was ready to embark on the first leg of a 2,600-mile road trip across Wyoming.

But the eager traveler was faced with a harsh truth after a 178-mile route took 15 hours to complete, when normally it would clock in at two-and-a-half hours.

“I was rudely awakened when I determined that the charging wasn’t as rapid as some people would lead you to believe, likely the dealers,” O’Hashi said in an interview on “Varney & Co.” Friday, “and I think people like myself, we go into it a bit blindly.”

O’Hashi blames the road bump on a combination of part user error and part “lack of adequate infrastructure” in the car’s charging capabilities.

“I had done some research. I knew a little bit about electric vehicles, and the charging and potential obstacles, and I did some pre-planning for the trip,” O’Hashi said, “but I didn’t actually have any practical experience with that.”

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