In Denver, I’m on the edge of America’s electric vehicle fast-charging “desert”

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If you want to drive a non-Tesla electric vehicle to anywhere north of the Colorado/Wyoming border and into the middle-northcentral USA, which is one of the MOST beautiful areas in the USA to do a road trip in, you will face a veritable DCFC, or EV “fast-charging,” station desert 😖😡😢.

I’ve been itching to do a road trip in my 2020 Chevy Bolt between the Denver, Colo. area, where I live, and Northwestern Wyoming/Southern Montana, home to Grand Teton National and Yellowstone National Park, for awhile. I think I am going to go this August — despite the fact that there are STILL no non-Tesla DCFC chargers between Cheyenne, Wyo., in the Southeastern part of the state and Jackson Hole in the Northwestern part of Wyoming.

Such a shame.

Indeed, there is a veritable DCFC Desert in exactly one of the most beautiful outdoor spaces and places to do a road trip in and visit in the United States: The Eastern edge of the Inter-mountain American West.

Living in Colorado, I am right on the Southern and Western edge of this DCFC Desert.

Frustrating.

Yes, if I could afford a Tesla, I would not be facing this issue — or if I had two cars, one an ICE, though two cars makes no sense in a post-divorce single-parent household like mine.



But, when I crunched the numbers 18 months ago when my 2017 Chevy Bolt lease was ending, I discovered that a basic Model 3 with nothing that I really wanted — with the ugly aerodynamic hub caps and in boring black — would still have cost me about $200 more per month to lease than a 2020 Chevy Bolt. So, I stuck with a Bolt.

I love my Bolt.

Me in front of my 2017 Chevy Bolt in Green River, Utah during a 2,400-mile road trip I took with my two daughters from Denver to Santa Barbara and back in the Summer of 2018. [Photo by Alina Demont-Heinrich]

But try doing a road trip in middle-northern part of USA in a non-Tesla!
You’re stuck doing extra overnight Level 2 charging sessions because DCFC density STILL sucks here!

Yes, I STILL can’t get from Denver — where I live — to Yellowstone in one day in my Bolt 🤬.

Wyoming and South Dakota are pathetic DCFC states for non Tesla drivers — and Montana, absolutely my favorite outdoors state, is not much better. What a total bummer, given their amazing natural beauty!

When are we going to FINALLY see some better DCFC coverage in the American DCFC Desert here in the central-northern-mountain-state area?