Re: Finding a working charger
The problem with your anecdote here is that, for many of us, the idea of having to make *any* refuelling stops during a 500 mile round trip would be completely alien to us, because with a full tank of dead dino juice when we set off, our vehicles would manage such a trip and still leave enough in the tank on our return to not be worried about having to get to a filling station right there and then.
Meanwhile, as positive as your story is from the PoV of at least showing that such a trip is now feasible in an EV, the fact that it required you to expend an additional hour or so on charging *during* the trip would be somewhat offputting to many. No, I'm not suggesting that driving an ICE car avoids the need to make any stops en-route, but when planning a journey there's a marked difference between having to
a) merely consider the availability of services *somewhere* along the route at which, if needed at that point in the journey, you can pop in for a quick comfort break, grab a coffee/food, and be back on the road in under 10 minutes if time is of the essence
and
b) having to carefully plan the route you take to ensure that you pass at least one (and, given your 4th charging attempt comments, preferably two) location within the range of your battery, and knowing that even if you do then combine it with a comfort break, you'll still more likely than not be stuck there longer than you'd have needed to be if it was *just* a comfort break you were stopped for.
So yes, you're right, using an EV for longer journeys IS possible today. But let's not kid ourselves that it's as convenient/easy/without potential difficulties (e.g. what would have happened if the chargers at Reading had also been busy/out of action?) as doing the same journey in an ICE vehicle. THAT'S the issue for mass adoption (well, that and bringing the upfront costs down, and massively increasing the availability of EVs in the used market, and doing something about the insane costs of insuring them...), because whilst your anecdote means it's now feasible for someone who is already of a mindset to want to make the switch to EV and will put up with it still being not quite as easy as being an ICE driver, it's still not realistic to presume that the average driver would be happy to put up with a journey like this.