One of the big advantages touted by EV People is that they can charge their device at home, thereby never having to deal with the less-than-five-minute refueling stop people who drive cars with engines must put up with once a week or so.
But charging at home requires infrastructure. You have to have a place to park that’s close enough to an electric outlet for the charge cord to reach, to begin with. You can’t use an extension cord to bridge the distance because most EVs require you to use only the factory charge cord, which might be 12 feet long. If you plug the factory charge cord into an extension cord, it won’t transmit the power from your wall outlet to the EV. There is usually a controller box that senses electric load (kind of like a fuse does in an electric panel) and it’s no charge for you.
It’s even harder to charge at home if you haven’t got a cord. Make that impossible. Without a cord, you have to drive to a public “fast” charger, which means having to wait there much longer than the less-than-five-minutes it takes to fully fuel a non-electric vehicle. This arguably negates the main sell used to sell EVs, which is that you can wait at home for a charge. That is certainly preferable to waiting at a Sheetz. 
So it’s curious that the last two EVs I’ve been sent to drive and tell you about did not come with charge cords, making it not possible for me to charge these devices at home. The device I have right now – a 2025 VW ID Buzz – is available with a charge cord, just as the Acura device I was sent a few months ago is also available with one. But they are optional.
As in, they cost extra.
In the case of the ID Buzz, It’s a $646 extra – part of an optional Charging and Interior Protection Package. The press car ID Buzz sent to me did not have this option, which I discovered after my first (short) test drive. I mention this because it’s relevant in that I now have a problem. When the ID Buzz was dropped off, the range-remaining indicator said I could drive 202 miles, about 30 miles shy of the VW’s fully-charged range. After driving it about 26 miles – into town and back – I was left with about 142 miles of indicated range remaining. The italics are there to make a point about “indicated” vs. actual.
I’m assuming that I actually have less than 142 miles of driving range remaining. Perhaps a lot less. Going into Roanoke – which is the biggest town near me – is about 26 miles one way and so a round trip “down the mountain” and back up the mountain is likely to leave the ID Buz with not much range remaining. Not enough to make it back down again. Or at least, not down and back again. If I had a charge cord, I could have plugged the VW in last night and by the following morning, it would have recovered 30 miles or so of range (using a standard 120V household outlet; if I used a 240V dryer-type outlet, the VW would have been fully recharged by the next morning).
Since the VW did not come with a cord, I have no choice but to drive to a public fast charger and hope it’s working. If it’s not, then I’ll be in the uneasy position of driving a vehicle that’s running out of range that may be out of range of my driveway. What then? Flatbed time, of course.
Hopefully, the public fast charger will be working and I will be able to charge the VW up. This is a constant worry when you are driving an EV; it is a worry people who do not drive EVs almost never have to worry about as gas stations rarely don’t work and there are so many of them in most places you’ll always be near one when you’re running low on fuel.
But even assuming the fast charger is working, there’s no avoiding the wait, – which will be at least half an hour or so for a partial charge (meaning less than maximum range an thus having to stop – and wait – again, sooner). If you want to fully recharge at a fast charger, the wait will be an hour or so because the last 20 percent of charging is done trickle-charge style, to reduce the chances of damaging the battery. This brings up another interesting thing.
If you can only fast-charge your EV – because you didn’t pay extra for the charge cord (and pay an electrician to build out a 240V circuit for you to plug, so that you can fully recharge overnight as opposed to waiting a couple of days to fully recharge using a regular 120V household outlet) then you are subjecting the battery to heavy discharge/recharge cycling, which battery manufacturers openly admit reduces the useful life of EV battery packs, which is a big deal in view of the titanic replacement costs.
It is much better – for the life of the battery – and for people who prefer not to hang out at a Sheetz parking lot for half an hour getting a partial charge – to be able to charge at home, overnight. But you can’t do that without the cord, which it appears they’re charging extra for now.
What’s next? Extra charge for the air in the tires?
. . .
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I have to admit I find the styling of the ID Buzz kind of appealing. But for 70 grand I expect something a lot better. EVs have some merits but the arrogant, stupid, dishonest way they’ve been pushed is going to give them a bigger black eye than the Oldsmobile 350 diesel.
An ID Buzz is probably a lot better option for an urban soccer mom than a Yukon or Expedition. She likes big, flashy, and expensive, but seldom drives over 100 miles in a day. But for the vast majority outside this demographic, it ain’t gonna play.
What do you mean “It knows” if you’ve been naughty and used an extension? How many amps do those things draw?
I wonder how many people got an EV and didn’t realize they’d need a whole new panel box hookup for $2,000, in addition to the extra outlet.
If we’re talking level 1, 120V, then IIRC 2 gauge wire can be used to carry 80A continuously like 100 feet from the panel box, without Vdrop being an issue. (It was for a lazer rust removal system), high amps but still 120V.
I’d just splice a bunch of electrical cords together, zip tied to make super stranded wire extension. Or divise something equally as ghetto for 2/3 phase. Just consult the electrician who wired the panel for some help extending it on the DL
I believe he wired it straight to the panel, but I was going to use 80A trolling motor connector sets avalible online.
Hi Steve,
On several occasions I have tried to use a typical extension cord to bridge the gap between and EeeeeeVeeee and my garage, because I do not like parking EeeeeeeeVeeeeeees anywhere near my garage. The charging cord supplied by EV manufacturers is not just a cord. It has a “box” attached that I assume has electronics in it; also the cord is of noticeably heavier gauge than that of an extension cord. It is similar to the cord I use to connect my generator to the house panel. Anyhow, the factory charge cord/box will not let you use an extension cord. Maybe a heavier gauge cord would work. I don’t have time or patience to screw with it, so I don’t. Instead, I park the EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeVeeeeeee near my work shed, where I have a 30 amp welder circuit and plug the thing in there. I figure if the thing catches fire, it’ll only burb down the shed and my stuff that’s in there, which the EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeVeeeeeee manufacturer can (and better) pay for.
Eric – I’d be more than happy to send you an EV charger if you need one. I have tons of the stupid things.
No means NO.
Be quiet, Chiam.
What always gets me about electric car fan boy apologetics. The continued denial of all the huge inconveniences of these stupid things. Let alone all the other problems that come with electric.
And they pile on the rare one that publicly criticizes electric cars a bit. And even when the criticize, they apologize for criticizing……. That is the definition of insanity.
And yes, I will say it. Electric cars in their current form are simply stupid.
Expensive, heavy, inconvenient and dangerous just to name a few. Something the free market would never do naturally, the current electric car fad is a government thing, there is NOTHING free market about present electric cars.
Forget about the charging cord, don’t buy a Buzz(t).
Build those 39 horsepower engines that were used in the first VW Vans. 1,400,000 were built in Germany.
You will sell many more of them with engines, those vans have bodies lighter than air.
VW will be happy when they do offer a new model Microbus with an engine and transmission.
There will be huge interest, never argue with success.
Everything you do is work, make it count.
I believe it was 36HP, they had reduction gearing at the wheel ends of the axles, and while slow they were used for freight and cargo service on steep mountain roads. Truly a remarkable machine.
“What’s next? Extra charge for the air in the tires?”
Probably. Don’t give them any ideas.
Well, this is what happens when global corporations are so regulated to the point where they are basically adjuncts of the State. There is no true “market” any more, in which they try to sell as many units as they can by offering the best deals and including “free” stuff in the price.
They are selling to a captive consumer and the price they dictate under the terms they dictate. Don’t like that, peasant? Well, then you can walk — and you will probably be arrested at gunpoint for “vagrancy” by some tatted-up, roid-rage pig in Kevlar carrying an “assault weapon.”
Dang Big X….
Boy talk about “captive audiences”……
Needed a break from CT so we “Escaped to New York. “
For the record kids.. make sure you’re not bamboozled by Airbnb touts.. e.g. a small village named Attica claims “Rigorous 24 hr on site security “…
And is located “In the Niagara Falls area “????
Caveat Emptor !
So about the $646 for the plug – You can buy a roll of 10 gauge wire 500 ft at home depot for $186. Dryer male plugs are about $10. Not sure about the EV end of the plug but honestly shouldn’t be more than $20.
So for $216 + labor and sheathing, they would charge you a $400 premium????
VW offers it for $350 under option code ITO – EV Charging Cable:
https://volkswagenorderguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2025_Volkswagen_ID.Buzz_Order_Guide.pdf
So your DIY cost estimate is solid, after tacking on a retail markup.
How much will the insurance on the home be increased (by the insurance mafia) for the additional fire risk of the home charging station?
And your public EV charging woes will presumably continue, as another manufacturer of these totems of idiocy reduce production.
https://www.electrive.com/2025/07/17/flo-announces-layoffs-and-factory-closing-in-north-america/
They may want people to charge at fast chargers but where i live every fast charger is empty. People charge at home. Period. I find it interesting that the more they try to nudge people the more people resist and find work arounds. Yesterday i car pooled with a few co workers to a business event. We saw a passenger train and a few people commented that they would take public transportation if it were convenient and on time. Then they recalled the few times they took a train or bus and how slow and late it was. It doesn’t work for people.
On a related note I watched a Pete Santenello video where he toured the Palisades and Alta Dena fire sites with the CEO of Haden Claims, a private claims adjuster. He was showing a home seemingly undisturbed from the fire. It is now uninhabitable due to contamination from fire soot that seeped into the walls and said the main source of the contaminants in the soot such as arsenic, asbestos, lead etc. that require the homes to be gutted are from all the EV batteries.
Morning, RS!
Yup. No one – almost no one – wants to wait for even 15 minutes if they don’t have to. But it takes at least 15-20 minutes to instill a partial charge in an EV at a public “fast” charger. If you can’t charge at home – where you can do other things while the EV charges – then you are faced with this constant hassle and time-suck. It’s beyond absurd that my 24-year-old truck is objectively superior as a vehicle than this brand-new $70,000 device. My truck can go much farther on a tank, and can be easily refueled in three minutes just about anywhere. I can just jump in and go, spur of the moment – without ever thinking much about how much gas I have. Because even if there’s just a gallon or so sloshing around in the nearly empty tank, I can get more gas in minutes and get where I need to go – rather than wait and be late because I forgot to charge the device up. Or wasn’t able to…
But aren’t many charging at home because the cost of using fast-charging stations is higher? I do not know what fast-charging stations charge, but with the possible exception of those I see (unused) at Walmart parking lots, I suspect most are considered profit centers for someone. I would have thought the Biden administration would have taken steps to ensure that the cost of power obtained at fast-charging stations was zero to the consumer. It would have been a clever move. Presumably millions would have bought absurdly-expensive EVS just to get something (the power) for free.
Hi Bill,
Yes – absolutely. It is much more expensive to “fast” charge an EV; essentially the same as it costs to gas up.
You have to watch the public charging stations, it’s not a fixed cost. Some Superchargers and such will be as much as $0.60/hw-hr or as low as $0.11/kw-hr. The rate depends on where you are, time of day and how busy the charger is. They also charge you a per minute idle fee if you’re connected above 80% charge and there’s a car waiting to charge. It’s nudge to get you to disconnect quicker since EV chargers have to start to taper the charge and it’ll take longer. Eric’s mentioned this, bulk to absorption to topping. Chemistry dictates that above 80% charge you have to take more care with voltage and current and as a result you can go balls out to 80% usually, say 30 minutes, but to get from 80% to 100% will take longer. Could be another tens of minutes, could be hours. You have to let the battery dictate what it wants looking at voltage, current, temperature.
But you probably also don’t pay a fixed price for your home power, especially if you’ve let the utility install a smart meter or do flexible pricing. My electrical utility charges as low as about $0.07/kw-hr for off-peak hours in the winter and as high as $0.21/kw-hr for on-peak hours in the summer. They define peak hours as 5PM to 9PM. I have opted out of flex pricing for the flat rate price, which is $0.10/kw-hr all the time for me.
Bottom line is to get an EV fuel cost to be comparable to gasoline you have to charge at night at home. If you pay charge point rates you may lose money compared to gasoline but not always. It’s not a simple this-or-that. In California where gasoline is $6 and $7 in some places you could get a similar miles per kw-hr at $0.40/kw-hr. In a place with sub-$3 gasoline you might spend the same energy per Dollar at $0.15/kw-hr. Of course the MPG of the car and kw-hr/mile of the EV matter greatly. A Leaf is going to do much better than a Rivian just like a Corolla will compared to a F350.
Thanks for this detailed explanation, Roger!
Especially as regards your point about “Bottom line is to get an EV fuel cost to be comparable to gasoline you have to charge at night at home.” Indeed. That is why it’s so obnoxious the ID Buzz doesn’t come standard with a charge cord. Nearly $700 extra. Thats easily four months of gas money for my truck.
‘It is now uninhabitable due to contamination from fire soot that seeped into the walls and [he] said the main source of the contaminants in the soot such as arsenic, asbestos, lead etc. that require the homes to be gutted are from all the EV batteries.’ — RS
If this is true, then the Pacific Palisades fire was the Love Canal of the EeeVee scam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal
Why have I not read about this EeeVee contamination scandal in the Lügenpresse, which was all over the Love Canal disaster back then?
This man had been a wildfire fighter for over a decade prior to this. He said they never detected these specific types of chemicals in the soot before EVs. They are carcinogens. I am not surprised at all by this but did find it shocking. Y
The whole “charging cord is optional” thing is exhibit number 56,789 in the enshittification of everything.
The new VW bus looks like a suppository.
I can charge my ‘lectric toothbrush and iPhone using an induction charger. So why have a cord for an EV when all that’s necessary is a big ass pad to pull up on.
anything can be a suppository if you’re brave enough…
Clip the toenails and be sure to use enough duct tape…
Being forced to download an app and refusing cash is creepy[paraphrase] – Eric
Yes, Eric. Wanting to know someone’s every move, thought and action used to be considered a psychosis if not criminal. Now, it’s a resume’ enhancement.
It shows just how sick our overlords actually are.
It’s not only the charging station operator, it’s also all the micro services that they employ to create the app. There are all sorts of these chunks of software that are sold to “fast companies and lean startups” that provide something of a service to the developers. Need a graphics engine? Don’t develop from scratch (or use the one in Xcode), use this one! It’s cross platform so you don’t need to worry about your iOS team doing something that looks better than the Android version. And best of all, it’s free to license. It just gathers data like location from your customers so that we can better target ads to them on our other platforms.
„Charge for air in the tyres?“ was meant to be a funny remark to end the article, but in parts of europe gas stations charge you indeed for checking your tyre pressure 😡
Hi Hairy!
Yup. It’s hard to find a free air pump anymore; you tyoically have to feed the machine money in order to fill up your tires.
The service station had to purchase and maintain the compressor and the electricity it draws isn’t free. It’s not the worst insult known to man to ask you pay $0.50 to use it.
If they offer free air they’re going to roll it into the price of gas, which we all know is the first step to socialism.
Hi Pete,
Yeah, but… almost every gas station used to provide free air to customers. It’s just another sign of our diminishment that most no longer do.
In no small part because gas stations used to be service stations with service bays where they were changing tires and running compressors for air tools.
When you pulled in you ran over an inflated air hose to ding the bell and some kid would come out and full your tank and check your tire pressure.
Every gas station used to be a service station, you know with a mechanic on duty and racks of oil and tires. So they had the compressor already. In fact there once was a team of service guys who would run out, fill your gas, check your air pressure, wash the windshield. The ship sailed on good service decades ago. Our fathers’ generation saw self serve gas and big box stores in 1970s and 1980s as a sign things were going to shit but we grew up with it so our baseline expectation is different.
“If they offer free air they’re going to roll it into the price of gas, which we all know is the first step to socialism.” -Prepared Pete
Ahhh, no. That’s not socialism at all. A privately owned gas station providing free air (or other things) is what is typically known as a loss leader, intended to stimulate sales. In modern parlance, this might be called a strategy for “customer acquisition.”
https://giphy.com/explore/sheldon-sarcasm
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s better for me to go to the places that charge for air. The reason is that the few places that have free air usually have a long line of mostly undesirables (I live in NJ) waiting for the air and they take forever. The ones that charge never really have a line and once you pay you are on the clock.
I’m an independent tire filler. Shop compressor at home, lots of hose on a reel, always dry air.
On the road, 12v plug in compressor for the cars/truck. For the scooter, a very compact battery compressor that packs neatly in a flat fabric case fits easy in a saddlebag. That one recharges via 110v plug in adapter or a 12v plug in. I’ve made a cig lighter socket with a pigtail adapter that plugs into the 12v ports in the Harley.
Don’t get stuck miles from home and also avoids the sketchy gas station scenario, and their water filled air compressor filling your tire with a air water mix. My scooter compressor saved a road trip, buddy’s Road Glide had a slow leaker 5 minutes good to roll.
Yep. This is the way, 100%.
Completely agree, I carry a compressor with me. But I also air down a lot when I drive off road so it’s something I’ve done for years. It’s very handy so I’d carry it anyway.
‘In the case of the ID Buzz, [the charge cord] is a $646 extra’ — eric
‘Batteries not included’ became a tagline of comedians on TeeVee. It evokes the frustration of kids opening a new toy on Christmas day, and then learning they can’t use it because
DadSanta forgot to buy batteries for it.Recently, the smarter device floggers have grokked that including the batteries is good marketing, because having to make a redundant trip to the store for an essential accessory makes a bad first impression.
Such logic is a little too advanced for the krauts. After all, it has taken a couple of decades of aversive conditioning by Hausfrauen to mold them into dutiful Sitzpinklers, much as one house trains a pet.
To expect them to master ‘include the cord’ while kneeling over the toilet remorsefully scrubbing away the yellow stains caused by their ‘poor aim’ is really a step too far. How about a little empathy for Volkswagen’s henpecked Autodesigners?
Morning, Jim!
It’s not just VW. The Acura EV I was sent about six months back also did not come with a charge cord. This suggest a trend. All the EVs I got up until the Acura came with charge cords. Now two in a row have not. This is especially odd given these are press loaners sent out to car journalists. Without a way to charge these things at home, you are effectively forced to go to “fast” chargers and this appears to be what they want to “nudge” people to do. Why? I suspect because they do not want people charging at home. Too anonymous. They want people to download the app – so that they have information. And they want to groom people to getting used to getting their charge not at home, too.
But why Acura and VW would send our press EVs without charge cords knowing guys like me will write about it is something I can only attribute to extreme stupidity.
Doesn’t the Ford home EV charging station require a registered app to use?
Not that it really matters. The vehicles will be in constant contact with the manufacturer if you are anywhere close to a cell phone tower.
Of course, a sail phone app allows the manufacturer to track the driver while the vehicle is stationary at the charging station.
The manufacturers want to know what you buy in Sheetz. Or Buc-ee’s.
BTW, @Eric, I thought the Geico Gecko had given up on extending his rackets into Buc-ee’s piece of the EV charging action since his retirement announcement, but then came the ruckus this week in Monument, Colorado, with Geico Family “made man” John Malone providing “muscle” for the locals in their push against the Beaver.
Pay no attention to the Pilot Travel Center at the next freeway exit.
I read that article too. Malone and Turner conspired to buy up millions of acres of ranch land out here just to take it off the market. Then Bill Gates and Warren Buffett said “hold my beer” and started buying up family farms. No one seems to care, since they’re letting the land wild, or running cattle, but then they complain bitterly about not having any affordable housing on the front range. Well, people are coming here like it or not. You’d better find someplace for them to live or they’ll just start squatting.
Maybe the wolves will take care of the housing crisis and the land use crisis all at the same time.
I’ve noticed that many options on German cars are standard on US and Japanese cars. Maybe they figure the dealers can toss one in as a negotiating tool? Don’t lower the price of the car, just include a few options that should be standard. After all, there’s no way that charge cable has 700 bucks worth of copper and electronics. The charge circuits are under the hood, not in the cable. It’s basically just a thermocouple and loop resistance checker with some canbus chips to talk to the car.
Hi RK.
I was at a burger joint a couple years of ago and they wanted more money for lettuce as it did not come with it. VW is just doing the same thing for even more money.
Companies can no longer hide inflation by cheapening or shrinking and have lost their embarrassment over having to nickel-and-dime you for everything. Late stage empire collapse is where everyone is squeezing the last bit of wealth from you.
Charles Hugh Smith calls it the Crapification Of Everything or something like that.
I used to fly Frontier Airlines. Teaser rate of $59 to fly from DEN to DCA. But, oh you wanted a seat? That’s another $70. Carry-on bag? $10. “Meal”? Credit card only, $48.
Or just join the discount scheme and they bother you twice a week with offers. Better yet, buy their credit card and get a pile of restricted miles.
Thank you, Jim H. You made my day with this one:
“Such logic is a little too advanced for the krauts. After all, it has taken a couple of decades of aversive conditioning by Hausfrauen to mold them into dutiful Sitzpinklers, much as one house trains a pet.
To expect them to master ‘include the cord’ while kneeling over the toilet remorsefully scrubbing away the yellow stains caused by their ‘poor aim’ is really a step too far. How about a little empathy for Volkswagen’s henpecked Autodesigners?”
Not only is buying an EV dumb, it’s even dumber to buy one from Germans, who are BARELY one step above the English when it comes to vehicle electrical systems.
Why did Lucas never try to make personal computers?
They couldn’t figure out how to make them leak.