Do you really need 4,000 chargers though? I don't think so.

Between charging at home and charging at work, it shouldn't be necessary to occupy the charger every single time you pull in. Maybe once or twice a week, depending on your commute. A long range Model 3 has as much range as your average gasoline vehicle... how often do most people fill that up?

Seems to me if 4000 employees go electric and you can slow charge anywhere from 5-30 miles' worth of power per hour at a worst case scenario and up to 44 at the best, then it stands to reason not everyone has to plug in every single day. In fact, I'd argue most folks would only need to charge up once a week, and for those with very short commutes, once every 2-3 weeks.

I think 250-500 chargers for 4000 vehicles would likely be sufficient to keep everyone charged up and moving around.

Pre-pandemic I was commuting to a large bay area employer. About a ~hundred or so chargers in the parking lots.

The choices were to either arrive very, very early (<8am) or you missed it. Then had to wait until around 4+pm when the early risers started to leave and move the car to a charging spot.

I mostly left after 7pm so it was ok but on days when I had to go at 5pm it was a big problem, didn't have time to get enough charge to get back home.

Also, there's not enough power available to feed all the chargers simultaneously. So when all chargers are used and charging, the power delivery dropped to ~1.5kW. As cars started to get full and stopped drawing power only then power delivery would rise later in the day. So there's no way to install a thousand+ more chargers, there's not enough power delivery available.

I don’t know how anyone is so casual about this. If a charger is only available half the time, I have to plan as if it weren’t there, and then what good is it?

I can run my gas tank down below 1/4 because the Bay Area is littered with 24 hour gas stations; I never have to wait a day to get gas. I’m considering a PHEV, but I can’t buy a BEV until a large majority of apartments (or maybe employers, after WFH ends) have that kind of reliable charging whenever I might need it.

To be honest I'm not casual about it, it's always very stressful if I have to drive the electric car!

I'm ok driving the e-car to work if I know for sure I can stay there until well past 7pm. If there's any chance I might need to leave before 7pm I want to drive my other (not electric) car.

On the few days where I need to leave early and can't drive the gasoline car (because wife needs it), I spend all afternoon stressing about it and walking to the parking lot every 30 minutes to look for empty spots to get the charging started ASAP so I can get home. Not fun.

Imo, this is the single biggest argument that can still be validly made to prevent the mass adoption of EVs.

People, for the most part, are easy to convince when it comes to buying expensive products that promise to reduce the amount of stress in their lives. Not so much for products that they are told will do the opposite though.

I could imagine an opportunity here too. Some places have a bulk buy or business rate for electricity that is cheaper. If a car park has 8k spaces and a meaningful number were electric, it may even justify battery storage to get off peak rates (this may be a stretch), with the employer splitting the saving with staff or pocketing the lot.

I don't see why it would be a big deal. First, my employer doesn't buy me gas so I don't see why they'd charge my EV. Expecting this to be the norm may have unintended side effects. Second, power outlets in parking lots are reasonably common in colder cities so that people can plug in their bloc heaters. You don't need a fancy fast charger if you're going to be at work all day.