When I say I live in the hood, I mean 5 years ago there was a shooting at the house across the street from me, and yellow police tape across the cactus in my lawn at 2AM. Arizona/Phoenix is an ideal location for EV's. Power is relatively inexpensive at night, and population density is low, the Rivian plant is down the road. Higher density areas where it is the most difficult to retrofit home charging, are going to be the last to adopt the tech, but that does not mean it's not "mainstream". There is nothing esoteric about owning an EV anymore:
mainstream
1 of 3
noun
main·stream ˈmān-ˌstrēm
: a prevailing current or direction of activity or influence
mainstream adjective
mainstream
2 of 3
adjective
main·stream
: having, reflecting, or being compatible with the prevailing attitudes and values of a society or group
mainstream media
movies that appeal to a mainstream audience
mainstream success
EV adoption is pushing forward at a healthy rate. There is no stigma or blow back with owning an EV, and your friends are not going to fall over in disbelief if you say you bought an EV. More like, "ahh, interesting how do you like it?" At some point it will likely be the dominant mode for most private road travel. If you live in a more modern suburban area, say built after 2000 the electrical infrastructure should be in place to handle EV's. Many of the older neighborhoods in the northeast were built with with 50 and 100 amp service to the homes, and used natural gas and oil furnaces to heat in the winter. It's not like tomorrow we can rip and replace all this for the millions of existing homes in these areas. It's more about time than money. Over time it will get done (see below)
Here in Phoenix I live in an old neighborhood near downtown. I can't get decent internet service, the cables just don't run down this way, everything in the ground is 50 years old. I have flaky coax cable and just put in Starlink which is surprisingly good. "They" just ran a brand new fiber trunk down the road 1 mile north of me last year. SRP actually came thru with a boring project and replaced all the electrical lines about 10 years ago, and I can now ask for 200A service to replace the 150A I have. None of this was done with federal money, all local and private. All the newer neighborhoods already have fiber pedestals nearby, many now have fiber to the house, and they are replacing the copper with fiber in all the newer places where the copper was in conduit. All new electrical is underground, and we have been gradually moving it underground in the older neighborhoods.
My local taxes are lower than yours. Your in the DC Metro outskirts, that's it's own little bubble, I've lived in Fairfax, Arlington, Reston and Winchester (Which used to be WAY out there). 66 is a parking lot disguised as an interstate. Maryland is so "blue" it's bizarre. It always seems to me it's the more blue political pundits, that want to force *other people* to adopt all these "green" technologies, while they fly private and live in old non-insulated homes with oil fired boilers. They should be ashamed, instead they want to shame you. 90% of politics is LOCAL. You should attend a town council meeting, and pay close attention to the people on your local boards and utility commissions. Does your locale have a plan to keep your infrastructure moving forward? If not why not, if so are they keeping their timelines? Find out where the local money went. Federal money for local projects is always a boondoggle. Make your voice heard where it does some good.
In the mean time, you will probably find in the more 'red' states you will see a continuous and increasing adoption of EV's as they become ever more dominant in the mainstream, without the federal bureaucracy getting involved, because they actually have a lot to offer in the long term.
