Seven years ago, concerned about global warming, I purchased an electric vehicle as the only car for my single person household. After leaving behind my trade-in and picking up my 2019 Chevy Bolt from a dealership in the Berkshires, I drove it to the Big Y in Westfield, plugged it in, did some grocery shopping, emptied my shopping cart of its bags, and expected my EV to be fully charged. It wasn’t. Charging an electric vehicle cannot be compared to filling up one’s tank with gas. It’s a whole different world.
Adjusted to a whole different world seven years and 78,000 miles later, I’ve successfully gotten to where I need to go. I drive from Southwick to Hartford for work twice weekly. And I’ve driven numerous times to New Jersey and Maryland where I have family and friends. The car has been as far away as Key West for a winter vacation in 2022 — with the assistance of the Amtrak Auto Train from Virginia to Florida. My success has been made possible by charging station infrastructure, helpful strangers, and accommodating family and friends who allow me to plug in at their homes. At a B&B in Florida, after my hosts learned I had an EV, they insisted on going out in the dark to search behind their hedges for a three-prong grounded outlet where I could plug in my car. All I need to charge my car is the kind of outlet we all have on the inside and outside of our homes. Charging via the ubiquitous three-prong grounded outlet is called Level 1 charging or trickle charging. Overnight at the B&B, I added 36 miles to my battery — 3 mph.
Slow, yes, but enough, because the night before I had stayed at a motel which had a Level 2 charger. While I slept at the motel, the charging station added 200 miles to my car. I left in the morning with a full battery and 250 miles of range. A Level 2 charger can fully charge my car while I sleep — not while I grocery shop. The ChargePoint station at the Westfield Big Y is a Level 2 charger.
Best for road trips is the Level 3 charger which can fully charge my battery in about an hour while I eat a meal or shop. These charging stations are generally available at malls and rest areas along major highways like the Mass Pike and the New Jersey Turnpike. They use a DC current for fast charging. Level 1 and Level 2 chargers use a slower AC current. Often curious people ask me questions when I’m charging my car. A frequent one is, “Have you ever been stranded?” The answer is “No.” Google Maps tells me how many miles to my next destination, and my dashboard tells me how many miles I can go. When my car had an internal combustion engine, I didn’t keep driving my car until I ran out of gas. When I have 50 or fewer miles left on my EV, I charge my car. On the road, I have apps on my phone that help me find charging stations. Have I ever been inconvenienced? Yes. There have been charging stations that are occupied or out of order. Sometimes, I’ve had to wait for a charging station to become available.
But I didn’t purchase the car for personal convenience. I purchased it because global warming and climate change pose existential risks to all living beings on earth, including humans. The burning of fossil fuels is driving climate change, and I want to do what I can do to move away from the burning. So, I was surprised when the homeowner’s association of the community where I live forbade me from charging my car on the property because of safety concerns.
They were afraid my EV would catch fire, firefighters would be unable to quench the fire, and their homes would be placed at risk. I had no opportunity to present them with facts and statistics that put the sensational stories they had heard on the news into perspective. Except where faulty wiring or damaged batteries are present, EV charging does not cause fires. Greenfield Fire Chief Robert Strahan has emphasized that lithium-ion batteries are safe unless they’re inappropriately handled or damaged, such as in a crash.
The community where I live did not engage in a process that might have evoked information that deepened their understanding of electric vehicles fires and ensured them that my Chevy Bolt was safe and being safely charged. While my community was focused on a perceived risk to their homes, they lost sight of the larger global risk that faces all living beings, including humans. In addition to severe weather events such as droughts, flooding, hurricanes, and torrential rains, climate change has caused hotter fires burning larger areas. In 2024, wildfires burned almost 9 million acres in the United States. The Butternut fire in the Berkshires burned over 1,000 acres. In the summers of 2024 and 2025, smoke from Canadian wildfires caused air quality alerts in Western Massachusetts. Wildfires pose an enormous risk to firefighters, public health, human life, and the exacerbation of global warming. It’s a whole different world.
While it’s true that it takes 10 times more water to extinguish an EV fire than a gas car fire, local firefighters are learning ways of responding appropriately to the rare instance of an EV fire. Easthampton and East Longmeadow fire departments have purchased fire suppression blankets that can cover an EV. The Longmeadow Fire Department bought a plug that de-energizes electric vehicles when put into the charging port.
People understandably want to protect their homes. People in Southwick who are concerned about the possibility of a battery energy storage system sited in town understandably want to protect their community. But continuing to burn fossil fuels puts all of us at risk. We need to find ways to adapt to a whole different world. In college, I had a brilliant professor who said, “Reality is the thing that even when you don’t believe in it, you stub your toe on it.” Even if you don’t believe in climate change, its risk to you and me is real.
For many reasons, not everyone can drive an electric car. Not every town can site a battery energy storage system. But everyone can be curious and open to learning more about moving away from the burning of fossil fuels. Everyone can make some contribution, some sacrifice, and endure some inconvenience as we widen the circle of our concern until it embraces that Blue Marble floating vulnerably in space. Earth — our shared home.
Nancy Lois lives in Southwick and works at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. She is a member of Voices for Climate, a local group.
