A sad evolution indeed. It's like we learned nothing from the past lockdown with teleworking as the norm. Congestion is on an all time high and even a surge in gas prices won't matter to the average consumer that buys a gas guzzler SUV anyway.

I prefer dedicated bike lanes instead of some red and white paint markings on a road. But yeah, Belgium is a notorious neighbor in terms of road and infrastructure maintenance. Crossing borders by car, you can hear and feel the vast difference in road quality between Belgium and The Netherlands.

Not sure where you are from, but I'm driving EV since 2019 and drove all over Europe in any season and there has been literally nothing stopping me from reaching my destination. I've never had to make a detour for charging my car. Granted, the first 2 years I drove and charged exclusively at Tesla superchargers, but later on I could pick from multiple charging station providers and locations along the way. As European, I've yet to encounter a negative in driving EV.

All your what-ifs are answered with: you'll lose some range doing so and will probably have to charge sooner and more frequently. But they are no showstoppers. The only showstopping they do is make sure the driver gets a necessary stop from driving hours on end, making the roads a bit safer for everyone.