U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm set out to demonstrate the utility of EV vehicles by driving a hyper planned route from North Carolina to Tennessee. In spite of the planning and support staff, they encountered charging problems along the route. To keep the show going, they sent a gas vehicle ahead to block the only available EV charging spot for her, when she arrived:
Her advance team realized there weren’t going to be enough plugs to go around. One of the station’s four chargers was broken, and others were occupied. So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy.
That did not go down well: a regular gas-powered car blocking the only free spot for a charger?
In fact, a family that was boxed out — on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle — was so upset they decided to get the authorities involved: They called the police.
Electric cars have a road trip problem: slow and unreliable charging : NPR
With the help of staffers to plan and coordinate the photo ops – and occasionally using gas vehicles to block others from using EV chargers – they successfully made their trip.
Is this the strategy needed for cross country EV travel?
The author of the NPR story has the convenience of both a home charger AND one provided by her employer, NPR, at work, (just like everyone else has access to at their work!) she leaves her car plugged in all the time. Like most “tech” reporters, she has a BA in English language and literature with a concentration in poetry.
