Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm went on a road trip to show off the amazing electric vehicles available for the public.
NPR’s Camila Domonoske rode with Granholm.
Domonoske included everything in her article, proving there is no way America can change to only electric vehicles anytime soon.
For example, look at what happened in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta. GA:
But between stops, Granholm’s entourage at times had to grapple with the limitations of the present. Like when her caravan of EVs — including a luxury Cadillac Lyriq, a hefty Ford F-150 and an affordable Bolt electric utility vehicle — was planning to fast-charge in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia.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.The sheriff’s office couldn’t do anything. It’s not illegal for a non-EV to claim a charging spot in Georgia. Energy Department staff scrambled to smooth over the situation, including sending other vehicles to slower chargers, until both the frustrated family and the secretary had room to charge.
Granholm’s entourage had cars from Cadillac, Ford, and Chevrolet.
Of course, the union-loving secretary wouldn’t have Teslas with her.
Domonoske pointed out that “Tesla chargers are significantly better than the competition.” The majority of electric cars driven by Americans are Teslas:
Tesla is opening up its exclusive network to more vehicles, which could transform the charging experience as soon as next year, but not all automakers have embraced Tesla’s technology. And although Tesla dominates the EV market, the Biden administration wants every automaker to go electric quickly and every driver to have access to fast, reliable charging.”Ultimately, we want to make it super-easy for people to travel long distances,” Granholm told me.But as she knows, long-distance travel in non-Tesla EVs is not always “super-easy” today.
Domonoske admitted: “EVs that aren’t Teslas have a road trip problem, and the White House knows it’s urgent to solve this issue.”
The whole idea is nothing but insanity.
In South Carolina, Granholm explained how to get federal money for chargers:
At a stop in South Carolina, Granholm told audiences she recognized the importance of making chargers easy to find on apps.For chargers to qualify for new federal money, the energy secretary explained, “they have to be every 50 miles and within 1 mile off the charging corridor, and they have to be app enabled. So you have to be able to see with your phone, is this charger available so that I can go use it, right?”
It doesn’t matter since there aren’t enough chargers around the country. The ones that exist don’t charge fast enough. Plus, nothing is reliable.
I’ll keep my 2019 Toyota 4Runner.
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