Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm decided to show America how great electric cars are — and only proved the technology isn’t even close to ready.
“When Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm set out on a four-day electric-vehicle road trip this summer, she knew charging might be a challenge,” the welfare queens at NPR report. “But she probably didn’t expect anyone to call the cops.”
The cops were called because Granholm’s advance team used a gasoline-powered car to block access to an electric charging spot for her. On a “sweltering day,” the Granholm team’s gas guzzler just sat there, NPR reports, until a family with a baby got “so upset” they called the cops.
But even with advance teams trying to ease Granholm’s way in their gas guzzlers, the trip was still a debacle:
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.
And that’s when the cops were called:
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.
The bottom line is this…
If you are certain you will only ever need a car to drive within a certain range, an electric vehicle is fine. You go to work. You go to the store. You pick up the kids. You see a movie. You come home. You plug that sucker in. Next morning, you are good to go. Fine. Awesome.
But.
If you ever need to alter your routine in a way that won’t get you home in time to recharge, you are entering a world no one on the road wants to enter: uncertainty and inconvenience. You have to 1) find a charger, 2) hope the charger fits your car, 3) hope the charger isn’t defective, 4) hope there’s not a line of cars waiting to use the charger, and 5) hope it’s a fast charger.
Road trips are supposed to be fun, not stressful. The last thing you want to worry about is getting stuck on the side of the road. And the best-case scenario is that you find a working, available fast charger, but you’re still looking at a 30-minute stop.
My wife and I camp all the time. We pull a 20-foot travel trailer. It’s stressful enough looking for a gas station with the necessary turning space that is not full of cars. I can’t imagine constantly stressing as you see the “mileage remaining” counter tick down, especially when you’re climbing a hill. Even if you get lucky the whole way, you are stressing the whole way. No, thank you.
Then there’s the whole issue of all these states, like California, who refuse to expand their electric grid and are already experiencing blackouts. California can’t handle cities full of electric cars.
Like everything else involving the Climate Change Hoax, it is all so dumb.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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