US Power Secretary Jennifer Granholm was put in a clumsy place lately after her workers blocked a public EV charger with a gasoline automobile to order it for the federal government official’s convoy of EVs.

Earlier this summer time, Granholm launched into a four-day EV highway journey between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Memphis, Tennessee, to advertise the White Home’s investments into inexperienced vitality and clear vehicles.

However not every part went in accordance with plan because the EV convoy confronted the realities of the US Southeast’s charging infrastructure. In accordance with an NPR journalist who accompanied Granholm and her workers on the journey, at one level the caravan of EVs – together with a Cadillac Lyriq, a Ford F-150 Lightning, and a Chevrolet Bolt EUV – was planning to cease for a fast-charging session in Grovetown, a suburb of August, Georgia.

Nonetheless, the secretary’s superior staff realized there weren’t sufficient chargers on the station, as one was damaged and others have been occupied. A staffer then tried parking a non-electric car by one of many working chargers to order a spot for the US Secretary of Power.

This didn’t go down nicely with EV customers who have been additionally making an attempt to cost their vehicles there. Really, a household that was blocked from charging their EV – which had a child in it on a highly regarded day – was so upset by the show of governmental “ICEing” that they known as the police. 

Nonetheless, since it is not unlawful for a non-EV to assert a charging spot within the state of Georgia, the sheriff’s workplace could not do something about it.

After all, Power Division workers rushed to repair the state of affairs, liberating up chargers for each the pissed off household and the secretary by sending different automobiles to slower chargers.

Because the NPR piece factors out, EVs that are not Teslas have a highway journey downside, and the White Home is conscious that it is pressing to unravel this situation. 

Whereas Tesla is opening up its Supercharger community to extra automobiles from different manufacturers, it can take a while till automakers implement Tesla’s NACS charging port on their automobiles. 

“In the end, we need to make it super-easy for individuals to journey lengthy distances,” Granholm advised NPR, including that long-distance journey in non-Tesla EVs just isn’t at all times “super-easy” at the moment. Nonetheless, that does not imply ICEing is an answer, do not you assume?