Granholm’s Summer Trip Didn’t Go As Planned
For Stephanie and Christopher Miller, a seemingly routine summer drive near Augusta, Georgia, with their baby was anything but.
The couple confronted Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm's team of electric vehicle enthusiasts when they discovered the only available charging station was reserved by an Energy Department staffer in a non-electric vehicle.
The four-day trip had been "painstakingly mapped out ahead of time to allow for charging," according to NPR's Camila Domonoske, who joined Granholm's staff on the trip. After they realized there weren't enough charging spots for electric vehicles in the area, a staffer decided to park the gas car at the spot to reserve it for the Secretary.
The Miller family, unable to charge their vehicle in the hot sun, decided to call the police, part of a saga that speaks to the challenges of making electric vehicles more accessible to the masses.
"That did not go down well: a regular gas-powered car blocking the only free spot for a charger?" Domonoske wrote.
The confrontation illustrated many of the issues electric cars currently face. Granholm's team was able to organize for the Millers to charge their car, but the incident summed up the problem electric car owners face: There often isn't enough infrastructure to make EVs viable transportation.
According to Domonoske, her own experience with electric cars has put her in similar situations.
"I drive an electric vehicle myself, and I've test-driven many more as NPR’s auto reporter. I know how easy it can be to charge when everything goes well and how annoying it can be when things go poorly,” she wrote.
Granholm, aware of the issue, is trying to make travel with electric vehicles "super-easy" for people.
"Ultimately, we want to make it super-easy for people to travel long distances," Granholm told NPR. ``This summer, within the constraints of the pandemic, I've tried to draw attention to it. I've taken three trips this summer in electric vehicles. And I'm trying to draw attention to the fact that we feed to make sure that the infrastructure is there.''
The Secretary's tour highlighted the fact that even with careful planning, many chargers can have delays or technical problems that can delay or even endanger drivers.
"On the secretary's road trip, that stop in Grovetown included a charger with a dead black screen," NPR wrote. "At another stop in Tennessee, the Chevy Bolt that I was riding in charged at one-third the rate it should have. Electrify America says that's not an isolated problem; a faulty component has caused a number of chargers to be 'derated' while the company works on a fix."
Although the Biden administration is investing in electric vehicles, many are still too expensive for most Americans.
For Granholm, the Georgia encounter highlighted the promise and the challenges that come with the shift toward electric.
"EVs that aren't Teslas have a road trip problem, and the White House knows it's urgent to solve this issue," Domonoske wrote.
The Department of Energy did not respond to a request for comment.