EV Road Trip Fiasco: Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s Search for Chargers Gets the Cops Called on Her

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm embarked on a four-day road trip in an electric vehicle this summer and faced a few issues, including trouble locating chargers, long downtimes as batteries slowly refilled, and even having the police called on her.

Granholm drove from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Memphis, Tennessee, in an attempt to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars, according to a report by NPR.

The U.S. Secretary of Energy even made passionate town hall stops along the way, advocating for reshaping Americans’ lives by transitioning from gas-powered vehicles to electric.

“Things are happening fast. You are in the center of it. Imagine how big clean energy industries will be in 13 years,” Granholm told people in South Carolina. “How much stronger our economy is going to grow. How many good-paying jobs we’re going to create — and where we are going to lead the world.”

Granholm knew she might run into charging issues while on this road trip, but “probably didn’t expect anyone to call the cops,” reported NPR, whose reporter road along with her on the trip. The incident occurred when staffers attempted to reserve a charging spot for Granholm’s EV in advance of her arrival.

“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,” NPR reported.

This did not go over well, and a family that was blocked by the gasoline-powered car from using the charger called the police. Interestingly, the sheriff’s office couldn’t do anything about it, as it is not illegal in Georgia for a gas-powered vehicle to claim a charging location.

Another issue the energy secretary ran into was despite “painstakingly” mapping out the trip ahead of time to be sure there would be enough chargers, her team had to stop at hotels with slower “Level 2” plugs for overnight charging, and then pause at superfast chargers between cities. This meant extra work that gas-powered vehicles do not require.

Another problem was the fact that the chargers are simply not fast enough. In addition to that, the chargers are not reliable enough, the report added.

“Of course, having a superfast charger doesn’t do you any good if the dang thing doesn’t work,” NPR reported.

As Breitbart News reported, road trips have proven to be very difficult in electric vehicles.

In one example, a Business Insider reporter learned how “brutal” a road trip in an electric vehicle can be when he was forced to bundle up instead of using the heater in his car to try to maximize his range. After the trip he commented, “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t curse these silly electric cars under my breath once or twice.”

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.