CV NEWS FEED // Dozens of electric vehicle (EV) owners found that they were unable to charge their cars as a cold snap took hold of the Chicago metropolitan area over the weekend.
“Public charging stations have turned into car graveyards over the past couple of days,” FOX 32 Chicago reported Monday.
The Chicago-based FOX affiliate described the pandemonium that unfolded at a Tesla “supercharging station” in Oak Brook, IL:
[D]ozens of Tesla owners trying desperately to power up their cars. … It was a scene mirrored with long lines and abandoned cars at scores of other charging stations around the Chicago area.
“We got a bunch of dead robots out here,” remarked one observer of the chaos.
Chalis Mizelle called the situation “crazy” and “a disaster.” As FOX 32 noted, she “was forced to abandon” her Tesla at the station “and get a ride from a friend.”
“No juice. Still on zero percent,” remarked fellow Tesla owner Tyler Beard on the status of his vehicle. Beard added that he spent three hours, two days in a row, in failed attempts to get the EV to run.
Kevin Sumrak, who had just flown back to the area, had no choice but to pay for a flatbed truck to tow his Tesla to another charging station.
The Chicago Auto Trade Association’s Mark Bilek told FOX 32 that EVs represent a “learning curve” to consumers and are “not plug and go.”
“You have to precondition the battery, meaning that you have to get the battery up to the optimal temperature to accept a fast charge,” Bilek said.
>> THOUSANDS OF CAR DEALERS STAND UP TO BIDEN’S EV MANDATE <<
In a November letter to President Joe Biden, thousands of car dealers named many objections their customers have to purchasing EVs. Among them was the “loss of driving range in cold or hot weather.”
They also detailed the inconvenience of EV charging stations compared to the convenience of gas stations, the vehicles’ “dramatic loss of range when towing,” and their steep price tags.
The coalition of dealers petitioned the president to end his plan to replace a large portion of the nation’s traditional gas vehicles with EVs – an initiative that critics have dubbed an “EV mandate.”
“[EVs] are stacking up on our lots,” the dealers noted. “[T]he majority of customers are simply not ready to make the change.”
“[M]any people just want to make their own choice about what vehicle is right for them,” they emphasized.
>> HERTZ SELLING 20,000 EVS CITING HIGH COST AND LOW DEMAND <<
Also, as CatholicVote reported: “Hertz, the nation’s largest car rental company, announced plans last week to sell one-third of its stock of EVs, citing high costs and low demand.”
Again from CatholicVote:
Hertz’s move comes three years after the car rental conglomerate ordered 100,000 Teslas. This headline-making deal at the time caused Elon Musk’s EV giant to become a one-trillion-dollar company.
However, Tesla’s market capitalization has since fallen by over $300 billion as the EV industry struggles to remain afloat.
>> ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERTS TELL HOUSE GOP TO CONFRONT BIDEN’S GREEN ‘DISASTER’ <<
