Owners of electric vehicles have found there's a downside to not relying on gas, according to an ABC News report—they face a "logistical nightmare" during longer drives in locating chargers for the cars, and sometimes wait hours to access the chargers and power their vehicles.
One New York father, Steve Hammes, told ABC News he has stressed over planning out how his daughter will be able to recharge her electric Hyundai Kona during her drive from Albany to college in Pennsylvania.
"It makes me a little nervous," Hammes said. "We want fast chargers that take 30 to 40 minutes—it would not make sense to sit at a Level 2 charger for hours. There isn't a good software tool that helps EV owners plan their trips."
Other drivers reported similar anxieties to ABC News, recounting stories of struggling to find fast charging stations on road trips and being stranded for hours as they deal with lines and broken chargers. The logistical challenges come as the Biden administration is pushing to transition the public away from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles, setting a target of 50 percent of all auto sales to be electric vehicles by 2030.
The ABC News report detailed the various challenges involved in charging electric vehicles. Even when a driver can reach chargers, they may be less advanced models, like Tesla's Level 2 chargers, that take hours to power a car. One frustrated driver told ABC News he's seen charging spaces occupied by gas cars, charging cords that won't reach his vehicle, broken chargers, and hours-long wait times to use the charger.
The challenges are made more daunting during extreme weather temperatures, as the electric cars' range falls when using the heat.
"You use the luxuries … and the range plummets," one driver told ABC News. Another reported being stuck at a station in the cold for hours when the charging plug got stuck in her Tesla.
The Biden administration's electric vehicle push has taken criticism not just for the logistical difficulties but also for how green policies would benefit China, which dominates manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries. The Washington Free Beacon reported last week that the administration's green subsidies, passed last summer, will fund Chinese technology and workers in manufacturing electric vehicles.