One would think that a place like LA would have operational charging stations, considering that California was the first state to mandate all of the peasants having to forgo petrol cars, well before Let’s Go Biden pushed his mandate
No Juice: WSJ Columnist Finds 40% of EV Chargers She Tried in LA County Were Out of Service
A Wall Street Journal journalist who owns an electric vehicle (EV) was dismayed to find that about 40 percent of the chargers she tried throughout LA county were out of service. A troubling data point for car companies and government officials claiming that the entire country will soon go electric.
A test of 30 non-Tesla fast-charging stations in LA County, the EV capital of America, revealed that at least 40 percent of them had some type of issue, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
“From the beach in Santa Monica to parking garages under Rodeo Drive, my video producer Adam Falk and I visited 30 different non-Tesla DC fast-charger stations in a Rivian R1T pickup. I ran into problems at 13 of them — that’s over 40%. Oof is right,” WSJ columnist and EV owner Joanna Stern wrote.
The WSJ columnist added that she had deliberately limited the experiment to Level 3 chargers, noting, “I ignored the more common chargers known as Level 2 because they’re just too slow for quick fill-ups.”
Stern explained that she came across “three problem categories” during her testing expedition: first, the charging station was broken, second, there was a problem with payment, such as it being rejected, and third, there was a software error between the charger and the vehicle.
In fairness, while this was a random check, it could have been just bad luck. That happens. Most likely not, though. If the chargers are not working properly in the middle and upper class areas in the LA region, what makes you think the ones in the working class areas (not that they will put many in) will work?
“After I repeatedly tried the credit-card reader with several different cards, the system demanded: ‘CASH ONLY,’” she wrote. “As if this was some hot-dog stand in the park — except there’s no money slot!”
Cash only. I cannot remember the last time I paid cash for gas. Or, heck, for most things these days.
Canada’s support for EV battery plants to cost C$5.8 bln more than announced -watchdog
Canada’s support for the construction of three of the country’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing factories is estimated to cost C$5.8 billion ($4.2 billion) more than initially announced, the country’s independent budgetary watchdog said on Friday.
Shocking! Of course, when government is involved they’re always going to get hit up for more money.
Would this one-seater electric car be enough for you?
Japan is king of the kei cars, or small-format vehicles designed mostly for urban use. But local startup KG Motors is taking that miniaturization to a whole new level with its one-seater electric car.
Inspired by North American startups, KG Motors CEO Kusunoki Kazunari explained that he wanted to bring the same kind of automotive entrepreneurial spirit to Japan, a company dominated by a few large automakers.
Designed for city use, it reaches a top speed of 60 km/h (37 mph) and features just a single seat in a center drive format.
If I lived at the beach it might be good, except for that whole 37 MPH thing. Rather buy a scooter or tiny motorcycle. Japan has crazy tiny cars. Most Hondas are no more than 58 inches wide. My Civic is a bit over 70 inches, and those are considered compact cars.
Read: Weird: 40% Of EV Charging Stations In Los Angeles Did Not Work »