Free Republic

Sales of electric vehicles are on the rise in the United States, but the road ahead for charging infrastructure looks a whole lot bumpier. Despite growing interest in EVs, the pace of building high-speed chargers isn’t just lagging, it’s actively falling behind. Add in looming policy shifts under the Trump administration, and the gap between supply and demand could widen even further. It’s understood that the number of high-speed EV chargers being installed across the US dropped more than 21% through the first quarter compared to last year. With this in mind, BloombergNEF has cut its expectations for EV installations...

On Thursday’s “Alex Marlow Show,” Republican Liberty Caucus National Secretary Jessico Bowman talked about anti-Tesla violence and terrorism. Bowman said, “It’s definitely organized at a broader level. There is a website up that people can go visit that’s out there today, and I’ve actually posted this on my X account, I’ve shared some of these events, but they’re coordinating it with people locally across…not just the Indivisible groups, really, but, like, multiple groups and individuals that are, like, posting these events where people show up and they already have, like, pre-printed graphics…signs and stickers and things like you mentioned that...

The Trump administration is shutting down EV chargers at all federal government buildings and is also expected to sell off the General Services Administration‘s (GSA) newly bought EVs. GSA, which manages all federal government-owned buildings, also operates the federal buildings’ EV chargers. Federally owned EVs and federal employee-owned personal EVs are charged on those 8,000 charging ports. The Verge reports it’s been told by a source that plans will be officially announced internally next week, and it’s seen an email that GSA has already sent to regional offices about the plans: “As GSA has worked to align with the current...

The reason thieves are targeting EV charging cables is because they contain copper wiring. The price of copper is near a record high on global markets, so criminals stand to collect rising sums of cash from selling the material. But while it costs $1,000 to replace a charging cable, authorities say, thieves only stand to make $20 reselling the metal. Thieves have been caught on camera in Seattle targeting an EV charging station on the edge of a shopping center parking lot. CCTV footage shows them using bolt cutters to snip several charging cables and load them into a truck...

Ford Motor Company is hoping to boost sales of its electric vehicles (EVs) by giving away free at-home charging stations, executives announced this week. “Auto shoppers say they’re more likely to buy an electric vehicle if they could fill up at home. So we’re going to make it easy for our customers,” Ford CEO Jim Farley wrote on X: If you buy or lease a new [Ford] electric vehicle, we’ll include a complimentary home charger. This is part of something we’re calling the Ford Power Promise, which is about giving our electric vehicle customers convenience, peace of mind and expert...

We knew that the Democrat party had no respect for the dead, exploiting their “unalive” status for votes, but dragging Joe Biden’s corpse out onto a public stage late at night for appearance’s sake is really just cruel—get this poor dude back to his casket where he belongs!Last night, Biden took the Monday night stage spot (a slot that President Trump rightly acknowledged as “Death Valley”) at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, to deliver his “boring as hell” farewell address of sorts, where and his brain-dead cognitive function was on full display—at one point, Biden actually declared that under...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was asked on CBS News' "Face the Nation" about the $7.5 billion taxpayers have been levied for a nationwide EV charging station network. In the over two years since the funding was announced, the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) has managed to produce only seven, despite the announced plans call for a half million stations being built six years from now by 2030. Buttigieg was unfazed when asked about the numbers.

California should have known better than to compel a transition to electric vehicles while encouraging rampant drug use and crime, because everyone knows that copper wire is a go-to for addicts and thieves. From a report by John Nolte at Breitbart News:‘Thieves are targeting high-powered Tesla and other EV charging stations and stealing the heavy cable for the copper metal inside,’ reports San Francisco’s NBC affiliate. ‘In Vallejo, someone cut cables from nine charging stations — leaving Tesla drivers in a bind and causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage and repair costs.’‘I think this is the second time...

Two years ago, the Biden administration rammed through Congress a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that contained, among other boondoggles, $7.5 billion for building EV charging stations across the country. The administration says it's going to need 500,000 charging stations in place by 2030 to achieve Biden's climate goals on emissions. So far, a grand total of seven charging stations are operational. “I think a lot of people who are watching this are getting concerned about the timeline,” said Alexander Laska, a deputy director at the Third Way think tank. Gee! Ya think? How many charging stations will $7.5 billion buy? The...

Electric vehicle owners in the Chicago area have not been able to charge their overpriced method of transportation in the bitter cold this week, leaving scenes of dead electric cars littered across public charging stations. It turns out buying a worthless car to virtue-signal for the environment has unintended consequences. Fox Chicago reported Monday the charging stations have turned into electric car graveyards over the past two days as temperatures in the Windy City and its suburbs have dipped to the negative double digits. One man, Tyler Beard, to the outlet he had been trying to recharge his Tesla at...

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm gave Americans an unintended glimpse of the future during her road trip this summer touting the wonders of electric vehicles. Far from spotlighting the promise of EVs, her public relations misadventure in Georgia involved one of her staff in a gasoline-powered vehicle blocking off a coveted charger in advance of her arrival, leading to frayed tempers and a local EV owner calling the cops. It was an illustration of the challenges drivers could face as governments push the public to embrace plug-in vehicles. Hyped as technological marvels, EVs are boobytrapped with a host of inconveniences...

The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger station is an impressive beast. With 98 charging bays, the facility in Coalinga, California, is the largest charging station in the world. But to provide that kind of power takes something solar can’t provide — diesel generators.The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger station is an impressive beast. With 98 charging bays, the facility in Coalinga, California, is the largest charging station in the world. In 2017, Tesla CEO said that all Superchargers in the automaker’s network were being converted to solar. “Over time, almost all will disconnect from the electricity grid,” Musk posted on X, formally...

Energy providers could have the option to switch off home EV charging stations remotely to reduce pressure on Queensland’s electricity grid.The proposal is part of the Australian state’s Queensland Electricity Connection Manual (QECM), which provides a framework for the grid’s operation.Section 8 of the QECM proposes that EV charging equipment may be limited or switched off by operators Ergon Energy and Energex (distributed network service providers or DNSPs) if it has an output of more than 20 amps—a standard domestic single-phase EV charger uses 32 amps.The use of such “demand management” schemes is largely unique to Queensland and is also...

* The growth in EV demand is outpacing the infrastructure needed to charge them, with experts predicting the need for more than a million new public EV charging stations in the U.S. by 2030 to accommodate the demand. * Both cobalt and silicon, which are crucial for renewable energy sources like EV batteries, are in oversupply, causing bearish pressure on their prices; increased output from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and China is a key reason behind this. * The production of grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), necessary for the power sector and increasingly hard to source, is facing difficulties...

OAKLAND, Calif. - Vandals sliced through thick cables at an Oakland electric vehicle charging station, leaving drivers powerless. Nearly a dozen charging cables are missing from the EVgo charging station at 409 Washington Street near Jack London Square. The chargers have been out of commission for at least a week.

A new law in Illinois soon requires electric vehicle charging stations in the garage of new or renovated homes. Critics say this will increase costs.State Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, filed Senate Bill 40 to keep Illinois on its path to having one million EVs on the roads by 2030. The bill was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker Friday with an effective date of Jan. 1, 2024.In 2021, Pritzker signed the Reimagining Electric Vehicles in Illinois Act into law, which incentivizes EV production across the state. There are also state tax incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles.State Rep....

The FBI is warning consumers about “juice jacking,” where bad actors use public chargers to infect phones and devices with malware. The law enforcement agency says consumers should avoid using public chargers at malls and airports, and stick to their own USB cables and charging plugs.

On August 2, 2022, Xcel Energy submitted its plan to spend more than $300 million on building 730 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and increasing the use of electric school buses to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The proposal would force Minnesota families and businesses to pay higher electricity prices to finance the construction and operation of the EV chargers, plus a 10 percent government-approved profit for Xcel Energy if the PUC gives Xcel its blessing. Goals are not mandates.. The point of a monopoly electric utility is to provide reliable, affordable electricity to the customers who are forced to...

If there is one consistent fact about electric vehicles, it’s that they are unreliable. Now their charging stations have come into question as well. In Aspen and Glenwood Springs, Colorado, many companies have implemented charging stations in their parking lots. All of them are not fully functional, however. Chris Lane, a Basalt resident who owns two electric cars, highlighted a couple of issues with the local charging stations: Cables are ripped out, attachments are damaged and screens are cracked. If there is a mechanical problem with any one of these stations, it automatically shuts down, Aspen Daily News reported. “I...

According to a study released earlier this week, over 27% of all electric vehicle charging stations in the San Francisco Bar area are non-functioning, bringing forward a major issue that may push back further public adaptation of electric cars in California in the coming years.