On an EV road trip, U.S. energy secretary couldn't find enough chargers

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm looks at
electric vehicles during a visit to the Washington Auto Show in Washington.
Andrew Harnik/AP

The U.S. secretary of energy went on a road trip to promote electric vehicles. 
Jennifer Granholm and her team ran into a predictable snag: a lack of EV chargers.
The obstacle even caused the police to get involved at one point in the trip, NPR reported.

When the U.S. secretary of energy and her team embarked on a road trip to promote electric vehicles, they ran into a predictable yet frustrating obstacle: a lack of electric vehicle chargers. 

Indeed, there are only about three electric vehicle charging ports for every 10,000 people in the United States, Insider reported in April. 

The scarcity of chargers was such an issue for Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and her team that the police got involved at one point, NPR reported.

The caravan of electric vehicles heading from Charlotte to Memphis over the course of four days hit a snag in Grovestown, Georgia. The group was planning a quick charge when they realized there wouldn’t be enough electric vehicle chargers to go around since one was broken and the others were in use, NPR reported. 

So an employee from the Department of Energy tried to save one of the spots using a gas-powered car.

It was a sweltering day and the move didn’t go over well with a family that was also waiting for a charging spot. The situation escalated to the point that the family, driving with a baby in their car, called the police, who didn’t have the authority to act because blocking an EV charging spot with a gas-power car isn’t illegal in Georgia, NPR reported. 

While Granholm and her team worked to smooth things over, ultimately ceding a spot to the family and relegating some of their own vehicles to slower charging ports, the incident drew attention to the desperate need for improved EV infrastructure. 

“It’s just par for the course,” a bystander driving an electric BMW told NPR. “They’ll get it together at some point.”