LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — The push to move America to electric cars has stalled as government tax credits for EV buyers expired last month.
Electric vehicle drivers in the Las Vegas Valley have long expressed concerns about the lack of charging stations, but one EV driver says the problem extends across Nevada, with power out at EV stations throughout the state.
Scott Allison, an EV driver who operates the blog scottexplains.com, conducted an audit of Nevada’s charging infrastructure while planning a trip to explore northern Nevada and wrote an article on his findings: Nevada Built an EV Highway and Then Abandoned It.
“I thought it would be easy because I knew that Nevada had invested money in building out chargers in remote areas. And then I discovered that actually a lot of them were offline,” Allison said.
Widespread charging failures documented
Allison used a report on all 29 original Nevada Electric Highway-funded fast-charging sites throughout the state and checked PlugShare, an app popular with EV drivers.
“People check in when they get to a charger and they say if they were successful or not. So I used PlugShare and Google Maps and then I figured out that actually most of these chargers no longer work,” he said.
Allison checked sites in southern Nevada himself, including Alamo, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas, where two chargers were not working. The same was true in Amargosa Valley, Jean and Indian Springs.
“I know from reading reviews of these sites that people are breaking down, people are running out of power, and they’re having to get towed and spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars to get towed back to a big city and back to a charger,” Allison said.
Limited travel options for EV drivers
Allison found that only 7 of the 29 sites with chargers remain operational, leaving gaps of up to 232 miles on key routes like US-93, US-50 and US-95.
The limited charging network restricts travel options for EV drivers. Allison said he now plans to drive up through California on Highway 395 through the eastern Sierras and cross Highway 50, known as the loneliest road in the world, with careful planning.
“I’m pretty sure I can get back down from Ely to Vegas. And the only reason I can do it in that direction is because you’re going downhill for most of the journey. So I know for sure I couldn’t go northbound on that route, but I should be able to go southbound on the 93,” he said.
Allison says Tesla has made a huge investment along Interstate 15 to add chargers, but rural corridors have been largely abandoned or ignored for all types of EVs. He believes this keeps tourists who drive electric vehicles like himself from visiting certain areas.
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