Electric vehicles are becoming more popular, but some owners are finding that getting their car a proper electric charge isn’t always easy.
D.C. resident Wuhan Dansby said he loves his new Tesla but has experienced lots of challenges.
“With this you have charging anxiety because then you are always discovering," Dansby said. "So right now, I’ve had the car for about a month, so I’m making a list of places I know work."
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While trying to charge his car, he has run into broken charging stations, cords being cut and supermarket charging stations that require you buy something to use them. Often when he goes to a charging station, it reads "Station is currently unavailable."
D.C. does allow you to run a cord from your house to the car. Where Dansby lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, he does not have a driveway and finding a parking spot on the street in front of his house is not always guaranteed.
“Ask anyone in D.C. how often that happens,” Dansby said.
If vehicle owners run a cord from their house to a car, they generally have to take extra measures like covering the cord with a highly visible protective cover.
Instead of protective measures, Dansby said he’s been trying to get his home street charging stations fixed for a while.
The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) told News4 there are no known widespread issues with vandalism to charging stations.
“The goal of DDOT’s electric vehicle charging initiatives is to expand curbside charging opportunities in the District to incentivize vehicle owners to switch to an electric vehicle,” DDOT said in a statement.
For Dansby, the whole charging process has been a learning experience.
“Because I don’t have home charging, there’s a lot more variables that you just don’t know until you actually own it,“ Dansby said.
