Look at that! According to the display, the City of Albany’s EV charging station behind the J.C. Penney building is WORKING!
An announcement from the Oregon Department of Transportation prompted me to take yet another look at the electric-vehicle charging station the City of Albany had installed downtown.
For a long time, the charger was out of commission. That’s what I was thinking of when I read the ODOT announcement Thursday:
“Electric vehicle drivers throughout Oregon will have a more reliable public charging experience over the next few years thanks to a federal grant program sending $10 million to Oregon for public EV charger repairs and station upgrades.”
But when my Thursday bike ride took me past the charging station in the downtown parking lot off Water Avenue (between Ferry and Broadalbin), the machine there seemed to be in working order.
Just as well, because the station is not among those on an ODOT-provided map of chargers eligible for repairs or upgrades under the federal grant.
The map shows three or four eligible chargers in Corvallis and one in Philomath, but zero in Albany. Strange.
Charging EVs away from home continues to be a worry, according to published reports. The Los Angeles Times mentions it again this week, citing the charging issue as one of the possible reasons that EV sales in California have shown the first decline ever.
Well, if I had an EV, I’d be worried about charging away from home too, especially on long-distance drives.
But I don’t even ride an electric bike, so charging is of no concern as long as my legs hold out. (hh)
At the downtown EV charger Thursday afternoon: The bike has no need for it.
Individual charger uptime is a real, practical problem for every EV owner.
Is there a bigger, systemic problem with EV chargers that may have national security consequences?
This topic was summarized in an article published online by Wired on July 5, 2023 entitled, “EV Charger Hacking Poses a ‘Catastrophic’ Risk.”
Like one expert declared in the article, “It’s not about your charger, it’s about everyone’s charger at the same time.”
But I’m confident government is sufficiently charged and will keep us safe….so move along….keep buying those EVs….nothing to see here.
“Oh, the humanity…” We’re doomed I say – doomed. Right….
Again, your flippant attitude shows.
Why don’t you look into the software fiasco (again) in the water dept. or try driving down 3rd. Avenue from Lyon to Main. That’s YOUR City under your administration.
Since GS did some serious cherry-picking to come up with his dystopian viewpoint, the very last sentence of the article also states exactly what he’s doing: “fearmongering.”
To your second diatribe, I’ll fully confess… It’s all my fault. OK, done.
Per usual, Mr. K”s utopian viewpoint and avoidance of the facts in the secure bubble in which he lives, rears it’s foolish little head. He is the opposite of the sky is falling tale and would have stayed in Pompeii whilst it was being engulfed in Lava.