Moore to the Point - Dead Robots Get You Nowhere

In case you’re unaware, it’s cold in most of the U.S. right now — like, cold-cold. Here in St. Louis, we’ve had subzero lows and barely above-zero highs on a couple of days. It’s not the kind of cold you can enjoy. It’s the kind of cold you endure while you anxiously look forward to journeys back above the freezing mark.

I mean, it’s winter — it’s supposed to be cold. Which is all well and good. As long as you don’t have an electric vehicle in need of a charge. Unfortunately, EV owners in and around Chicago found that out the hard way. It seems the charging stations are just like many of us: They don’t like the bitter cold either. Not only that — they don’t work in the bitter cold. Instead, they freeze over, making it next to impossible to recharge your EV’s battery.

Imagine being one of us old-school folks who still drives a gas-powered vehicle and pulling up to a gas station when it’s 2 degrees out, and your tank is almost empty, only to have the gas pumps just not work because they’re too cold. No gas for you! What do you do?

As one frustrated driver said of the abandoned cars packing the parking lot of a supercharging station: "We got a bunch of dead robots out here.”

And guess where “dead robots” get you: Nowhere.

This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Wednesday, January 17th. Audio included below.