I’m seeing stories about [people running out of gas and fuel shortages](https://www.news-press.com/story/weather/hurricane/2024/10/08/hurricane-milton-florida-gas-gasbuddy/75567992007/) evacuating in front of Hurricane Milton. This made me wonder what the scene is like for EV owners there. If you charge at home you can of course start out with a ‘full tank’. What’s the situation at public chargers? Any insight?
by bleahdeebleah
21 Comments
The slower you travel – like in traffic – the greater the efficiency. So range is extended and AC works nicely without using up too much energy.
I’m curious about this myself. There are long lines on the interstate to get out of the Tampa area, so I know some folks headed up 19/98. There are some very rural counties up that route so I have to wonder what the charging infrastructure is like.
I’ve heard a lot of rumors about people not being able to evacuate due to lack of gas in the area. An EV fully charged at home, with the potential for a lot of stop and go traffic on the initial exit from the area, seems ideal
It took me 12 hours to get home from the eclipse. Car did great!
250 miles from Tampa is Tallahassee. If you’re leave with a full charge your options open up down the road
I just checked the various apps (Tesla, EA, EvGo, etc) and while it looks busy there are currently open fast chargers from Tampa and northward.
EV will over load chargers and long lines but you will not have to worry about cases of gas stations running out of gas. Plus when sitting in traffic EV do not drain the battery nearly as fast vs gas power cars burning roughly 1/2 a gallon an hour doing nothing. Plus add at lower speeds EV are much more efficient.
In Houston for example during evacuations now they will put fuel trucks on the route to handle cars running out of gas and also during hurricane season fuel stations along the routes area also have minium fuel levels. This were hard lessons learned during Rita. Those lessons could be modified a little bit during evacuations of bring in large truck generators to help supplement existing charging networks to provide more fast charger.
Funny you said that. I live in Florida and not evacuating but I did check out my root and it looked like many chargers were available along the way and if you’re not using your air or heat. You’re not using any power when you are in stand still traffic. So without a true test I would say you would do better than gas cars getting out of Florida. Saw many of those folks leaving were looking for gas.
Gonna guess there’s gonna be a lot of this:
> I was told there would be chargers
I would suggest that everybody who has an EV find a parking garage and park in one of the upper levels if not leaving.
Google Waymo has a lot of lithium battery car charging trailers in Austin that they didn’t offer.
In Tampa they are providing parking for EVs and other cars in mult-story garages ahead of the storm if your car/EV is in an area of possible flooding.
[City of Tampa offering free garage parking for Hurricane Milton](https://www.cltampa.com/news/city-of-tampa-offering-free-garage-parking-for-hurricane-milton-18730444)
There was a thread over on r/preppers recently about EVs and emergency preparedness, and I was surprised at how warmly the topic was received. The tide is changing, in terms of perception of EVs in emergency situations.
I always like seeing the folk complaining how many problems you have to worry about don’t have an EV but think they know it all. It’s funny to me.
Everyone made fun of the Prius prime that had a solar panel built onto the car
Besides leaving.. Remember you need charge to get home.. And home may not have any power if you get hit hard…
It appears that Florida is actually deploying mobile charging stations along some of the evacuation routes, or at least they claim to be.
[Florida Press Release](https://www.flgov.com/2024/10/07/governor-ron-desantis-issues-updates-on-state-preparedness-efforts-for-hurricane-milton/)
gonna be a mess just like with a gas car
The range for almost all current EVs ( not the mini) at a full charge is enough to get you out of the area if not out of state. Further, electric service is still working in most places while gas stations may be out of gas.
Not exactly the same, but it was very nice having EVs after tropical storm Helene. We had a built in battery to charge electronics with one of the EVs when our electricity was out. The other EV glided past the 100-car long line at the gas station to charge right up and leave town once it was safe to do so. While busier than usual, the charger had minimal wait and didn’t run out of fuel.
One big benefit is that an EV charging site can’t run out of electricity the same way a gas station can run out of gas. (Obviously there can be a power outage, but that affects gas stations too). There’s also a huge array of L2 chargers around every major US city. So if worst comes to worst you can grab a slower charge (or even an outlet with a portable L1) for a couple hours to get you out of down at slow speeds.
you can power Tesla via solar panel if you have all the components. Here is a more [complicated setup](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/comments/194ajsm/my_tesla_with_a_drivable_2000_to_4000_solar_array/) for up to 60 miles per day, this one uses stuff you can get off of [amazon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69QpA5H1bYI).