There's a little problem with electric vehicles, as many people are starting to realize this winter: They can be hard to charge in extremely cold temperatures. Glenn reviews a local Chicago report on a Tesla supercharger station that's been filled with "dead robots" that won't charge. And he also discusses what people in Minnesota discovered after stocking up on electric buses. But meanwhile, the Biden administration is doing its best to dismiss this issue.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: There's a couple of things that you should be aware of. First of all, there's a little problem with EVs. Just a little one. Just a little one.
Here's a reporter in Chicago, from Fox 32. Doing a report a little problem with EVs that they are finding in Chicago. Cut two, please.
VOICE: Electric cars may be the way of the future.
But it's career there are some problems when it comes to charging them in Chicago's deep freeze.
VOICE: We have a bunch of dead robots here.
VOICE: Dead robots.
STU: I love that guy.
VOICE: -- packed the parking lot of this Tesla super charging station in Oak Brook.
A scene mirrored in other super charging stations around the Chicago area.
GLENN: This is crazy. It's -- it's a disaster, seriously.
VOICE: With temperatures falling into the negative double digits, these charging ports have stopped charging, leaving many Tesla owners stranded here in long lines since Sunday.
VOICE: Nothing. No juice. It's still on 0 percent. And this is like three hours this morning, being out here, after being out here 8 hours yesterday.
VOICE: Has it been charging?
VOICE: No. Not at all.
VOICE: It just isn't working?
VOICE: At all.
It's just frozen, so I'm now going to just tow it to just a service center. Because that's my only option at this point.
GLENN: So apparently, it doesn't work. Now, the White House wants everybody to know this. Cut one.
VOICE: On electric vehicles.
There has been -- with extreme weather, there has been difficulty getting those batteries charged. Do you have any thoughts on that?
As you know, administration has been really pushing for EVs to be the future of car transportation.
Do you have any thoughts on the troubles with charging those batteries?
VOICE: Well, as a car owner, I can promise you, that whether you have a gas-powered vehicle, a hybrid-powered vehicle, and hopefully electric vehicle, extreme weather temperatures impact the -- the functioning of your car.
Right? So that is not unique to electric vehicles.
GLENN: Oh.
STU: Oh.
GLENN: Okay. So it's not unique to electric vehicles. I know I couldn't fill up my gas tank the other day because it was so cold.
And my car wouldn't work. Oh, no. No. As a matter of fact, I could pump gas into my car.
And my car worked fine.
The cold start thing happens with disease he will.
That's why you have glow plugs.
And you know who found this out?
Minnesota.
Minnesota bought a whole bunch of these electric buses.
Because, you know, I just love school buses.
The yellow school bus. Who doesn't love those.
So they bought a lot of these. That Kamala Harris was pushing.
And they haven't been working this winter.
Can't get them to work.
STU: All sorts of stories like this, Glenn.
I actually heard someone on the front, where you mentioned the, this is not unique to electric vehicles.
I heard someone trying to justify this. And they said, you know, in the early days of -- of car -- of cars, you had to, you know, get an engine block warmer.
And, you know, there's no fuel injections.
It's like, really. We're not in the early days of cars. This is not the early days.
GLENN: Yeah, they solved it in the 1970s.
STU: Yeah. A long, long time ago. Like fifty years ago, it was solved.
There's a story in the New York Times. To the credit of the mainstream media, they're actually covering it. They're making their excuses for it.
People, it's not only the charges aren't working when you get to the charger.
Then when you get to the charger, there's a long line to the charger. Because no one else's car is working properly.
These cars all say. Okay.
30 miles left.
I have that feature in my car. Which is a gas-powered car.
It gives you an estimate about what that is.
It's all pretty darn close.
If anything, they estimate you have more range -- you have less range than you do.
So you don't screw up and not get to the gas station.
Electric vehicles, they're saying, quotes in the times. People are saying, well, I had 30 -- it said I had 30 miles of range.
Then five minutes rarity, I was out of battery.
So it can't even tell how much it has -- people are losing a third of their charge overnight. They go -- it's fully charged.
They go to bed, they wake up. They have two-thirds of it charged.
GLENN: Listen to this spin, from a misinformation doctor. Okay?
When we all know the truth.
Everybody likes to go to Vegas.
These electric cars just bring Vegas to you. You never know. I could win today. I could lose.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: It's the excitement of Vegas in your car.
STU: Yeah! And like in Vegas, when you lose, you lose your 5-dollar slot pull.
In these, you're just out in freezing cold temperatures, with no way to really solve the problem. What could go wrong?
GLENN: Yeah, but there's nothing wrong -- nothing wrong with that. You know, we lose a few people along the way. We reduce the surplus population.