DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Transportation is investing millions in federal dollars to keep electric cars charged in the state.
More electric vehicles are on the road and there’s no indication that the trend is running out of power.
These days charging up your car is as easy as plugging it in when you get home, but what about long trips, like cross-country travel going from somewhere like Minnesota to San Diego?
“You get a little bit of anxiety because you don’t know if you’re going to be able to reach it,” Jorge Gomez said as they stopped in Des Moines to charge their Tesla crossover. “Especially if you go a little bit faster you drain the battery a little more. So, sometimes you get that anxiety, are you going to be able to reach my next destination with enough charge to get there.”
Gomez and his family were on their way back to Minnesota after a trip to San Diego, CA. They stop roughly every two hours to charge their Tesla a dozen times, start to finish for twenty to thirty minutes each time, Gomez said.
Planning how far they’ll get from one charging station to the next in Iowa will get easier over the next two years.
Radio Iowa reports the Iowa DOT plans to invest $50 million to install more charging stations along Iowa highways using federal money.
“It would be nice that way, kind of like a gas station when you’re going on a road trip you don’t gotta worry where you’re going to be, if you’re going to be stranded or not. It takes that edge off,” Gomez said.
He and his wife have zero regrets about his electric car purchase, adding owners have to learn how to travel a little differently. The Iowa DOT is still in the planning phase of how to allocate federal money to vendors who will install the electric charge stations and specific locations.
