A family taking a 500-mile road trip in their Ford Lightning electric truck needed the help of a tow truck when a charging station would not work.
Steve and Katie Krivolavek, along with their three children, set out from Nebraska for an RV trip to Colorado. They drove their Ford F-150 Lightning while pulling an Airstream 30FB camper.
The family, known as the “All Electric Family” on YouTube, documented their experience as they struggled to find a working charging station in Ogallala, Nebraska.
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When the Krivolaveks pulled into an Electrify America charging station, Katie noted the chargers read, “Unavailable.”
“So, all of them are reading as unavailable. So Steve is on the phone with Electrify America now to try to get them to reset it,” Katie said.
The reset attempt did not work. After unhooking their camper and leaving Katie and his children to eat at a restaurant, Steve attempted to find a working charging station 30 miles away but ended up needing to have their truck towed.
“The Lightning died, completely died. The 12V was dead. Everything was dead. No lights would come on, and it got towed,” Steve said. “Couldn’t roll up the windows, couldn’t do anything, couldn’t put it in neutral. At that point, I felt pretty defeated.”
The Krivolaveks explained they spent a lot of time on the phone with charging stations’ support services to learn that many stations have been down for weeks and are not being fixed.
After having their truck towed for $235 and staying the night in a hotel for $250, the Krivolaveks were able to find a station to charge their truck and continue on their trip to Estes Park, Colorado.
“In the end, we made it, but beware of EA’s chargers, and have a backup plan,” Katie said in a separate YouTube shorts video.
“This wasn’t a video we loved making,” the family wrote on Instagram. “But, we feel it’s important to be honest. And we also feel like we need to share our story to help improve charging for everyone.”
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Consumer research firm JD Power released its second annual United States Electric Vehicle Experience Public Charging Study last month, showing that EV owners are struggling to charge their cars while away from home due to station availability, operability, and maintenance.
