Following the solar eclipse, EV owners waited in long lines to charge before heading home

Families in at least two states waited in long lines to charge their electric vehicles following Monday’s solar eclipse.

WCVB reported that a family who traveled from Wakefield, Massachusetts, to Vermont to view the eclipse stopped to charge their Tesla before returning home, only to find 60 people lined up at a charging station in St. Johnsbury, in northern Vermont.

The family coordinated with others to hand out numbers and coordinate the long lines of EVs. They waited four hours to charge their Tesla, according to WCVB, and the last number they handed out before heading home was 189. More cars were lining up to charge as the family was leaving. They didn’t get home until 4 a.m. Tuesday.

It was a similar story in Van Buren, Arkansas. According to CBS News affiliate 5NEWS, at 6:30 p.m., 40 EVs were lined up at a charging station at a general store, waiting to fill up their batteries.

Crystal Evans, who traveled from Utah, told 5NEWS that she waited nearly two hours to charge her car.

Surveys have shown that the availability of charging stations remains a top reason why new car buyers are wary of going electric.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill allocated $7.5 billion for charging stations, but after two years, only seven have been built, according to the Washington Post.