Villager Harlan Thrailkill is getting plenty of national television exposure this weekend thanks to hurricane Ian warnings and the Weather Channel.
Thrailkill is president of The Villages Tesla Club and was interviewed on a Weather Channel segment on electric cars in Florida and their use during hurricanes and other storms. The segment has been repeated many times throughout the weekend.
Dave Malkoff, chief environmental correspondent for the Weather Channel, visited Florida and The Villages with Ian potentially hitting Florida this week.
Malkoff drove around The Villages with Thrailkill, and also visited the Villager’s home. That home includes a $27,000 electric car charging station, Thrailkill said. Not only that, he added he has 24 solar panels on his roof.
“Here is the Florida mega retirement community known as The Villages, Harlan Thrailkill is the person to talk to about EVs (electric vehicles),” Malkoff said, as he drove under The Villages bridge on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 near Spanish Springs.
Most electric car owners don’t have elaborate home charging stations, and it can be a real challenge to find such stations in the Sunshine State.
Also, filling a battery can take anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours, Malkoff said.
“Hopefully, everybody with a battery will have it charged 100 percent,” Thrailkill told the reporter.
If not, it could be a problem finding a roadside charging station, especially outside big cities. “A lot of them are down,” Thrailkill said. “And if one or both or down, you’ve got no charge available.”
Malkoff noted that Florida has a shortage of chargers and “right now, the gaps are everywhere.”
