2000 Gas Stations Failed Before Hurricane but Tesla EV Charging Was Reliable

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There have been reports of more problems getting gas at gas stations in hurricane impacted areas. While Tesla superchargers continued to function.

Gas price tracking service GasBuddy reported that as of 2:43 pm ET Wednesday afternoon, 24.3% of gas stations statewide – or nearly one in four – were without fuel, a dramatic spike from just 3% on Monday. With about 7,900 stations in the state, that estimate means more than 1,900 stations are currently without gasoline. That compares to about 17.4% of gas stations statewide without fuel as recently as 2 pm ET on Tuesday.

The situation was far worse in areas facing evacuation orders along the Gulf Coast. In the Fort Myers-Naples area, 36.6% of stations were without gas as of Wednesday afternoon, or more than one in three. It’s even worse further north. Forty-four percent of stations were out of gas in the Sarasota area and 62% in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, or nearly two out of every three.

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13 thoughts on “2000 Gas Stations Failed Before Hurricane but Tesla EV Charging Was Reliable”

  1. Instead of saying; “gas stations failed’, just say, they ran out of gas. As for the robustness of EV’s, why not incorporate a photoelectric film or paint on the outside of a vehicle? We could do this now. Check the scientific literature.

  2. Not Either Or. Both. (or more)
    Gas stations will be around for decades. Don’t fight it.
    Not sure on availability of NatGas in FLA counties in or near disasters.
    PHEVs with minimum 100mi EV range. A full EV charge and 2 – 4 days on your house TeslaPacks. Maybe some TeslaPV shingles to top-up (storm-proof?). NatGas appliances, maybe a reformer?
    Survival and prosperity have alway been multi-source redundancy.

  3. This is a reaccuring problem in Florida. The day before the hurricane hits everyone gets on the road and stops at a gas station to fill up. The gas station quickly runs out of fuel. The problem is worst when most of the state is under an evacuation order. Electrical power stays one so EV charging station continue to work. Electrical power generally stay on until just before landfall. A tesla with needed stops at supper charger station can reach the florida state border and safety. At slow speeds EVs are very efficient while gas gar are not. End result is the gas car owners that were slow to get on the road often get stranded without gas and have proceed on foot to the nearest storm shelter which is likely full when they arrive.

  5. Your statement is misleading: an empty gas station is a gas station that provided fuel, was used until capacity and the fueled cars have hundreds of miles of autonomy. It is not a failed station. Given that there could be blackouts impairing pumping and the fact that underground fuel tanks have valves and ports it might even be advisable not to leave the tanks full, but unable to operate, because tank flooding could lead to the release of fuel on the water. Superchargers also stop working when the powergrid fails. But the amout of superchargers is negligible compared to the gas pump network, both in terms of number of units and cars served. You forgot to mention that per Tesla data there are only 136 supercharger stations in Florida. 136 vs 7900 gas stations.

    • Hard to pump fuel with no power, let alone complete that corporate transaction. This isn’t a mon and pop, ‘you can pay me next Wednesday’ thing.

  6. Seriously, touting the virtues of electric vehicles in hurricane disaster areas with flooding and the power grid unavailable? No problem waiting hours to charge up, assuming the roads are passable. Home charging units kaput-ski because grid kaput. No problem with hundreds of vehicles trying to charge up at the same time from a few charging stations. Painful lack of common sense.

    • [ should EV have bumper like, inflatable(?), all round(?) ‘(hard) rubber’ tubes, maybe ~15-25″ diameter (~2-3m³ volume) for lifting vehicle and battery above water level?
      while, additionally, charging might be enough for getting on higher plateau levels, could be done within a 30min(?), if there’s was no remaining charge left at all (furthermore combustion engine cars and EV can connect to short car-trains on stop and go or empty fuel/battery levels(?)) ]

      • [ are there secure, aerodynamic (elevated plateau, but sub-ground-surface level) parking lots with/for plugging in EVs, being managed on adjusted battery charging for minutes/shares on an hour, with recognizing battery levels to rise and having access to common infrastructure (nursery, food supply, personal care), while a car gets an emergency shelter/cabin/compartment for 1-3 days, on areas with probability for tornado or hurricane? ]

      • [ wind zones map (FEMA)
        ‘https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_bara-new-checklist_10-4-2017.pdf#page=14’
        (page 1, overview, links to also ‘additional considerations regarding multi-use community safe rooms, including dual-use as a recovery shelter following an event’ ]

        • [ thinking this towards future, those being pre-Mars (testing), recreational and spare time activity areas, including architectural inspirations for aerodynamic, automatized building construction with multi-use efficiency (and people accustomed to that infrastructure), one might think on smth. like LAX’s iconic ‘Googie’ architecture, adjusted for that purpose (maybe airport designs/studies are somewhat inspiring for that) (?) ]

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