AAA Is Providing More Roadside Assistance for Electric Vehicles

TIME

AAA provided roadside assistance to 160,000 EVs in the U.S., representing a 180% increase from 2019, according to data shared with TIME. The majority of those cases involved tire damage. But those very big numbers are actually very small numbers.

Transcript

00:00 AAA services over 30 million vehicles at the roadside every year.

00:05 One in every four households has a AAA membership.

00:08 Whenever a big market change like electric vehicles happens, we see that happen in our data as well.

00:15 [Music]

00:40 The reason there's more tire issues for EVs, it kind of comes down to two different things.

00:45 Electric vehicles are about 30% heavier than a gasoline vehicle of the same size.

00:49 And as a result, it puts a tremendous amount of strain.

00:52 You combine that with the fact that electric vehicles can accelerate and stop very quickly.

00:57 And it's all of the things that a tire doesn't like, having to go through all those forces.

01:02 And then if you think about something that is 30% heavier and you hit a pothole,

01:07 you've got about the same size tire on it that you would if a vehicle is 30% lighter.

01:11 And bingo, you've got a lot of tire problems.

01:14 And that combined with the fact that they tend to wear tires out more quickly,

01:18 yeah, there's a lot of tire-related issues.

01:21 Then to top that cake off, most electric vehicles don't have spare tires.

01:27 So anytime there's a problem, they've got to call AAA.

01:30 [Music]

01:36 About 2% of the calls that we get are for people that have run out of gas.

01:39 About 4% of the EVs that call us are for people that have run out of charge.

01:43 So it's still a very small percentage of the overall population of the types of requests that we get.

01:50 But it does exist.

01:53 And range anxiety is a valid concern for people,

01:56 particularly those that are using it for more than just commuting.

01:59 AAA has set up 24 markets across the U.S. in which we have the ability to charge an electric vehicle at the roadside,

02:06 if it can be done safely.

02:08 And if you're not in one of those markets or that service is not available,

02:11 or you're broken down along a roadway where it's not safe to sit and charge the vehicle,

02:16 we'll tow you to the nearest charging facility.

02:18 [Music]

02:28 One other point that we should hit on,

02:30 a lot of the calls that we get from people with electric vehicles are actually at charging stations.

02:35 And you think, "Why is that?"

02:37 Well, the truth is that a high percentage, anywhere between 25 and 50% of the charging stations publicly available,

02:43 are not working at any given time.

02:45 So whenever you're planning your trip in an electric vehicle,

02:48 you need to have some backup contingencies in those situations.

02:52 And that backup contingency would probably include knowing where the second charging location is

02:59 and whether or not you have enough charge to get there.

03:01 [Music]

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