I’m on my third EV, and I must admit that when charging the car, I have a growing concern. You see, sitting there for anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour, you are hard-tethered to the charger. And, while gas stations typically have people operating them, EV charging stations are primarily unattended and placed in areas away from traffic. This means that someone who wants to mess with you is a sitting target, and while you can lock your doors, you can’t leave until your car is unplugged.
This is a huge concern, particularly for women EV drivers who have reported being approached and sometimes assaulted while waiting in one of these remote charging stations and unable to leave while charging. So, after a call went out from the program “Now You Know,” the EVject was created to allow EV drivers to abandon their charging while still in the car and escape to safety.
EVject is a $299 device that could save your life and also protects charging stations from damage if someone forgets to disconnect or needs to run for safety.
Why You Need EVject
Sadly, there are a lot of people who have questionable ethics and pray on others just because they can. EVs, as I accidentally discovered, have a unique capability that should allow them to escape better than gas cars should they be blocked in when the driver needs to escape. How I discovered this was in an accident where I didn’t see a car while driving my EV and then hitting that car, being knocked out by the airbag, and then flooring the car while passing out. In a typical gas car, the car would have stalled out, and the damage would have been relatively minor, but an EV has full Torque at zero speed. Even though I was pressed against a truck, once I floored the car through the truck, I’d tapped at considerable speed across the road, stunning the other driver, jumped over a fence (breaking my back, unfortunately), and then hit a rock wall at around 50 MPH. It was a painful night.
However, this same accidental power, were it used to escape hostile containment, would have allowed me to escape most efforts to block me in with another car and escape in a way a gas car would have never been able to handle. But, when you are charging, the car is hard connected to a vast cable, and should you try to run, you might remain tethered or do so much damage to the car when pulling out that it’d stop running, leaving you at the mercy of whoever is attacking you.
This one little tool could allow you the peace of mind to escape should the need ever arise. While the odds of you being attacked in a charging station are relatively low, particularly if you are a man, for a woman, this tool could provide a critical option that could keep your spouse or daughter safe. And I’m a big fan of peace of mind.
Wrapping Up:
I expect that at some point, we’ll have figured out how to make wireless EV charging a standard. The next generation of EV charging stations will look a lot more like gas stations, which will significantly reduce the risk of being attacked while trapped by an EV Charger. Until then, however, a tool like the EVject could be a godsend.
We all want to be safer, and we want our wives to be safe. We also want peace of mind knowing our more vulnerable female family members are safe. EVject appears to do that, making it a must-have tool for those who frequently publicly charge at remote locations, particularly at night.
Rob Enderle is a technology analyst at Torque News who covers automotive technology and battery development. You can learn more about Rob on Wikipedia and follow his articles on Forbes, X, and LinkedIn.