特斯拉电动汽车充电站为何出现在流动儿童收容所旁边
【中美创新时报2024 年5 月 1 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）马萨诸塞州面临的两大挑战——移民涌入和向电动汽车的过渡，这种挑战在福克斯伯勒一家汽车旅馆的停车场发生碰撞。对此，《波士顿环球报》记者Aaron Pressman作了下述报道。
福克斯伯勒（Foxborough）的前康福特旅馆（Comfort Inn）是该州收容移民和无家可归家庭的地方，这里没有游乐场，也没有草坪，只有三层砖房前停车场里零星的几片草地。
因此，住在那里的几十个孩子在停车场的尽头玩耍，远离主入口和九十九餐厅，只有几张老化的木制野餐桌作为游戏设施。对于家庭来说，这并不是最理想的环境，但马萨诸塞州的避难所系统在来自海地和其他国家的数千名移民的涌入中不堪重负，并已开始在全州各地使用改建的汽车旅馆场地来解决危机。
然而，从四月开始，福克斯伯勒的孩子们在停车场发现了一些新东西（他们中的一些人确实这么做了）：汽车制造商安装了十几个闪亮的、白色和红色的矩形控制台，每个控制台大约有冰箱大小 特斯拉作为一个新的电动汽车充电站，其成本从 4 万美元到超过 10 万美元不等。
这一奇怪的场景反映了该州正在努力解决两个最大的挑战：为该州收容所系统不堪重负的移民寻找床位，并实现其气候目标，这需要安装足够的电动汽车充电站以说服司机改用电动汽车。
更广泛地说，这一场景凸显了围绕如何在美国最富有的州之一支持移民和无家可归者的艰难辩论，该州拥有高收入、昂贵的住房和大量特斯拉车主。本财年，该州将花费超过 9 亿美元为无家可归家庭提供紧急避难所。
在一个明媚的春天的下午，当《波士顿环球报》记者探访时，几个孩子正在通往充电站的车道上踢足球。两个大约上幼儿园年龄的小女孩坐在野餐桌旁，走到一台特斯拉控制台前。他们猛拉粗大的黑色充电线，甚至用控制台的弯曲处当座位。几秒钟后，一个大人喊了一声，女孩们就跑开了。
“这是孩子们玩耍的地方，”住在现场的一位母亲说。 前往充电站的汽车必须通过车道进入，孩子们经常在车道上踢球或运球。她指出，没有任何标志警告司机减速或小心儿童玩耍：“你可能会认为这将是他们首先张贴的标志之一。”
在另一次访问中，居住在收容所的大约 20 名小学生在工作日早上在停车场闲逛，等待福克斯伯勒公立校车接送，并在下午放学后返回。
与此同时，一批电动汽车（其中一些相当昂贵）驶过停车场。售价高达 9 万美元的一辆特斯拉 Model S，一天充电一次。这些充电器还配有适用于非特斯拉汽车的适配器，而一辆售价超过 8 万美元的福特 F-150 Lightning 在另一个场合也很受欢迎。
避难所的两名居民表示，孩子们玩特斯拉充电器的情况很常见，他们担心有人可能会触电。
“我担心其中一个孩子会发生什么事，”一名拒绝透露姓名的男子说，因为他说他对无家可归和住在收容所感到羞耻。
在另一次访问中，收容所的居民在两个停车位前放置了橙色交通锥，以便在最靠近野餐桌的地方充电，以防止汽车靠近儿童游乐区。住在避难所的人们说，在过去六个月的施工过程开始时，充电站被围起来，但在所有设备安装完毕后，围墙就被拆除了。 自九月份避难所开放以来，许多人就已经在那里了。
特斯拉没有回应有关该站布局的置评请求。
电力安全专家表示，情况并不理想，但并非不安全。他们表示，特斯拉的充电站将直接连接到电网的变压器与充电控制台分开。变压器连接到现场后面上锁的柜内的控制和开关设备。当驾驶员连接电动汽车时，电力仅通过控制台的充电电缆从机柜流出。
“这些新技术（例如电动汽车充电器）上线的好处是，已经有了一套很长的标准…… 以及许多内置的安全机制。”位于弗吉尼亚州的非营利组织国际电气安全基金会主席布雷特·布伦纳 (Brett Brenner) 说道。“只要设计安全、安装正确、维护和操作正确，就不会对公众构成风险。”
作为向电动汽车过渡的一部分，各公司正在快速建造新的充电站。该州最大的电动汽车充电运营商特斯拉在林菲尔德和普罗温斯敦与福克斯伯勒的充电站同时开设了新充电站，并且很快将在戴德姆开设另一个充电站。这些站点使用特斯拉的新技术，可以为几乎所有类型的电动汽车充电，而不仅仅是特斯拉汽车。
但据福克斯伯勒镇经理和该站点所有者称，该公司从未打算在避难所旁边安装充电站。
为电动汽车充电站选址、申请建筑许可和公用事业连接的过程甚至在施工开始前就需要数月时间。根据许可证副本，特斯拉的承包商于 2023 年 7 月 2 日获得了福克斯伯勒工地的建筑许可证。镇长佩吉·邓肯 (Paige Duncan) 表示，直到 8 月份，该镇才得知该州计划使用 Comfort Inn 作为避难所。
邓肯在一封电子邮件中写道：“早在接待任何移民或无家可归者之前，酒店就开始在企业层面安装充电器。” “关于充电器与儿童经常光顾的区域的距离，这一决定是由外部各方（政府在酒店安置——没有咨询城镇）和酒店企业管理层在公司层面做出的充电器安置决定。”
邓肯补充说，该站的安装符合所有电气法规。“众所周知，父母应该监督孩子的户外活动，”她写道。
该网站的所有者吉里酒店 (Giri Hotels) 在一份声明中表示，充电器位于“停车场对面，距离大楼 65 英尺的安全距离”。吉里批准了“在移民居民住房之前安装，以容纳电动汽车”。
该州负责移民住房的住房和宜居社区执行办公室表示，尚未收到居民对福克斯伯勒充电器的投诉，居民的安全是首要任务。
到目前为止，充电站还不是很繁忙。根据特斯拉移动应用程序中的图表，自开业以来，电动汽车司机只很少使用它。林菲尔德的新充电站位于一个露天购物中心——一个更典型的充电站——更加繁忙。
福克斯伯勒的环境并没有让上周使用该车站的特斯拉 Model 3 司机感到困扰。“我喜欢它，我认为[这个位置]很好，”冯说，为了保护隐私，他只透露了自己的名字。“我们需要更多充电器。”
虽然似乎不会对儿童造成任何直接危险，但安全基金会的布伦纳表示，该地点未来可能会构成潜在威胁。
“人类非常巧妙地寻找伤害自己的方法，”他说。“假设五年后，如果这些充电器得不到维护，人们就会进入不应该接触的东西，那就是潘多拉魔盒。”
题图：一辆电动汽车在福克斯伯勒一家酒店停车场的特斯拉充电站充电，该酒店已改建为移民和无家可归者的住房。JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
附原英文报道：
How a Tesla EV charging station ended up next to a shelter for migrant children
Two major challenges facing Massachusetts — an influx of migrants and the transition to electric vehicles — collide in a Foxborough motel parking lot
By Aaron Pressman Globe Staff,Updated April 27, 2024
At the former Comfort Inn in Foxborough, where the state is housing migrant and homeless families, there is no playground or lawn, just a few scattered patches of grass in the parking lot in front of the three-story brick building.
So the dozens of children who are staying there play at the far end of the parking lot, away from the main entrance and a Ninety Nine restaurant, with just a couple of aging wooden picnic tables for play structures. It’s not the most desirable setup for families, but Massachusetts has seen its shelter system overwhelmed amid a flood of thousands of migrants from Haiti and other countries, and has begun using converted motel sites across the state to address the crisis.
Starting in April, however, the kids in Foxborough found something new to play with in the parking lot (and some of them did): a dozen shiny, white and red, rectangular consoles, each about the size of a refrigerator, installed by automaker Tesla as a new station for charging electric cars, which can cost anywhere from $40,000 to more than $100,000.
The strange scene reflects the state’s efforts to address two of its biggest challenges: finding beds for migrants who have overwhelmed the state’s shelter system and meeting its climate goals, which requires installing enough EV charging stations to convince drivers to switch to electric cars.
More broadly, the scene underscores the difficult debate around how to support migrants and the homeless in a state that is one of the wealthiest in the nation, with high incomes, expensive homes, and plenty of Tesla owners. The state will spend over $900 million on emergency shelters for homeless families this fiscal year.
On a bright spring afternoon, a few kids were kicking a soccer ball in the driveway leading to the charging station when a Globe reporter visited. Two young girls, about kindergarten age, sat at the picnic tables and walked over to one of the Tesla consoles. They yanked on the thick black charging cable, and even used the crook of the console as a seat. After a few seconds, an adult called out and the girls ran off.
“It’s a place where children play,” one mother who lives at the site said. Cars heading to the charging station must enter through the driveway where kids often kick or dribble a ball around. She pointed out a lack of any signage warning drivers to slow down or be careful of children playing: “You’d think that would be one of the first things they’d put up.”
On a separate visit, about 20 elementary-school kids living at the shelter hung out in the parking lot on a weekday morning waiting for a Foxborough public school bus pickup and would return in the afternoon after school got out.
Meanwhile, a trickle of electric cars, some quite expensive, came through the lot. A Tesla Model S, seen charging one day, can cost as much as $90,000. The chargers have adapters for non-Teslas as well, and a Ford F-150 Lightning, which can cost more than $80,000, was juicing up on another occasion.
Two people who live at the shelter said that children playing with the Tesla chargers is a common occurrence and that they feared someone might get electrocuted.
“I’m afraid of what could happen to one of these kids,” said a man who declined to give his name because he said he was ashamed of being homeless and living at the shelter.
On another visit, shelter residents had placed orange traffic cones in front of the two parking spaces for charging nearest the picnic tables, to keep cars away from the kids’ play area. At the beginning of the construction process over the past six months, the charging site was fenced off, but that fencing was removed once all the equipment was installed, people living at the shelter said. Many have been there since September, when the shelter opened.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment about the placement of the station.
Electrical safety experts said the situation is not ideal but not unsafe. Tesla’s charging stations separate the transformers connected directly to the power grid from the charging consoles, they said. The transformers connect to control and switching equipment inside locked cabinets at the back of the site. Electricity only flows from the cabinets through a console’s charging cable when a driver connects their EV.
“The good thing with these new technologies coming online, like EV chargers, is that there has been a long set of standards . . . and lots of safety mechanisms built in,” said Brett Brenner, president of the nonprofit Electrical Safety Foundation International, based in Virginia. “As long as it’s designed safely, installed correctly, and maintained and operated correctly, there should be no risk to the public.”
As part of the transition to electric vehicles, companies are building new charging stations at a rapid clip. Tesla, the largest EV charger operator in the state, opened new stations in Lynnfield and Provincetown at the same time as the station in Foxborough and has another site opening soon in Dedham. The sites use Tesla’s new technology that can charge almost all kinds of EVs, not just Tesla vehicles.
But the company never intended to install a charging station next to a shelter, according to the Foxborough town manager and the site’s owner.
The process of selecting sites for EV charging stations and applying for building permits and utility connections takes months even before construction begins. Tesla’s contractor was awarded a building permit for the Foxborough site on July 2, 2023, according to a copy of the permit. The town did not learn about the state’s plan to use the Comfort Inn as a shelter until August, Town Manager Paige Duncan said.
“The hotel initiated the installation of chargers on the corporate level well before any migrants or homeless individuals were accommodated,” Duncan wrote in an email. “Regarding the proximity of chargers to areas frequented by children, this decision was made at the corporate level by external parties (the State for placement at the hotel — the town was not consulted) and the hotel’s corporate management for charger placement.”
The station was installed in accordance with all electrical code regulations, Duncan added. “It’s understood that parents should supervise their children’s activities outdoors,” she wrote.
In a statement, Giri Hotels, which owns the site, said the chargers were located “across the parking lot and at a safe distance 65 feet away from the building.” Giri approved the installation “before the housing of migrant residents, in an effort to accommodate electric vehicles.”
The state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, responsible for housing the migrants, said that it had not received complaints from residents about the chargers in Foxborough and that residents’ safety is a priority.
So far, the charging station has not been very busy. Since opening, it has only been lightly used by EV drivers, according to a graph in Tesla’s mobile app. The new station in Lynnfield, located in a strip mall — a more typical charging site — has been busier.
The Foxborough setting didn’t bother one Tesla Model 3 driver using the station last week. “I like it, I think [the location is] fine,” said Von, who gave only his first name to protect his privacy. “We need more chargers.”
And while there doesn’t appear to be any immediate danger to children, Brenner, from the safety foundation, said the site could pose a potential threat in the future.
“Humans are very ingenious about finding ways to get themselves hurt,” he said. “Let’s say five years from now, if those chargers are not maintained and people get into things they’re not supposed to, that’s Pandora’s box.”
