I like to think of myself as a patient man. I’ve spent thirty years in and around city planning, and I’ve waited on more permits, inspections, and “final approvals” than most people wait for birthdays. But a few weeks ago, I found something that tested my patience in a new way: a fully built, perfectly installed, totally lifeless electric vehicle charger.
It sits outside the Publix in Osprey — two handsome new charging units, cones neatly placed in front of them, everything looking ready for service. The kind of thing that makes you think, Finally, progress. Except it’s been that way since I first saw it on September 1st. I stopped again on October 7th — same cones, same silence, same promise of power that never came.
I don’t know what’s taking so long. Maybe it’s waiting for an inspector. Maybe someone’s holding out for a ribbon-cutting. Or maybe the power company lost the key to the switch. Whatever it is, it’s maddening.
A dim landscape for Sarasota’s EV drivers
Sarasota’s charging scene could charitably be called “limited.” Less charitably, it’s a mess.
We have Tesla Supercharger stations, the gold standard — fast, efficient, and almost foolproof. The problem is there are only two in the area, both convenient for I-75 travel, but miles from where you might want to charge if you live, shop, or work around town.
Then there’s ChargePoint, the slow-motion network of the EV world. The chargers are few and far between, painfully sluggish, and — based on my experience — offline roughly as often as they’re on. I’ve seen some sit dark for months.
Finally, there’s the growing network of FPL (Florida Power & Light) chargers. They look promising — new equipment, polished kiosks — but they’re slow, expensive, and annoying to use. Even when you get a session going, they tend to drop the connection mid-charge for no clear reason.
It’s as if every provider here took a different wrong turn and decided to stay lost. And maybe nowhere is that more obvious than at the new Osprey site.
Designed by people who’ve never driven an EV
If you want proof these chargers were designed by people who’ve never actually owned an electric vehicle, just look at the layout.
At the Osprey site, one of the spaces is marked as handicapped accessible, which is admirable in theory. In practice, it’s about seven feet from the charger — just far enough that you have to wrestle with the short cable to reach a car’s side port. If your vehicle’s port is on the right side, good luck. You’ll either need to park diagonally or too close to the lines.
Even the regular spaces don’t fare much better. With a left-side port, the thick cable barely stretches without blocking your driver-side door, so prepare for some acrobatics getting back in. And because you have to pull all the way forward to reach, the metal signposts set flush against the curb make it easy to damage your bumper.
It’s the kind of poor planning that tells you no one involved has ever actually stood beside an EV — let alone tried to plug one in here.
The mystery of the unflipped switch
So why, exactly, are these chargers sitting dark for weeks — or months — after installation?
I’ve heard all the excuses over the years: utility delays, transformer upgrades, inspections, funding sign-offs. But none of that explains why, in 2025, a grocery store parking lot with two ready-to-go chargers can’t be powered on. The physical work is done. The trenching’s finished. The units are bolted down.
It feels like someone just needs to walk over and flip a switch — and it’s maddening.
The irony of the power company
Here’s the kicker: FPL is literally in the business of selling electricity. You’d think they’d want to sell more of it. And ironically, they’ve managed to make their charging experience both overpriced and underperforming. Not a great sales pitch for the brand.
A session at an FPL station costs more per kilowatt-hour than what you pay at home, and that’s before the “franchise fees” and taxes they tack on top. Compare that to Tesla’s pricing, which is not only cheaper but refreshingly simple — and the difference is even more apparent.
Worse, FPL’s chargers are slow. The Tesla Supercharger can give you 200 miles of range in 15 minutes. The FPL units are more like 30–40 miles in that same time, assuming they don’t crash mid-session. I never break 200 kW, despite the claim of 400 kW on the large, but impossible-to-read-in-the-Florida-sun displays.
If Tesla can install, energize, and maintain hundreds of sites nationwide while FPL struggles to activate one grocery store parking lot, maybe Sarasota should rethink who’s leading the charge.
What this says about civic priorities
I don’t write this just to gripe — though, fair warning, there will be more gripes to come. This is about civic responsibility. EV charging infrastructure isn’t decoration. It’s part of how people move, commute, and live now. When it doesn’t work, it sends a message that the system isn’t ready, or worse, that it doesn’t care.
Someone needs to take ownership of that final, crucial step between “installed” and “working.” Until then, Sarasota’s EV map will stay dimly lit: plenty of dots, not enough power.
So if anyone from FPL happens to read this — do the city a favor. Skip the ribbon-cutting, and just flip the switch.
UPDATE: OCTOBER 23, 2025
Almost to my surprise, the chargers at the Osprey Publix have finally come online. Both towers are standing, but only one is actually functional. The other remains lifeless.
What’s new is that each unit now includes a Tesla-style plug, a small but welcome upgrade from the earlier setup of two bulky CCS connectors that may require an adapter. It’s the right direction, at least — an acknowledgment that Tesla’s design is far superior and soon to be the last man standing.
But even with that progress, performance is underwhelming. The charger claims to deliver up to 400 kW, yet in the few sessions I’ve tried, I’ve never seen anything even close to 200 kW. It’s a reminder that “working” and “working well” are two very different things.
So yes, half the chargers are up. Call it progress — the slow, uneven, Sarasota kind.
