The North Carolina DOT says it had to remove four electric vehicle charging stations from rest areas due to conflicting state and federal laws.
Transportation officials collected the stations before a state law took effect in March. The law directed the DOT to find a way to charge drivers for using the stations. But a federal law says states can only collect money from rest areas if it comes from vending machines.
The stations were in place for 14 months and the DOT says 146 vehicles used them during that time.
DOT spokeswoman Julia Casadonte says the stations were meant to be a temporary pilot project.
"We would determine what to do with them when we had collected the data that we needed," Casadonte says.
"I think that we ended it based on the legislation, but I think the intent was this was always going to be a pilot to see how successful they were."
The state Commerce Department provided a grant to pay for the chargers. The DOT spent $16,000 to install them and $44 for the electricity they used.
