The Biden administration’s well-funded push to build out a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers has so far resulted in only a handful of installations, according to The Washington Post. [emphasis, links added]
The bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021 allotted $7.5 billion to subsidize thousands of EV chargers to help the administration’s goal of having EVs constitute 50% of all new cars sold in 2030, but only seven stations in total have been built in four states to date, according to the Post.
The slow rollout of the EV charger funding is unfolding as the Biden administration has recently issued stringent emissions standards for light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that will result in significant increases in EV sales for all three classes of vehicles.
Two years after the infrastructure bill became law, it has so far been responsible for just 38 operational individual charging spots across the U.S., according to the Post.
The open stations are located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Hawaii, and construction of more stations is underway in four other states.
“I think a lot of people who are watching this are getting concerned about the timeline,” Alexander Laska, the deputy director for transportation and innovation at the Third Way, a left-of-center think tank, told the Post.
Twelve states have given out contracts for building charging stations, while 17 states have yet to release proposals, according to the Post.
Nationally, EV charging infrastructure remains generally concentrated in more densely populated coastal areas, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).
Building out a massive web of chargers is a key pillar of the administration’s EV agenda, in part because doing so would ostensibly help assuage the “range anxiety” of drivers who worry about their EV’s ability to make it to destinations without taking risks on charger accessibility, according to the Post.
Nearly 20% of all EV drivers indicated that they did not charge their car when they visited a charging station, either because the charger was not working or because the line to use it was too long, according to a 2023 study conducted by JD Power.
Several logistical challenges are responsible for the sluggish rollout, including requirements that subsidized charging stations are built within one mile of an interstate roadway, operate at least 97% of the time, and that each charger provides 150 kilowatts of power, according to the Post.
The permitting process has also posed problems, especially for projects in remote areas where utility providers may not be prepared to accommodate significant increases in electricity demand that the chargers will bring.
Read rest at Daily Caller
Charging stations for light duty vehicles are inadequate for heavy duty trucks. In light of the new mandate for more heavy duty trucks to be all electric, we can be sure that heavy duty charging stations that they need will be not be available.
The article has an error in that it assumes that mandate for light duty vehicles will result in significant increases in EV sales. The middle class does not that that kind of money. The result of the mandates is people will keep their older vehicles longer. This might not be feasible on very long term but it also isn’t feasible that these mandate will last for the long term.
I have several older vehicles that are mechanically fit but brain dead. I am suspicious that Detroit sabotages their vehicles with dirty tricks like mixing mild steel exhaust hardware and aluminum heat shields. $10 worth of stainless steel nuts and studs would extend the life of a modern vehicle that’s worth thousand$. There’s a reason they don’t do it. Greed.
I saw a Charging Station on Saturday no one was there
They’re wrecking a well-oiled system that doesn’t need fixing. We can’t repay our debts with an economy powered by batteries.