First federally-funded EV charging station opens two years after $5B project launched.
The first U.S. government-funded electric vehicle (EV) charging station opened in early December—two years after President Biden signed legislation that dedicated $5 billion to the project, Axios and other outlets report.
This charging station opening is good news as having convenient and reliable EV chargers along highways is key in making people feel more comfortable about buying an electric vehicle. The downside is this current slow implantation space will make it difficult for the Biden administration to reach its goal of EVs comprising all new cars sold by 2030.
When the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program was put in place, the idea was the $5 billion allotment would go to all 50 states so they could build fast EV chargers near federal highways. The states could use any remaining funds to deploy chargers in other areas after their respective high charging network was finished.
As of now however, just over half of the states (26) have spent their allotment of the NEVI funds so far, per the Biden administration's new Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, Axios reports. Meanwhile, just 17 of those 26 states are soliciting bids. Seven other states have issued “conditional awards” for new stations that are worth $101.5 million.
While Ohio and Hawaii have made the most progress with firm contracts in place, the reality is Ohio is the only state with a functional, government-funded EV charging station. Most states are in the early stages at best.
Why the NEVI program isn’t moving faster
The combination of bureaucratic challenges and utility issues have led to a slowdown in NEVI chargers deployment, Axios reports. On the government side of things, the federal government had to staff the new Joint Office to support this initiative. Once people were in place, it took more than a year for the office to finalize the standards that would make plug types, payment systems and charging speeds easily accessible.
It also doesn’t help that state transportation officials don’t have the resources or expertise needed to plan and manage EV charging infrastructure, according to Loren McDonald, CEO of industry analytics firm EVAdoption.com.
The equipment and construction side of the issue has its own set of difficulties. Some sites that the states selected need new transformers or switches before chargers can be installed and turned on. Plus, local construction permitting can take anywhere from six to 12 months. In total, it could take up to 18 months for an EV charging station to be installed after a site’s been picked, according to industry experts.
While two years seems like a long time to have just one EV charging station built, the Joint Office believes things are on track.
“This is exactly the timeline I was expecting,” Gabe Klein, executive director of the Joint Office told Axios. “I think the states are doing a phenomenal job.”
More EV charging stations are needed — fast
Fortunately for electric car drivers, government-funded EV charging stations aren’t, and won’t be, their only power source. Private companies have committed approximately $24 billion to increase EV charging in the U.S., according to Klein. Additionally, seven car manufacturers said they plan to create a new network of 30,000 EV fast chargers by 2030.
Whoever plans to build EV chargers, it needs to be done sooner rather than later. The U.S. needs 28 million charging ports to support more than 30 million expected plug-in EVs by 2030, according to Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Right now, there’s approximately 158,000 public EV chargers, meaning there’s still lot of work to be done.
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