Here's the latest update on the number of EV chargers that have been built using funds from the bipartisan Infrastructure Act:
There have now been 126 chargers built using NEVI funding. The first chargers built using CFI funding also went up last quarter, including a mega-station in Washington state, for a total of 210 chargers, triple the 69 that were finished by last quarter.
At the current rate, we'll have more than a thousand charging ports built by the first quarter of next year. The ultimate plan is to build 500,000 charging ports across 100,000 stations by 2030.
Hey, that's great! What good planning to pass a law in 2021, and then have the implementation really start ramping up three years later, so that if Republicans won the White House in 2024 they could take credit for the effects. I look forward to all these charging stations that will be built during the Trump administration.
So how would we plan where to put them without time?
Choose what systems to use, what qualifies as working or what does reliable mean?
How would we wire up the high voltage lines?
How would we line up the equipment, the workers, the services to keep them running?
Sure, you could buy a bunch of cheap CHAdeMO chargers but nearly no one could use them. This stuff takes time to do it right. In 2021 we didn't even know the automakers would settle upon NACS hardware and the CCS protocol.
-Put the chargers near existing gas stations
-Take 3 months to consult with automakers about what systems to use
-"What qualifies as working" - does it supply the labeled amount of power 90% of the time?
-"What qualifies as reliable" - see above
-Wire up high-voltage lines via local utilities, what's the issue there?
-Equipment/workers/service - put out bids to the private sector.
There are obviously some details I'm glossing over here, but not that many, and not *three years* worth of details.
Don’t worry. At some point in 2025, the Trump admin will probably end the program, because it’s Something Biden Did… and Kevin’s chart will flatline shortly thereafter.
I do agree with Crissa here though. Infrastructure is one of those things that can’t be done quickly if you want it also done well, and so any infrastructure that a politician supports will take multiple election cycles to come to fruition. Allowing the other party plenty of opportunities to take credit for it or fuck it up.
So, the "smart" politician would never do an infrastructure project, or anything that takes more than the remainder of his election cycle to implement. Only the "statesman" pol would be so stupid.
Which is how the Republican Party remains viable, while the Democrats continue to thrash and the country fails to thrive.
Of course, the infotainment media could help mitigate this spiral of doom, but the clicks are all in furthering it.
I agree with JPO though when it comes to programs. Obamacare should’ve begun no later than 12 months after it was passed, to reduce the ability of Republicans to fuck with its implementation and win several election cycles based on people not knowing what it would do when fully implemented. The main reason for the 4 year delay for that was to keep its overall cost down so that it could be “fully paid for,” which was downright fucking stupid on centrist Democrats’ part. Literally no discernible bloc of voters care about the deficit, as we are about to see in every election from 2025 through whenever Trump is disposed or dies. The only people who care about the deficit are misguided center left wonks like Kevin and some commenters here, and Republicans whenever Dems control the White House as a cynical strategy to keep Dems from pursuing anything on their agenda. That’s literally it.
"The only people who care about the deficit are misguided center left wonks like Kevin and some..."
And some Nobel Economists ... and one of our recent successful center-left Presidents ... and...
Charging stations are fine, but what I really want are low-cost solar panels and low-cost storage.
Despite the truly immense financial incentives to do so, coming up with low-cost storage solutions doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon.
How many are actually functioning at any one time or have been vandalized? Also, there'd be more buy-in on E-trucks in particular if charging stations had space for vehicles towing a trailer. Virtually all of them assume an EV is always going to be a small passenger car.
Most cars are. But that's a good point.
Christ. Yet another “perfect is the enemy of good enough” argument. Actual gas stations also have problems with individual pumps not working too, but that wasn’t an argument for not building them out nationwide when the first 200 or so opened up. And those first gas stations also weren’t very big, certainly not big enough to handle the semi trucks and big monster trucks that now regularly ply our highways. Baby steps, jte… eventually the 1000th or 10,000th charging station will be built that can accommodate “vehicles towing a trailer” which incidentally isn’t super common in my metro area… I go entire weeks without seeing a single vehicle towing anything on my local roads and highways, so your concern seems very edge case to me.
Austin, I totally agree with what you wrote, but I think your last sentence covers only a part of the population--the ones living in a major metropolitan area. Here in Central Virginia, living in a small city, with many other small cities around me, I see a lot of pickup trucks pulling trailers because of the business they do--primarily construction related types of activities, but also other trades. I agree with you that we should expect to move in steps; we just need to plan now for those future steps, or they could get put off ad infinitum.
The local businesses towing things are probably charging overnight back at the shop. Otherwise going electric doesn’t make a ton of sense.
This is probably the case for most recreational boat towers as well
EVs aren’t there for RV trailer use or remaining long range highway use. I’m not sure why Ford and Chevy in particular seem to be pushing this use case.
Until you can charge in 10 minutes, designing a ton of tow through stations doesn’t make much sense. But I’ve still seen them, having at least one in many Supercharger locations and a few with multiple.
Those first gas stations were guys on the side of the road with a barrel and a hand pump. And bespoke gas stations didn’t have roofs over them, so while there weren’t monster size personal trucks, one could have refueled at either of them.
Someone needs to build a street parking meter that, instead of charging for parking, charges for, well, charging. Spread it around so that they're available throughout an area rather than at choke points aka the one or two functioning chargers at the only charging station publicly available for miles.
+10!
https://youtu.be/jvt1l_y26Bk
They're working on it. This one I'm less enthusiastic about because the cable is kept in the car.
But we need a broad variety of charging. The vast majority of charging is done at home, so of course fast charging is always going to seem like a chokepoint.
We need a variety of charging: DC fast charging will always be a choke point because with them, they're not just fancy outlets: they're an actual charger that needs to be compatible with all the cars. They also need big batteries or a big connection to grid. They're essential for long distance.
But unlike gas cars, EVs can charge two other ways:
Level 1 is a basic outlet. Some EVs can charge overnight on them - anything from a bicycle to a short range car. But even long range EVs can fill up in several days; they also need them so they don't slowly discharge the battery. Think like engine block heaters in the north. EVs lose anywhere from a few percent a day (a big truck with active thermal management) to a few percent a week (a short range EV with none). These need to be literally everywhere you park.
Level 2 is an in-between solution. They're a fancy outlet, but cost only hundreds of dollars while DC chargers cost hundreds of thousands. Install them at work and cars can charge up on the solar glut each day. Put them at movies and dining and medical centers and short range EVs can be used to the end of their range. Anywhere someone parks during a shift, or spends two hours at anyhow. And of course, these are what people install at home to charge up over night, but installing them elsewhere lets people without dedicated charging at home also have EVs!
Already got that in NW WA. The little town of Blaine has two L2 double cable charging stations in street parking locations. A lot of other charging stations (L2 and L3) have sprung up all around Whatcom county - in malls, shopping centers, etc. Not hard to find an open charging point.
"At the current rate," <--I see what you did there
I'm "shocked" that Kevin pointed this out myself. I find his outlook reVOLTing at times but he is at least up on "current" events
More "power" to him
I hope people get a "charge" out of him like I did
Ok, OK...........
Barry - your turn again