EVs seem to be on the point of being widespread, but where will they plug in?
There are around 150,000 gas stations in the US where the nation’s fleet of fossil fuel-burning automobiles may be refueled. Only 6,000 DC fast electric charging stations—the kind that can quickly recharge an EV—can be found in the whole of America, despite the country’s growing adoption of EVs: 400,000 of them were sold in 2021, up from fewer than 10,000 in 2012. (It has more than 48,000 different charging stations).
There are numerous charging deserts visible on America’s charging map. This makes sense given that EV sales currently account for less than 3% of new car sales. Fast chargers are becoming more prevalent in large cities, but there are still far too few to handle a significant increase in EVs. These chargers are positioned near enough together along interstate routes outside of urban areas to ensure the safety of electric vehicles. Otherwise, in rural America, they are almost nonexistent. Additionally, EV charging stations face a challenge that gas stations do not: according to Jeremy Michalek, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the group’s director for vehicle electrification, “even the fastest Tesla supercharger is still going to take 15 minutes to put a couple hundred miles on the vehicle.”
According to Michalek, the United States’ infrastructure for electric vehicle charging is far behind what is required for the country as a whole to make the switch. The good news is that there is still time to catch up as not all Americans will adopt EVs at once. The majority of early users had access to a charger at home, in their garage, or in their parking spot. These owners only need to use public chargers when they are traveling for a long distance and can wake up with a full battery. However, the current infrastructure won’t be adequate if the country adopts more EVs.
Michalek contends that the US must give greater priority to increasing the number of chargers at rest areas along heavily used highways, particularly as more people choose for electric vehicles for summer road trips.
“If there aren’t enough chargers available to meet peak demand as EV usage rises,” he argues, “wait times will differ from what is typical at gas stations.”
With more Americans considering EVs, charging dead zones will become more prevalent. Renters who are unable to install a home charger will be unwilling to switch to all-electric travel unless they have peace of mind that a public outlet will be available when they need it. Additionally, it will be essential that people can go to all the locations they need (and want to go) when more households switch entirely to electric vehicles.
Michalek hopes for a successful public-private partnership to create a reliable nationwide charging infrastructure. The 500,000 chargers that President Biden wanted to have installed across the country were funded with $7.5 billion from the infrastructure bill that was approved in November 2021. Less nervous drivers will be stranded in lines waiting for a charging place to open the longer cars can go between charges.