Welcome to Electric Avenue — More Chargers on the Way

by Jason R. Sakurai

Published: March 3rd, 2021

welcome to electric avenue more chargers on the way

The Electric Highway Coalition, a consortium of six utility companies, will provide a network of 20-30 minute DC fast chargers for EV drivers, as reported by Electrek. Each of the utilities will be responsible for providing EV charging within their service areas, with most sites located along major highways for easy access and adjacency to other amenities.

Their mandate is to ensure drivers of EV have accessible charging stations along the Atlantic coast as far north as Washington, D.C., throughout the South, into the Gulf states, and the Central Plains. The power companies involved are: American Electric Power in Ohio, West Virginia, Texas and Oklahoma; Entergy Corporation in Arkansas and Louisiana; Tennessee Valley Authority in Mississippi and Tennessee; Southern Company in Alabama and Georgia; Duke Energy in Indiana, Florida, North and South Carolina; and Dominion Energy in Virginia and parts of South Carolina.

Jeff Lyash, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) president and CEO said, “Together, we can power the electric road trip of tomorrow by ensuring seamless travel across a large region of the U.S. This is one of many strategic partnerships that TVA is building to increase the number of electric vehicles to well over 200,000 in the Tennessee Valley by 2028. EV adoption will spur jobs and economic investment in the region, keep refueling dollars in the local economy, reduce the region’s largest source of carbon emissions, and save drivers and businesses money.”

Jointly, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the TVA announced the development of a statewide network of EV fast charging stations every 50 miles along the interstates and major highways.

The most interesting part of this announcement came from the American Public Power Association, a service organization representing 2,000 community-owned utilities, who reported last year that there would be 10 to 35 million EVs in the U.S. by 2030, up from 1.5 million EVs in the U.S. in 2020, anywhere from a 6.66- to 23.33- percent increase in the number of EVs. They also noted that it would an investment of $75-$125 billion would be needed to revamp the electric power system by that date to service an estimated 20 million EVs. That’s somewhere between $3,750-$6,250 per EV. At that rate, maybe the astronomical rate being charged by the utility companies in Texas recently is their way of financing EV expansion?

[Images: Electric Highway Coalition, TVA]

#ChargingInfrastructure #ElectricVehicles #EVs #PowerGrid #UtilityCompanies

Jason R. Sakurai

With a father who owned a dealership, I literally grew up in the business. After college, I worked for GM, Nissan and Mazda, writing articles for automotive enthusiast magazines as a side gig. I discovered you could make a living selling ad space at Four Wheeler magazine, before I moved on to selling TV for the National Hot Rod Association. After that, I started Roadhouse, a marketing, advertising and PR firm dedicated to the automotive, outdoor/apparel, and entertainment industries. Through the years, I continued writing, shooting, and editing. It keep things interesting.

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4 of 29 comments

Craiger on Mar 03, 2021

I just hope that there will be enough charging ports at various stations if EVs proliferate. It's one thing to wait in line for a guy in front of you to fill his gas tank, but waiting in line behind multiple EVs would take much longer.

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Inside Looking Out on Mar 03, 2021

How US was able to build Interstate highway system which is considered as a one of the wonders of the world and put man on the moon and same time not capable of building a single high speed rail? Or set up reliable energy system similar to Russian Unified Energy System. I predict daily blackouts and people freezing to death in US if government goes forward with making ICE cars illegal.

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- SCE to AUX on Mar 04, 2021
  
  The successes you describe were unified national (federal) programs with narrowly defined goals. Powering EVs remains the domain of local, private efforts, complicated by the interest of competing mfrs. A nationalized system with one charging protocol could do it, but that ship has sailed, apparently. The century-long dominance of the gasoline-based infrastructure is also a challenge for a new entrant like EVs. Now we have the Tesla protocol, CCS/J1772, and flavors such as 400V and 800V. Chademo is almost gone - thankfully - but it's still the wild west in the EV world. Adding in the spotty reliability of non-Tesla chargers, and it's a gloomy picture.
  
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- Mcs on Mar 04, 2021
  
  @SCE to AUX Bigger players are getting involved. Shell announced 500,000 charging points by 2025. Tesla ports are going to become more plentiful now that EvGO is going to start adding them. BP Pulse is in the UK and will probably expand here. https://www.evgo.com/press-release/evgo-further-extends-nations-largest-fast-charging-network-to-tesla-drivers https://www.bppulse.co.uk/charging-on-the-go https://finance.yahoo.com/news/planning-500-000-charging-points-154918452.html https://www.bppulse.co.uk/charging-on-the-go
  
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Recent Comments

Bd2 Lexus is just a higher trim package Toyota. ^^
Tassos ONLY consider CIvics or Corollas, in their segment. NO DAMNED Hyundais, Kias, Nissans or esp Mitsus. Not even a Pretend-BMW Mazda. They may look cute but they SUCK.I always recommend Corollas to friends of mine who are not auto enthusiasts, even tho I never owed one, and owned a Civic Hatch 5 speed 1992 for 25 years. MANY follow my advice and are VERY happy. ALmost all are women.friends who believe they are auto enthusiasts would not listen to me anyway, and would never buy a Toyota. They are damned fools, on both counts.
Tassos since Oct 2016 I drive a 2007 E320 Bluetec and since April 2017 also a 2008 E320 Bluetec.Now I am in my summer palace deep in the Eurozone until end October and drive the 2008.Changing the considerable oils (10 quarts synthetic) twice cost me 80 and 70 euros. Same changes in the US on the 2007 cost me $219 at the dealers and $120 at Firestone.Changing the air filter cost 30 Euros, with labor, and there are two such filters (engine and cabin), and changing the fuel filter only 50 euros, while in the US they asked for... $400. You can safely bet I declined and told them what to do with their gold-plated filter. And when I changed it in Europe, I looked at the old one and it was clean as a whistle.A set of Continentals tires, installed etc, 300 EurosI can't remember anything else for the 2008. For the 2007, a brand new set of manual rec'd tires at Discount Tire with free rotations for life used up the $500 allowance the dealer gave me when I bought it (tires only had 5000 miles left on them then)So, as you can see, I spent less than even if I owned a Lexus instead, and probably less than all these poor devils here that brag about their alleged low cost Datsun-Mitsus and Hyundai-Kias.And that's THETRUTHABOUTCARS. My Cars,
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