Report: Most States Get a Failing Grade On EV Charging Network Availability
Despite the government and auto industry’s push toward electrification, a shocking number of states have underdeveloped charging networks. A recent study from Here Technologies and SBD Automotive found that 47 states are behind on the number of chargers they need to adequately service the electric vehicle population.
Only three states, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont, met the criteria. The District of Columbia was also included in that list despite it not being a full-fledged state. The study’s authors said that the ideal ratio of registered electric vehicles to Level 2 and 3 chargers is nine to ten vehicles per plug. That said, they also accounted for population density, EV adoption, and more.
Despite those findings, SBD Automotive’s Robert Fisher said that U.S.-based EV drivers will likely use more private chargers than people in Europe, and the country’s vast size and varying population densities will play a role in how states adapt. “Europe has these rural areas, but not maybe quite like the Wyomings and the South Dakotas of the world. So that ratio could be potentially higher in the U.S.”
Planners and officials still have plenty of work to do, but there’s an opportunity for charging companies to make headway in the less crowded market. Fisher said, “We are a little bit concerned in some European countries that they’ve already overshot, and it’s becoming too difficult as a business to be a charge point operator. In the U.S., we don’t have that problem yet, but it could become a problem in the future.”
[Images: mikeledray, mark reinstein, Roschetzky Photography via Shutterstock]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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- ToolGuy One of those new federally-funded chargers is down the road from me and features 100% fusion energy and there were two of the new mail trucks charging there today along with two Cybertrucks (and an ICE VW with 400,000 miles on the odometer). Also a unicorn and two dragons talking with a leprechaun.
- Michael S6 Hopefully the humongous windshield does not convergence the sunlight on the sitting duck driver.
- SCE to AUX I don't know if I've seen one. Mail delivery vehicles come in all shapes and sizes, and they're all pretty invisible to me. Besides, they're competing with the Amazon, FedEx, and UPS trucks that go through my neighborhood several times a day.
- SCE to AUX "there’s not a lot of evidence to suggest that all-electric vehicles are going to outpace traditional internal combustion models in popularity" With ICE market share falling and EV share gaining, I'd say there is evidence.
- SCE to AUX I'd be very wary of a business plan built on a loophole that could be closed with an executive order. Just vertically integrate like Tesla did with the Gigafactory in Sparks, NV.
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