More electric vehicle charging stations nationwide, electrifying 75,000 kilometers of highways

Expand Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg

For drivers choosing electric vehicles, convenient access to reliable charging stations remains one of the biggest issues after adopting the greenest way to ride. Just thinking about straying out of the way to find a charging station when planning road trips - rather than going to a choice of numerous gas stations at any exit - deters drivers so much that beginning to look like unreliable charging could be the deciding factor that could ultimately doom electric vehicles.

Instead, the Department of Transportation and the Biden administration announced yesterday that America had given the green light to a $5 billion investment plan over the next five years to create a network more reliable charging by installing electric vehicle chargers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The first wave of funding is now available, giving all states access to "more than $1.5 billion to help build electric vehicle charging stations covering approximately 75,000 miles of highway across the country."

"President Biden is leading the shift toward the electrification of transportation, ensuring drivers can move and charge with confidence and affordability and reducing our oversized reliance on fossil fuels while fighting against climate change," U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in the press release. .

The plan is to deploy hundreds of thousands of additional EV chargers along highways, including in places where people would least expect to find them. Biden hopes this will reduce car buyers' reluctance to invest more in electric vehicles, so that half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 will be zero-emission vehicles. This could reduce vehicle emissions, according to the DOT press release, "50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030."

This significant advancement in electric vehicle charging infrastructure comes just over a week after the U.S. Departments of Energy and Transportation appointed the first executive director to lead the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, Gabe Klein. In a press release announcing Klein's new role, the DOE and DOT said Klein was specifically brought in to oversee efforts to "build a national electric vehicle (EV) charging network with a focus on filling gaps in rural and underprivileged and hard to reach locations."

To help underserved communities, cities and states prepare their electric vehicle charging plans now that funding is available, the Klein team will be available to provide technical assistance and analytical support.

Klein was unavailable to comment on the Biden administration's latest move. However, a DOE representative provided Ars with a statement from Klein, saying his next steps would be to combine private and public investment "to support the deployment of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers nationwide", ensuring "access to affordable transportation,” in line with Biden’s goal to deliver “40% of the benefits of federal climate and clean energy investments to underserved communities.”

According to the DOT, 35 state plans have already been approved, and some states have already begun staffing local efforts to expand electric vehicle charging. Now these states can be reimbursed for their efforts, as well as access funding for initiatives such as upgrading existing chargers, funding the construction of new charging infrastructure, covering operating costs and necessary maintenance and updating road signs to direct people to new charging stations. Acting Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack said in the DOT press release that the new initiative will quickly form "the backbone of our national electric vehicle charging network."

The United States has tried to offer various incentives to convince car owners to switch to electric vehicles, and