We Need to Build More EV Chargers, but Where?

Car and Driver via MSN ^ | 5/22/21 | Annie White

[Libloather]

President Joe Biden has announced a plan to spend $174 billion to make it easier for Americans to choose electric vehicles. Biden wants $15 billion of that money to go toward building a national network of 500,000 charging stations by 2030. The day after Biden's announcement, Representatives Andy Levin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - both Democrats - announced that they had revised their existing bill on electric vehicle infrastructure so that it would align with Biden's new plan. Republicans oppose Biden's plan. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) called it a "mandatory rush" toward EVs (it's not - Biden has declined to back a California proposal that would ban the sale of gas cars by 2035).

Whether or not Biden's plan can weather the slings and arrows of a bitterly divided Congress, an EV charging network is popping up across the country, driven by efforts from private companies and various government initiatives. But where will all those chargers go?

That depends on what's used to determine the optimal charge station layout, according to Mehrnaz Ghamami, an assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at Michigan State University. Ghamami led a team of researchers who developed a plan to optimize Michigan's EV charging network for inter-city trips and trips within high-traffic urban environments. The study's goal was to plan a network for 2030, which meant the team had to consider both the existing capabilities and adoption rate of EVs and charging networks and the potential for future higher adoption rates, higher-capacity batteries, and the wider availability of fast chargers. The state also directed the team to plan chargers with "uniform distribution throughout the state, for equity purposes," not just in areas where road traffic or EV adoption are already high.

[Libloather]

London's strategy of working with electricity providers is one we'll have to think about on this side of the pond, too. Ghamami says her team's next act is a study on how to distribute the energy demand of charging stations, for example by using large batteries to store energy so that the electrical grid isn't overwhelmed on high-traffic days. Grid failures aren't only a risk in rural or remote areas—Ghamami says that in Michigan, portions of the grid in danger of being overloaded by a growing EV charging network are split between low-population areas and higher-density zones with outdated electrical infrastructure.

Amazingly enough, it's all free until the bill arrives.

[Jonty30]

How much copper is $74 billion?

[FreedomPoster]

Schumer just made a statement that there should be no ICE vehicles on the road in 20 years. This is madness, a prescription for impoverishment. You simply can’t make an infrastructure shift of that magnitude in 20 years.

And the idea that government planners are going to figure this all out, and do it all with “equity” in mind, should lead to catcalls and howls of derision towards those proposing it. This is Central Planning writ large. We know what lies at the end of that road, and it isn’t pretty.

[SauronOfMordor]

In the absence of government pork, chargers would go where they would naturally make sense: parking lots, motels, restaurants.

[FreedomPoster]

Ping

[Baldwin77]

We used to see them in Tennessee. They took them all out: no one was using them and they took up parking spaces.

[martin_fierro]

Hint: start with the high ground

[asinclair]

I'm really surprised that no one has mentioned another possibility for siting charging stations: existing gasoline stations. There would need to be an incentive for existing station owners to upgrade their electric service, and install one or two along with the existing pumps. As EVs “take off”, the stations can replace gasoline pumps with charging stations. You can use the same payment processing systems, and charge the customer (pun only slightly intended) by the KWH.

[free_life]

Not going to work in winter in colder states.

Better solution is LP Natural Gas vehicles and available everywhere.

[knarf]

From the 2XLARGE Carbon Footprinted Arizona copper mines?

[oldasrocks]

Instead of a chicken in every pot maybe they should advertise a portable genny for every car?

[FreedomPoster]

Was once at a Wawa station in JAX, they had a bunch of Tesla Superchargers our back. Looking, I think there are at least 10.

https://goo.gl/maps/128M2LA4bhhaDoFy5

The place had some decent food options, so I think the idea was they’d get you for a meal while you charged.

If this stuff is to be successful, it needs to be because of free market initiatives like this, not because of central planners figuring it all out with “equity” in mind.

[Lockbox]

Remember when the government built gas stations to help the young car industry? 🤣🤣

No one discusses the source of the electricity. In California 40% of the electricity is generated by burning natural gas 🤣🤣🤣.

[Ikeon]

174 million? Is this the commitee to form a commitee to study where to put these things and set a budget to install chargers? Wth... We sent more money to hamassses

[xzins]

🤣🤣😍

[Empire_of_Liberty]

You are 100% right. With the FedGov, it will be nothing but abuse.

Free electricity for blacks!

The Founders are spinning in their graves.

[Ikeon]

Equity? You mean put more electric chargers in south minneapolis? The locals will be running electric cords to their homes within a month.

[Ikeon]

Sorry, my bad, my eyes read 174 million. And the government tosses around billions like a kid tosses cheerios.

[Steven Tyler]

Put the mentally dim Greta on the problem
She will come up with something

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

Where is the power going to come from and how will it be distributed? The chargers are the last step. The Texas blackouts showed one thing. You can be awash in energy but if it isn’t in the right form and available to be distributed where and how you need it you are out of luck. That EV station is useless without power and the grid is stretched as is.