Biden Administration Looking to Spend $5 Billion on Charging Stations For Electric Cars

PJ Media ^ | 02/10/2022 | Rick Moran

[SeekAndFind]

The Biden administration wants 50% of all new cars sold by 2030 to be electric or plug-in hybrids. But the average range of today’s electric cars is only about 180 miles. That means for any trip on an interstate, there have to be charging stations every few miles to ensure that people are stuck in the middle of nowhere high and dry.

Recognizing the problem, a big chunk of funding in the infrastructure bill was for building a network of power stations from Texas to Canada and from sea to shining sea.

That’s all well and good, but as the Washington Post points out, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The administration says the money is the largest investment of its kind, yet it still represents a fraction of the estimated $39 billion cost of building a public charging system by 2035.

“The $5 billion the EV Charging Program will provide is a historic investment, but it is far from sufficient,” the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, wrote in comments to the Federal Highway Administration. “Federal Highway Administration. “Federal guidance should do everything possible to encourage complementary commitments and hedge against displacing other investments or programs.”

Highway Administration. “Federal guidance should do everything possible to encourage complementary commitments and hedge against displacing other investments or programs.”

But adding a few thousand power stations across the vast expanse of the U.S. doesn’t even begin to address the problem.

Electric vehicles are a tiny fraction of annual sales and establishing a viable network of chargers — the administration wants 500,000 — is widely seen as a vital step to convince more Americans to switch out their gas-powered cars.

But it’s a job that must account for the needs of apartment and rowhome dwellers, who can’t charge on their driveway,

[Tell It Right]

As far as charging from home goes, it depends. For an example I'll assume you're driving 50 miles on average daily for a round trip commute and you're getting the F-150 EV (since I'm familiar with the specs on that), and for that I'll assume the F-150 Lightning's performance is about 90% of what Ford claims it is (just like with gas cars).

They say it'll get 2 miles per kWh. I'll assume 1.8 miles per kWh.
That means you need 28 kWh to charge it back up.
With the standard 120V outlet you get only 1.4 kW (20 hours).
With the 240V/32A charger you get 7.7 kW (4 hours).
With the 240V/48A charger you get 11.5 kW (2 and a half hours).
With the 240V/80A charger (only a benefit if you get the higher end extended range battery with the F-150 Lightning) you get 19.2 kW (1.5 hours to charge back up from your 50 mile daily commute).

Of course, as far as your personal time goes it's next to nothing. Just 30 seconds to a minute to plug it in when you get home, then the next morning another 30 seconds to unplug it before you leave.

If I get an EV I'll probably use the 240V/32A charger most of the time because I can set my solar inverter to put 7.7 kW to that circuit and still have 11 kW of AC power I can provide to the rest of the house without having to pull from the grid (at least on days the sun is shining bright and/or I have plenty of charge in my home solar batteries).

[Sacajaweau]

Cart before the horse?? Or why do we have to pay for the stations?? We didn’t pay for gas stations.

[MortMan]

$5B - wasn’t that how much President Trump wanted for the border wall?

[Tell It Right]

Agreed on power outages being an issue. Of course, if you keep your EV charged daily and use it only for commutes, you have perhaps 4 or 5 days worth of charge for your normal use for them to get power back up. But driving after something like a large tornado or hurricane that keeps power out for days would be an issue.

But then, I have family who's lived near the Gulf Coast. When a hurricane comes and the power is out for days, that includes the gas stations. In my area after a large tornado that's knocked out the power, the weather is usually clear after that (solar power can charge an EV, but that's only if it's your solar power that you generate and not the gubment-messed-it-up-to-help-us type "green" energy the Dims push onto us).

[Vendome]

That means for any trip on an interstate, there have to be charging stations every few miles to ensure that people are stuck in the middle of nowhere high and dry.

You ain’t driving interstate.

Basically you would have to stop for lunch and recharge your vehicle, then take extra long bathroom breaks...

I can drive to Los Angeles/WeHo in about 4 hours from Gilroy on one tank of gas.

You would have to stop around Bakersfield and maybe grab a bite to eat at Harris Ranch and by the time you arrive in your electric vehicle I’ve ordered my meal and will be 1/2 way through it.

[Hojczyk]

The average time in a gas station is maybe ten minutes....even if they go electric to 30 minutes....where do you put the chargers at existing gas stations maybe four or five along the edge of the station...

[Tell It Right]

Most of the existing EV chargers aren't at gas stations. They're usually at places you'd be at for a while anyway (i.e. amid a handful of restaurants within walking distance to eat at while you charge, at a hotel, etc.). One nice thing about EV chargers is they don't need a lot of zoning permits and space for things like large storage tanks in the ground for gasoline like a gas station does. Even though the charges do require quite a bit of electrical engineering to get high current lines to the charger, they can pretty much be put anywhere as far as physical space is concerned. So the tendency is for the charges to be where you're liable to spend money while you wait for the charge.

Look, I'm with most people on FR that it's bad for the Dims to force us to switch to EV's like they tried to force us all to use public transportation (which so far they seem to have given up on). I think the yuge demand on the electrical grids hasn't been thought out by the same people who think science means the Y-chromosome no longer defines one's sex. Plus I think there are many benefits a gas car has over an EV: don't force an EV into situations when a gas car is better.

I'm just saying most of the criticisms I see on FR about EV's aren't accurate. It's best to win the argument with real issues, not with quippy things that either were never true or are no longer true. Even though I want to get an EV soon to replace my existing old used pickup, my wife and I'd still like a gas car for trips and other things an EV isn't good at (and I'd hate for the Dims to force me to get rid of). IMHO, the best way to win the argument against the Dims is to quit letting them make the argument into an Either/Or argument when it should be a EV's-are-good-for-some-situations type discussion.

[dfwgator]

For now if you’re an Early Adopter, EVs are fine, as long as you’re not competing with the masses for the Electricity, and the materials needed to make them for the masses.

[nascarnation]

Shovel ready, union built.
Spend that dough!

[Tell It Right]

True that.

It'll be interesting to see if technology improvements for EV and solar keep improving to keep up with the shortage of supply if everyone else wants/needs it.

For example, I wouldn't have gotten a solar system for my house with technology from as recent as 5 years ago. It would have cost way more for a lot less throughput. Those things were also much more resource hogs than they are now. The same with EV's. Will EV's keep improving and be less resource demanding than today? Probably. Will that be able to keep up with a yuuugge demand for EV's if the Dims get their wish to force all cars to be EV's? Probably not.

[DoughtyOne]

While that is true, I have come to enjoy getting of the car
for a break to have a meal and relax.

In truth, we probably shouldn’t drive as far as we do between
breaks.

In my early 30s I drove back to Missouri and only stopped
five time for gas. Made it in a little over 24 hours.

I only had two weeks off, and wanted the family to enjoy as
much time at the destination as they could.

I repeated the process going back to California.

[fruser1]

How many gas stations has the government subsidised?

[frank ballenger]

I know it’s not true everywhere but since the mid-1960s the interstates from the City of Detroit outward to the suburbs and beyond have been a series of canyons in which people have a singleminded goal of getting out of Detroit alive. They risk their lives to the NBA,NFL,MLB,casinos or concert venues, park close and then aim to get back home alive. Straight ahead for 8-12 miles or so. They do not hang around like some cities’ restaurant and club regions. For a large number of years Detroit was #1 or in the top 5 of murders, rapes and carjackings.

The late L. Brooks Patterson of adjoining Oakland County said “I think we should build a wall all along Eight Mile Road (Detroit’s city limits) and Detroit can keep their criminals on their side of the wall.”

The thought of stopping in one of the hollowed out abandoned neighborhoods with no open businesses such as a gas station or fast food place for 2-3 miles is not pleasant. Waiting on the freeway for help is a deadly enterprise.

One famous story was, after dozens of beatings of stranded drivers and the state police saying they were understaffed, two thugs beat and robbed a married couple in their 70s who were both disabled. One young thug said “Be sure to tell them we own Detroit, not their mayor. We own it.”

[frank ballenger]

Funny....

Maybe play an electric guitar while you wait in the rain.

[Bubba_Leroy]

But electric cars are powered by rainbows and unicorn farts.

[Rebelbase]

If you are the 3rd person in line to charge that 50 minutes becomes 3+ hours.

[nascarnation]

Apparently that's a big issue at holiday times.

[dsrtsage]

What do you do if you run out of charge in the middle of nowhere? You can’t exactly fill a jerry can with electrons. I would never go off road in the desert with one. My 1966 Toyota Landcruiser has 2 fuel tanks with a capacity of 45 gallons total. Of course I can easily carry 10 more gallons in jerry cans for extended runs. If I somehow totally screw up or something unexpected happens, I can fix nearly anything in the field and/or simply get a jerry can out and I am rolling. In an EV, you would probably have to hire a helicopter to airlift the vehicle out…but I suppose it is every demonrats wet dream to stop people from wandering their precious wilderness

[Bizzy Bugz]

And if the power grids are knocked out by someone you cannot even get out of the garage Even for an emergency

[stylin19a]

This admin is like the keystone cops... their priorities are all disconnected

- Shut down Covd ? - no cure cancer. Cure cancer ? no build charging stations.

Wonder what’s in the surprise box tomorrow