Electricity is the New Gas

🔌🔋 Nearly $7.5 billion of the bipartisan infrastructure plan will go toward developing a nationwide network of half a million fast-charging EV stations by the end of the decade, the Biden administration announced yesterday. The US currently has ~114,000 EV charging stations, with 36% of those in the state of California.

The deployment of funds will be overseen by the new Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, a very creatively-named combination of the Departments of Energy and Transportation.

📋 According to the guidance…

• States should use their interstate networks like a spine, and install EV charging infrastructure every 50 miles along highways and not more than one mile away from an exit (The JOET will oversee future expansion into remote rural and crowded urban areas)
• States should fund chargers with a minimum of 150 KW at each port (30-45 minutes of charging to top up), and stations should have at least four ports capable of simultaneous charging
• Federal money will cover 80% of the cost

+The big picture: "Even with the newer higher range EVs going 200, 300, 400 miles, range anxiety is… sometimes the top barrier to somebody acquiring an electric vehicle that could already stand to save them and their family a lot of gas money," DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Car and Driver.

One-in-five EV owners have made the switch back to gas due to a lack of charging access, according to a recent survey.