governments, automakers and policy players agree: america has a charging problem.
by rick richardson
technology this week
buyers curious about switching to electric vehicles have made it clear in survey after survey that charging freaks them out.
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many drivers report that owning an electric vehicle is comparable to, if not better than, owning a gas-powered vehicle. however, filling up an electric car is different and may be inconvenient, depending on where you live. for this reason, even people interested in purchasing an electric vehicle may find it frightening.
most modern american electric vehicle owners charge their vehicles at home, yet over 20 percent of households lack access to regular off-street parking that allows them to leave their cars plugged in overnight. meanwhile, there are issues with the public charging network, which is not always reliable. drivers have reported that chargers aren’t always in good working order.
the good news is that the u.s. has a charging problem, as acknowledged by governments, automakers and other policy players. they favor the use of electric vehicles by more people. lawmakers understand that switching from gas-powered to zero-emission electric vehicles will be crucial to preventing the worst effects of climate change, which is why automakers are pushing consumers to purchase evs.
according to data gathered by the u.s. department of energy, the number of public and private charging ports and stations in the u.s. has more than doubled since 2020 because of the early efforts to transition to evs. currently, 240 more stations are being planned. contrast this with the gas infrastructure of today: according to the american petroleum institute, there are around 145,000 gas stations in the united states.
the question then becomes: if we could just snap our fingers and make every car electric, how many more charging stations would the u.s. need to add?
coltura, a research and advocacy group for alternative fuels, employed statisticians to crunch the data.
what was the final result of all that data manipulation? the country has to construct many chargers before it reaches full electrification, which experts estimate should happen in the 2040s. however, the work may not be as impossible.
according to coltura’s statistics and policy associate ron barzilay and executive director matthew metz, the organization will need to add public chargers by a factor of six. metz says, “we’re not necessarily off-track.”
many analysts predict that some areas of the world will continue to use gas-powered cars for some time, even as the world rushes toward complete electrification.
most experts don’t think that most drivers would cleanly replace their gas station habit with a public charging habit, which contributes to the estimates’ optimistic outlook on public charging. alternatively, according to metz and barzilay, 70 percent of drivers’ charging needs will be satisfied by home charging, and 90 percent of dwelling units will have ev chargers. people who plug in at work may fulfill an additional 10 percent of their needs. coltura predicts that the remaining 20 percent of the charging will take place at those public charging stations, with the dc fast chargers – which are now the fastest on the market – making up about 70 percent of those stations.
barzilay argues that the present is crucial. he states that “we’re unsure about what type of tech will be available” when full electrification occurs because making predictions about the future is difficult. a quicker, more efficient standard may have replaced today’s top-of-the-line fast chargers, which can charge a car from empty to 80 percent in around 20 minutes by the time the entire country uses evs. if such were the case, the nation’s situation would be considerably better than expected.