National Electric Vehicle Charging Buildout Shocked Into Reality as Stations Seek Price Model

Many Americans will get a charge out of news breaking Thursday (Feb. 10) that the U.S. departments of Transportation and Energy are handing out $5 billion over five years to help states put electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at predictable intervals nationwide.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement that “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping states to make electric vehicle charging more accessible by building the necessary infrastructure for drivers across America to save money and go the distance, from coast-to-coast.”

The aim is to have 500,000 EV chargers spanning North America by the 2030 timeframe, mostly situated on or adjacent to interstate highways in all settings, rural to urban.

Falling under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program contained in the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Law, this follows an announcement on Tuesday (Feb. 8) that EV charger manufacturer Tritium is breaking ground on Lebanon, Tennessee, facility expected to produce up to 30,000 DC Fast Chargers per year.

To those suffering from “range anxiety” — the worry that one’s EV battery will conk out before reaching a hard-to-find public charging port — these are welcome developments.

Things got jolted into high-gear in December when Granholm and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg signed a memorandum of understanding to create a Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (driveelectric.gov) “to accelerate effective deployment of a convenient, reliable, affordable, and equitable national network of charging stations.”

See also: Electric Vehicles and Digital Transformation Drive Changes in Business Payments

The question of monetizing EV charging for gas stations, convenience stores and other petro purveyors is somewhat less settled than Washington’s new plan to build out EV infrastructure.

Europe serves as a case study.

As PYMNTS recently reported, Visa Europe CEO Charlotte Hogg commented, “Ensuring people can easily pay to charge their vehicles is essential if we want them to go electric. At the moment, this is not the case.”

Visa is the first financial services firm to join the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN), an association pushing for a single standard called Combined Charging System (CCS).

See also: Visa Calls for Payment Standards in EV Charging

As news site Utility Dive reported, EV sales rose 80% globally in 2021 as “General Motors, Ford and other automakers” agreed new cars sold be zero emission by 2035 to 2040. EV sales are projected to reach nearly $11 billion by 2025 by some estimates.

Those figures mean charging stations are quickly becoming essential, but payments has miles to go before there’s consensus around EV charging prices in the way gas prices are normalized.

While home charging is the preferred method now, EVs today have a range of roughly 250 miles on a single charge. Putting aside what that does to monthly household utility bills, the overall charging landscape remains a mix of free and paid public and gas station charging ports.

KBB.com reported that “most charging stations will charge by the kilowatt-hour (kWh)” which runs about 12 cents in the average home. There are free EV stations, but few and far between.

“In many cases, individual station owners set charging prices. Just because there’s a ChargePoint logo on the charger doesn’t mean that the one at your local grocery station will cost the same as one in front of a favorite coffee shop. Some major retailers such as Whole Foods currently offer free chargers at many locations, though realistically, this perk is bound to expire at some point,” according to KB.

As 2021 came to a close, ABC News reported, “There are fewer than 46,000 EV public charging sites currently in the U.S., according to Department of Energy data. In comparison, the number of gasoline fueling stations in the country totals more than 150,000.”

With the injection of $5 billion and oversight by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, gas station owners are now pressured to decide on the own plans. The Wall Street Journal reported that “Charging units and installation typically cost upward of $100,000 each, and might entail the expense of tearing up pavement to lay conduit.”

See also: EVgo Reaches 250,000+ Customers On Its Charging Network Nationwide