02/09/2021
What Are The Best Ways To Promote EV Charging Infrastructure Growth?
Build it and they will come.
At first, people tend to see new technologies as updated versions of older ones. Just as early TV shows consisted of filmed radio shows or stage plays, and early web sites resembled the pages of low-budget magazines, many in the mainstream media still believe that vehicle electrification will mean swapping gas pumps for charging stations.
This is why many nay-sayers focus on the fact that charging an EV (still) takes longer than gassing up a legacy vehicle, and it’s the main argument in favor of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. We’ve spent our lives stopping at gas stations and filling up every few days, and it’s understandable that most people can’t imagine not having to do that anymore.
In the future, increased battery capacity, wireless charging and autonomous vehicles will make today’s obsession with charging infrastructure seem as quaint as turn-of-the-century angst about internet bandwidth seems today. Yes, EVs will still need to be charged, but they’ll probably do so off-camera, with little human intervention. One thing I can promise you we won’t be doing is standing around in parking lots waiting for our cars to charge, consuming overpriced sodas and chips and waxing nostalgic for the days of pumping gas, checking oil and wiping windshields.
Informed readers such as yourself know that suburban drivers do most of their charging at home in their garages or driveways, and seldom or never visit public chargers. However, millions of people around the world have no assigned parking spaces and thus no possibility of installing a home charger. These are modern urban dwellers who don’t need long ranges, and many of them would be highly likely to buy EVs if the charging issue could be solved. In fact, many of them may be forced to - several European cities are planning to ban or restrict ICE vehicles in the next few years.
Public charging is also a necessity for making long road trips. This is a different application than daily charging, and requires much more powerful (and more expensive) DC fast chargers. For Tesla drivers, who have the benefit of the vast Supercharger network, this has never been much of a problem - the Tesla road trip has become a staple of the EV literature. Highway charging networks such as Electrify America and IONITY are rapidly rolling out charging stations to serve the less fortunate, and none too soon. A recent New York Times article trumpeted the tribulations of non-Tesla EV drivers who venture beyond commuting range.
The third reason for the importance of public charging infrastructure is simple public perception. Surveys of car buyers consistently find that a lack of “places to charge” is one of the top objections to buying an EV. It may or may not be logical, but it’s pretty much indisputable that, the more people get used to seeing public chargers around town, the more likely they will be to take the electric plunge.
That frictionless future, however, is some years away. Public charging may turn out to be a transitional technology, but it will be an important one for the next decade, for three reasons.