In a report, the White House released new figures on the expansion of the U.S. electric vehicle charging network, a small positive development in an area that has typically been a sensitive one for EV adoption.
In his third quarter updateThe Joint Office of Energy and Transportation reported that there are more than 192,000 publicly available Level 2, or DC, charging stations in the U.S. That’s an increase of about 9,000 points from the second quarter, but down from the 13,000 points added in the second quarter.
The country’s charging infrastructure consists largely of private networks, although the government is funding this build-out through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, as well as state initiatives to expand public charging infrastructure. chargers.
President Joe Biden has invested a huge amount of political capital in the US’s EV transformation, and some of that is a $7.5 billion expansion of the nation’s EV charging infrastructure. Through public and private funding, the White House is targeting 500,000 new chargers by the end of the decade through the NEVI program.
According to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, the size of the U.S. charging network has doubled since the Biden-Harris administration took office.
In March, the White House faced criticism when it unveiled only seven government-funded charging stations had been built with 38 ports available for charging since the program began in 2021. The White House countered that it had taken its time to “get the program right” and that the buildout would accelerate as it moves through 2024.
“There are currently 69 NEVI-funded public charging ports in operation, spread across 17 stations in eight states, more than double the number of operational NEVI ports compared to the previous quarter. A total of 40 states have issued at least their first round of solicitations,” the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation said in the Q3 report. “Of these states, 29 have made conditional awards or entered into agreements for more than 2,800 fast-charging ports at more than 700 charging station locations.”
Experts believe that the delay This is also due to state and local governments, which despite NEVI funding, have little to no experience in building out charging infrastructure.
Nevertheless, the build-out and massive increase in the number of publicly available chargers is crucial to the government’s goal of electrifying the country’s vehicle fleet. new emission target for vehiclesAlthough the measures are less severe than originally planned, more electric cars will still be needed on the road in 2030.
And a big part of that is charging. Yahoo Finance-Ipsos Survey A survey conducted in late 2023 found that Americans are primarily reluctant to buy an electric car because of a lack of charging stations or home charging points, with 77% of respondents saying they were concerned about this.
“I’m often asked if there’s a magic number for how many public charging stations we need in the United States. That’s a very difficult question to answer, since adequate charging infrastructure largely depends on the number of EVs on the road, access to home charging, use cases, etc.,” Brent Gruber, executive director of J.D. Power’s EV practice, told Yahoo Finance. “Instead, I look at the number of charging ports in terms of how well they satisfy EV owners with their availability.”
Gruber notes that while the number of charging ports in the U.S. is growing, satisfaction with charger availability is mixed. The latest J.D. Power survey found that satisfaction with DC fast charging availability increased 20 points from last year (from 673 to 693), though availability of the much more common and less powerful Level 2 charger decreased (from 593 to 583).
“Given that satisfaction levels are so low for both categories, we are certainly not at the level we need yet,” Gruber said.
John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry trade association, echoed that sentiment earlier this year, saying the government’s plans for electric vehicle adoption are at stake.
“The transformation of America’s electric vehicle landscape goes hand in hand with reliable electric vehicle charging infrastructure. You can’t have one without the other,” he said. “Getting more Americans to drive electric starts with making sure they have access — no matter their zip code — to reliable and ubiquitous public charging stations.”
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and further Instagram.
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