Electrify America Opens its 600th EV Charging Station in the United States
It’s only taken three years for Electrify America to roll out 600 EV ultra-fast charging sites across the continental United States. That’s nearly 2,600 individual DC fast chargers, with Hawaii, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont to receive ultra-fast charging sites by early 2022. This follows the completion of two cross-continental routes completed late in 2020, from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA via I-10 and I-8, and from Washington DC to Los Angeles, CA.
Electrify America charging site with solar canopy in Baker, California.
It’s only taken three years for Electrify America to roll out 600 EV ultra-fast charging sites across the continental United States. That’s nearly 2,600 individual DC fast chargers, with Hawaii, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont to receive ultra-fast charging sites by early 2022. This follows the completion of two cross-continental routes completed late in 2020, from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA via I-10 and I-8, and from Washington DC to Los Angeles, CA.
Electrify America’s cross-continental routes. Image: Electrify America
“With our rapid station deployment, we are on track to have 800 charging stations with about 3,500 chargers open or under development by the end of this year - delivering on our commitment to make EV driving easier and more accessible,” said Giovanni Palazzo, president and chief executive officer, Electrify America. “We’re proud to be on the forefront of expanding the nation’s EV charging infrastructure and are excited to see our continued growth, as we help meet EV demand and climate priorities set by the Administration.”
Electrify America is also continuing its rollout in states with a smaller population of EV drivers — and greater distances between metropolitan areas — such as Minnesota, Montana, and New Hampshire.
It’s network consists of 150kW DC chargers, which can add about 7.5 miles (12 kilometres) of battery range per minute for capable vehicles, while highway locations feature 150kW and 350kW chargers, which can add an estimated 23 miles (37 kilometres) of battery range per minute for capable vehicles.
The network isn’t perfect however, with a number of YouTubers and EV drivers experiencing multiple issues with charging on the network, from software to hardware, on vehicles such as Ford’s Mustang Mach-E, and Volkswagen’s ID.4. This is particularly ironic given Volkswagen’s involvement with the rollout of the Electrify America network. Charging station reliability is even more important than charging station ubiquity and and speed in our opinion, and is crucial to increasing the uptake of battery electric vehicles, and providing peace of mind to all current and prospective EV drivers.
US Big Corporates Push for Zero Emissions Vehicle Regulations
With a President-elect pledging to take meaningful action on climate change, Corporate America stands ready to act and take advantage of pro-renewables and clean-tech policies. The Zero Emissions Transport Association (ZETA) is a new federal coalition “advocating for national policies that will enable 100% electric vehicle sales throughout the light-, medium-, and heavy-duty sectors by 2030."
With a President-elect pledging to take meaningful action on climate change, Corporate America stands ready to act and take advantage of pro-renewables and clean-tech policies. The Zero Emissions Transport Association (ZETA) is a new federal coalition “advocating for national policies that will enable 100% electric vehicle sales throughout the light-, medium-, and heavy-duty sectors by 2030."
Comprising some of America’s largest corporate entities ranging from Tesla and Rivian, through to Uber, conEdison and Duke Energy, ZETA wants to see the full adoption of electric vehicles to secure American global EV manufacturing leadership, and reduce carbon pollution and therefore, emissions.
Policy goals of ZETA include:
Expanded incentives, which means not only lifting the per-manufacturer cap on the $7,500 consumer tax credit, but also making it a "point of sale" rebate. Other goals include a program to incentivize trade-ins of fossil fuel-powered vehicles.
Federal emissions and efficiency performance standards that will send the "correct market signals" for faster electric vehicle deployment by the auto industry.
New federal infrastructure investments and support for domestic manufacturing, and support for local pro-electric vehicle policies.
According to Joe Britton, the Executive Director of ZETA, “Transportation is responsible for more carbon emissions than any other sector of the U.S. economy. By embracing EVs, federal policymakers can help drive innovation, create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and improve air quality and public health.”
ZETA believes that consumer incentives drive adoption of new technology, and represent one real way to drive the shift to EVs in the US. Providing credits for older combustion engined vehicles will help to speed the transition, and will also boost domestic economic growth. ZETA hopes that a Biden administration would use policy mechanisms to encourage job creation in the EV manufacturing and supply chains. Biden has already stated that he wants the federal government to move towards a 100% clean energy fleet, and wants to work closely with state governors and mayors to roll-out 500,000 new public chaging stations by 2030.
Electric car sales are increasing in market share across the world, while conbustion-engined passenger car sales are slowing. This has been further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The overall market share of plug-in vehicles is still relatively small however, comprising 326,000 or 2% of the total market in the US in 2019, 564,206 or 3.6% of the total market in Europe, and 1,180,000 or 6.8% of the market in China.
For more information visit https://www.zeta2030.org/
Source: Axios
Image: ZETA
Image: ZETA
