Finally, there is some evidence of a significant effort to deal with what is going to be a serious need for more charging stations here in the massive D.C. area. Full-Electric vehicles are multiplying like rabbits in this area....and the total number of registered vehicles of all types here is enormous (currently over 13 million), perhaps second as a region only to Southern California. While it is still not the ideal answer for those who, for whatever reason, do not have (or cannot have) EV-charging at home, it is still a big step in the right direction...particularly if ICE vehicles are going to be phased out of production in the next decade.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/trans...8-1231380f446b





TRANSPORTATION

New EV charging stations to dot highways beginning next year

The District, Maryland and Virginia are getting $186 million in federal funding to improve electric vehicle infrastructure as part of a $5 billion nationwide program

By Luz Lazo
October 21, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT Hundreds of new electric vehicle charging stationswill open as soon as next year along highways in the greater Washington region and nationwide as part of a multibillion-dollar plan to deploy fast-charging systems for a growing fleet of electric cars.

Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.The District, Maryland and Virginia are launching plans to add fast-charging ports along major corridors, including interstates 95, 66, 270 and 295, using $186 million allocated to the region in federal infrastructure money.

Federal officials recently gave the green light to plans submitted by each state, the District and Puerto Rico, announcingfunding allocations from a $5 billion pot of money over five years. The investment comes as the Biden administration pushes to build a more convenient and affordable network of charging stations on the U.S. highway system, part of a broader push to promote climate goals.

In the Washington region, electric vehicles are a fraction of cars on the road — about 2 percent of the more than 13 million registered vehicles in D.C., Maryland and Virginia — although the number of EVs registered in the region has risen about 65-fold in the past decade.

“America led the original automotive revolution in the last century, and today … we’re poised to lead in the 21st century with electric vehicles,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in announcing the money.

The program aims to create a system in which EV charging ports are available every 50 miles along interstates, and within a mile of the highway. Each station would have at least four fast chargers that can recharge an EV battery in 15 to 45 minutes. Charging stations are currently dominated by slower chargers that can take well over an hour to charge a battery.

Transportation experts say creating such a network would reduce range anxiety among vehicle owners, one of the biggest barriers to transitioning to EVs. The federal grants will cover up to 80 percent of the costs of new charging stations, upgrades to existing stations and other expenses associated with the infrastructure. State transportation agencies will determine their locations, then hire contractors for construction and operations.

In the District, Maryland and Virginia, plans call for chargers along 36 corridors, mainly along interstate highways. Officials in the three jurisdictions said they plan to fill in gaps along routes where some charging already is available, while additional corridors could be added in the future.

D.C. to prioritize equity in preparations for $3 billion in federal infrastructure funds

“We want to make sure that these chargers are accessible to the public, that they’re located close enough together that people are confident they can get a recharge and that when they get to one of these charging stations, they’ll be operable,” said Maryland Deputy Transportation Secretary Earl Lewis.

Officials say the investments are necessary to keep up with demand as EV technology advances. More car manufacturers are building EVs and the federal government has boosted tax incentives for buyers.

A reliable network of public charging stations is critical for meeting environmental goals set across the Washington region, transportation and planning officials said. In the D.C. area, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) has set a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, in large part by shifting away from internal combustion engines.

Jeffrey King, director of climate, energy and air programs at COG, said the regional council recently approved a working group to provide coordination as different jurisdictions seek federal funds and deploy EV infrastructure. He said more fast-charging options will be a major incentive in the transition to EVs, although he said parts of the region will likely face challenges in finding sites, particularly in the District and other urban areas where real estate prices are high.

“Every time I drive I see more EVs, so we know they’re here and we know there are going to be more,” he said.

In 2020, the Washington region had more than 33,000 electric-vehicle owners — or about 1.7 percent of all light-duty vehicles — while there are more than 100,000 registered EVs this year across D.C., Maryland and Virginia. The increase in ownership has driven a proliferation in charging plugs in the D.C. area, from more than 300 in 2012 to more than 3,500 last year, according to COG. Most of those stations, however, do not include fast chargers.

The federal funding would expand rapid charging in high-demand corridors such as Interstate 270 in Maryland — home to the state’s Zip codes with the highest rates of EV ownership — and along interstates 66 and 95 in Virginia. Officials in both states and in D.C. say the investment will be equitable while covering rural and underserved communities. State transportation officials are looking at installations in public settings near the highways, such as park-and-ride lots, community centers and gas stations.

Construction for charging stations across the Washington area will likely begin next year.

Pedestrian, bike and transit projects in D.C. area get federal boost

Antoine Thompson, executive director of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition, said more investment will be needed, particularly to ensure widespread charging is available.

“This all will help with creating a nationwide network from one coast to the other. However, it won’t get every highway in the state,”he said. “It won’t get as many underserved areas as we would like, but it will drive us in the right direction.”

Lanny Hartmann, of Columbia, Md., has been driving an electric vehicle for a decade and said he often encounters difficulties finding workable or compatible chargers. He said consumers want charging stations that are interoperable and readily available.

“It is not ‘range anxiety’ but ‘charger anxiety’ that concerns us,” said Harmann, who runs a blog on plug-in infrastructure. He said he recently tested 69 fast chargers in Maryland and found 71 percent were fully functional.

While Tesla has built a network of thousands of supercharger sites in the past decade, he said, those chargers only work with Tesla vehicles, leaving a gap for a growing fleet of other EVs.

“Drivers of electric vehicles that use a different plug need a network of chargers that are convenient and reliable,” he said. “That’s what is exciting about the national electric vehicle infrastructure plan.”

Transportation officials in the District, which is getting $16.6 million, said the program will help the city advance ambitious goals to be carbon-neutral by 2050. The city will focus in the next year on building the infrastructure along interstates 295 and 395, as well as sections of Rhode Island Avenue, New York Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

“These very important federal dollars will help us keep up with the demands of a modernized transportation network where electric vehicle stations are amply available and conveniently accessible to those in all eight wards of our District,” Everett Lott, the city’s transportation chief, said in a statement.

The District has six fast-charging stations and 36 ports. Slower charging stations are more widely available, with about 250 stations and more than 650 ports citywide. About 5,200 electric vehicles are registered in the District, up from about 600 six years ago.

The city’s plan approved by the federal government showspotential locations of 12 stations, including four along I-295 and two in each of the other four corridors. D.C. officials declined to provide an estimate of how many new ports will be built at those stations.

The city said it plans to put the stationsout for bid this winter, with construction to begin in spring and with completion by the end of summer 2023. Officials said plans call for adding more routes after build-out is completed in the first five corridors. Charging stations will be privately owned, with the District Department of Transportation providing oversight.

In Maryland, transportation officials said its $63 million will allow the state to build between 50 and 70 new charging stations. That would include between 200 and 280 fast-charging ports.

“This will jump-start our fast-charging infrastructure,” Lewis said, noting that the number of stations will depend on cost. He said a station could cost between $600,000 and $1 million, depending on the location and how expensive it is to run the electric utility infrastructure.

Maryland currently has a network of 1,200 stations — and nearly 3,350 ports — of which only 16 stations meet new federal requirements of four ports with at least 150 kilowatts of power each and within easy access to the highway.

State officials say a reliable network will help Maryland reachenvironmental goals, such as having 300,000 zero-emission vehicles by 2025, then double that by 2030. In the past decade, Maryland has seen its EV registrations spike from fewer than 1,000 to nearly 60,000.

Plans in Maryland call for expanding charging along 23 corridors, including the Capital Beltway, I-270, I-95, I-70 and routes 1, 50 and 301 in the D.C. suburbs.

Across the Potomac, Virginia is focusing on building charging infrastructure in eight corridors that includes nearly all of its interstate highway miles.

Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marshall Herman said the state’s priority at the start of the five-year program is to install stations to fill charginggaps along those corridors, then potentially add more. The state is slated to receive about $106 million in federal funding.

A 2021 VDOTsurvey found that current and potential EV drivers identified difficulty finding a charging station as a primary barrier to purchasingan EV. Virginia has about44,000 registered EVs, about 1.5 percent of light-duty vehicles in the state.

There are 1,031 public charging stations in the state, with 2,912 ports across all speeds and connector types. That includes 190 fast-charging stations, of which 17 meet the federal requirement of being within a mile of the interstate and having four fast ports.

Virginia, like other jurisdictions, will not own, operate or maintain charging stations, but will provide oversight.

As states move toward launching the program, some officials said they hope to avoid supply chain challenges as 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico embark on similarprojects. States and communities will also be able to compete for another $2.5 billion for charging infrastructure in rural, underserved and overburdened communities.

 

I predict massive failure and billions lost. Let’s see how it turns out in 5yrs.
4 fast chargers per station?! Thats too funny

The only way chargers work is if the car companies themselves start to operate them like Tesla did.

 

Really? You don't say lol

 

That’s not gonna work either. Eventually the states and municipalities will tax EVs. And once that is done, the lustre will be gone. There will be end of life battery recycling fees, surcharges for plugging them in at home…the possibilities of what can be taxed are endless. Then you have the inflated cost as battery resources become more limited. You need revenue to fix the highways. You need revenue to fix and upgrade the chargers. Then you have the cost of electricity. I haven’t even mentioned the grid upgrades.





I remember a time when there were no fishing license fees. No tire tax fee for disposable. No computer batter reclining fee. Now there’s carbon tax fees. With EVs, the possibilities will be endless.











Look at that…a new fee

 

Anything government tries to operate never ends well.

10-12 yrs ago when government got into Student Loans - all the major banks got out of that sector as they saw what would happen. Now we see the result of massive student debt, astronomical tuition and huge debt burden for unqualified candidates.

Throwing $$$ at problems is never a solution.
These chargers need to be operated as For Profit businesses and will need consistent maintenance capex to run and actually work. Not to mention generate a profit for them to even exist.

 

I said a few years ago that EVs will be more expensive and more controlled since that's how tech usually trends over time......now with these plans the writing is on the wall so to speak that 100k will be the new 35k car

 

Tesla builds its own charging network, so we the owners pay for it. I am not so sure I like the idea of subsidizing the other guys by building out a network for them.

 

They already are more expensive. I paid $63K all in for my limited 4Runner. New bZ4X is $64K before tax (priced where I live full time). The bZ4X lacks full time 4WD. 3 rows (not that I like the idea of my 3 rows) Lacks the range. Many of the features such as a sunroof or cooling seats. Or reclining rear seats. Or sliding 2row seats. Not to mention tow cap. Payload. LO range. I don’t even think there is a rear wiper. Lacks genuine real leather as well. And window that goes down in the back (not that I care for mine). An EV 4Runner equivalent of mine has to be $100K no doubt.

 

the article talks of the govt spending in DC, Maryland, and Virginia, so certainly not just the DC area. that area is huge. grantsville MD to virginia beach VA is 360 miles. dc is a spec in that lot.

again, comparing DC (.7M pop) + Maryland (6M) + Virginia (8.5).

$186M for 15.5M people, so that's $12 a person, not likely to make much fo a dent.

example:

not much for the entire state of maryland!

and why should it be funded by taxpayers if it's 'so great'?

 

I've been to Grantsville, a number of times.......driven through it on the old U.S. 40 across the mountains to Ohio. It is a rural small town, high up on the Allegheny Plateau, in the far-western part of the state, where there are a lot more deer than humans or vehicles LOL. Not anywhere near the need for charging stations there as in the severely overcrowded D.C. area.


Ordinarily I'm not a big one for Federal pork-projects, but IMO this one has merit. If we are all going to be forced into EVs in decade or so by Federal and state action (although I will avoid the politics of that here, by CL rules)......then they can at least pay for some of the infrastructure-upgrades that are going to be needed.

 

they is us.

 

I always find it hilarious people don't realize that.

 

I think MM is referring to the Federal Government. But why should everyones taxes go to paying for EV stuff when not everyone drives? or uses the roads.

 

We fund the Federal Government with our taxes, thats exactly what bit was saying. There is no "they pay". Its like when my wife goes out and buys me Christmas presents...I make all the income so I just bought myself Christmas presents lol.

As for everybody's taxes going up, thats just the way it works. We all pay for schools when we have no kids, fire support when our houses aren't on fire, etc. Just the nature of things.

 

Come on, folks. I DO realize that..at least to an extent. My point, though, is that even though it's our money that is collected, we don't make the decisions on how to spend it.

My opinion, though, is that this is money well-spent. Some of you (like in your case, Steve) can simply plug your EV into the garage 110 or 220-volt wall-outlet overnight, go to bed, get up, and have a nice full battery....many others of us can't. You have to think of those who cannot....and moving to another place is not always a feasible option.