The slow buildout of electric vehicle charging stations in the US could actually be a good thing
There is a shortage of electric vehicle chargers in the United States as the number of electric vehicles on the road continues to grow.
Straight Arrow News
Michigan receives more federal funding to build electric vehicle charging stations in Detroit and Ann Arbor.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced it is supporting three projects in Michigan with $26.2 million in grants to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the two cities. The money is part of $521 million in grants earmarked to further expand electric vehicle and alternative fuel charging infrastructure in 29 states on lands belonging to eight federally recognized tribes and the District of Columbia.
The funding announced on Tuesday is intended to finance the construction of more than 9,200 charging stations for electric vehicles.
“This investment gives states, tribes and localities public funds to build a more accessible national charging network,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a former governor of Michigan. “It will create good-paying local jobs and provide more transportation options for Americans regardless of where they live or their income. And those looking for a new vehicle can more safely take advantage of tax credits to purchase new and used electric vehicles.”
President Joe Biden has long championed electric vehicles and has allocated $7.5 billion to build 500,000 new charging stations across the country as part of a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Michigan is set to receive $110 million through fiscal year 2026. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris of California, the leading state for electric vehicles, would likely continue Biden’s policies if elected.
The Department of Transportation said Tuesday that the number of publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations has doubled since the start of the Biden administration, with about 1,000 new public charging stations being added each week. This latest effort to expand electric vehicle infrastructure is part of Biden’s efforts to provide a reliable network of national charging stations along designated highways, expressways and major arteries. There were 168,388 public electric vehicle charging stations nationwide as of March, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center.
As the Detroit Free Press reported, Michigan has set a goal of having 100,000 publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations by 2030, but as of April, there were fewer than 2,000. Data compiled by the Anderson Economic Group shows 311 public direct current fast-charging stations (DC stations with a capacity of 75 kilowatts per hour) and 1,141 “Level 2” chargers, which charge electric vehicles more slowly than DC chargers.
Jackson-based Consumers Energy said this month it expects to have 1,500 new fast-charging stations operational in Michigan by the end of 2030. The forecast is based on market trends for electric vehicle purchases in the state.
Although growth in electric vehicles is slower than experts predicted, it still exceeds the number of charging stations, Elizabeth Krear, vice president of electric vehicles at JD Power, told the Free Press earlier this summer. “A critical factor that is exacerbating the problem is that electric vehicles are growing twice as fast as infrastructure. That is exacerbating the reliability problem we have with existing infrastructure.”
Krear told the Free Press that charging infrastructure in the U.S. is now 81 percent reliable, meaning consumers experience “charging outages” 19 percent of the time.
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