The Biden administration wants 50% of all new cars sold by 2030 to be electric or plug-in hybrids. But the average range of today’s electric cars is only about 180 miles. That means for any trip on an interstate, there have to be charging stations every few miles to ensure that people are stuck in the middle of nowhere high and dry.
Recognizing the problem, a big chunk of funding in the infrastructure bill was for building a network of power stations from Texas to Canada and from sea to shining sea.
That’s all well and good, but as the Washington Post points out, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The administration says the money is the largest investment of its kind, yet it still represents a fraction of the estimated $39 billion cost of building a public charging system by 2035.
“The $5 billion the EV Charging Program will provide is a historic investment, but it is far from sufficient,” the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, wrote in comments to the Federal Highway Administration. “Federal Highway Administration. “Federal guidance should do everything possible to encourage complementary commitments and hedge against displacing other investments or programs.”
Highway Administration. “Federal guidance should do everything possible to encourage complementary commitments and hedge against displacing other investments or programs.”
But adding a few thousand power stations across the vast expanse of the U.S. doesn’t even begin to address the problem.
Electric vehicles are a tiny fraction of annual sales and establishing a viable network of chargers — the administration wants 500,000 — is widely seen as a vital step to convince more Americans to switch out their gas-powered cars.
But it’s a job that must account for the needs of apartment and rowhome dwellers, who can’t charge on their driveway,
Authored by Rick Moran via pjmedia.com
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