Federal funding over the next five years should see significant expansion of EV charging points along US highways
HEED THE CALL
Car makers from across the world are preparing for the growth in EV sales in the US with a host of new models entering the market
USER EXPERIENCE
Complicated and unequal charging processes are putting prospective buyers off
KEY QUOTE
Customers often aren’t getting the experience they should and is crucial to making e-mobility attractive
President Biden’s executive order setting a target of at least 50% of all new vehicles sold in the United States by 2030 should be electric or plug-in hybrids appears to be gaining traction among automakers. Consumer Reports, an American consumer non-profit organisation, found in April 2022 that dozens of pure battery electric vehicle (EV) models are set to debut in the US by autumn 2024. Many manufacturers, however, were already pivoting in that direction before Biden’s announcement. Legacy automaker Ford started rebranding itself in late 2020 under newly-installed CEO Jim Farley who pledged that at least 40% of the company’s global sales by 2030 would be EVs. Long-time rival General Motors (GM) said it would aim to only sell EV passenger cars by 2035, while Netherlands-based manufacturer Stellantis, created in October 2021 by a merger between Fiat Chrysler and French auto giant PSA (formerly PSA Peugeot Citroën), also said that more than 40% of its sales in the US would be EVs by 2030. Biden’s 50% by 2030 goal, which is not legally binding, must be put into perspective, however. McKinsey, a consultancy, projects that EVs will make up 75% of new European car sales by 2030, still a considerable lead over the US. China, the world’s largest car market, is projected to have EVs make up around 40% of total vehicle sales by 2030. Given the country’s size, this amounts to some 50 million new EVs on the road.
PUBLIC PERCEPTION Public perception has to be factored into any possible EV pivot in the US. By 2020, only 2.2% of new vehicle sales in the US were fully electric, according to Edmunds, a car industry research firm. Edmunds analysts project that market share to grow to 4% in 2022, surpassing 600,000 units for the first time. Market share is still inhibited due to a lack of available EV charging stations. The fear of a battery running out of charge mid-journey and an overall lack of EV infrastructure remains a worry for many potential American EV owners. Many are also still enamoured by decades of gas-fueled vehicles which perpetuates the American fascination with independence and fast and powerful cars, despite their CO2 emissions. As such, changing common perceptions about how cars can be powered while also changing these cultural dynamics pose significant challenges among large segments of the population. Currently, most EV charging takes place at home but as the number of EVs grows, so will the need for more public charging outlets. Jean-Christoph Heyne of Siemens’ Future Grids business unit argues that it is a burden if people have to rely on public charging infrastructure. “If it is not there, you will think twice before buying an e-vehicle,” he says. McKinsey says potential EV drivers list the lack of charging infrastructure at the top of the list of barriers to adoption, adding that the availability and convenience of publicly accessible chargers will be crucial for the complete electrification of the vehicle fleet. In an acknowledgement of these hurdles, the US Departments of Energy and Transportation backed up Biden’s green pledge in February 2022 by announcing a $5 billion investment fund to develop a national EV charging network. Paul Matthews, a director at Tulsa-based Bemp Research, an EV battery start-up, says this figure is still too low to make much of a difference. However, while the required investment and volume of chargers is still up for debate, the proposal is a step in the right direction.
STATE PARTICIPATION The two federal agencies, without releasing more details, said the funding will be distributed over five years to help state authorities create a network of EV charging stations along designated Alternative Fuel Corridors (AFC) that nearly every state has designed over the past six years, focussed along the nation’s Federal Interstate Highway System. These corridors will become the spine of the new charging network of approximately 265,000 kilometres, along segments of 134 interstates and 125 highways across 46 states plus the District of Columbia. However, states must submit an EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan before they can access the funds. The Federal Highway Administration will approve eligible plans by September 30th, 2022. Ultimately, it will be up to the states to decide what kind of chargers to install and where to put them. A second, competitive grant programme designed to further increase EV charging access in locations throughout the country, including in rural and underserved communities, will be announced later in 2022.
STATE LEADERSHIP Some more rural states have already taken steps to develop their own charging networks. In 2019, governors from eight western states—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming—signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a framework for creating a so-called Intermountain West EV Corridor to make it possible to drive an EV along major transportation routes in these states. The Federal Highway Administration will also put $6.4 billion toward state carbon reduction efforts, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on April 21st, 2022. The Carbon Reduction Programme (CRP), funded by a bipartisan infrastructure law, will go towards local and state projects aimed at reducing on-road highway-based CO2 emissions. These could range from installing infrastructure to electrifying freight vehicles or improving the terrain for bicycles. These funds will also be allocated over a five-year period. These developments come amid Biden’s goal of cutting US greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in half by 2030. Transportation is the single largest US contributor to climate change, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
NETWORK HURDLES Ease of operation and usage are also factors that have to be worked out for a successful nationwide EV charging network, particularly given the disparity that can exist between state plans. In a January 2022 report, engineering consulting and services firm Umlaut, part of professional services company Accenture, pointed to several areas of improvement needed for current EV charging networks in the US. These same concerns have to be addressed as states build out their own collective EV charging networks as part of the federal plan. Charge point operators (CPOs) lag behind gas stations in terms of convenience and service offerings such as food, restrooms and weather protection, the report says. Transparency is another problem, as some CPOs fail to inform customers how long the charging process will take and how much it will cost. Roaming and interoperability are further issues. “Currently, each CPO’s app shows only its own available charging stations and allows payment only within this CPO’s charging networks,” the report says, adding, “While third-party apps for navigating all charging stations in the country are available, none offer payment across the entire network.” “We see the charging infrastructure in the US expanding—and so does the gap between the leading CPOs and their smaller competitors,” says Christian Sussbauer, e-mobility manager at Umlaut. “As a result, customers often aren’t getting the experience they should and is crucial to making e-mobility attractive,” he adds.
LOCAL NEEDS States have to solve further hurdles if they want to participate in the $5 billion federal pay-out. One question they must answer is determining how many chargers are needed in their respective localities. This could be derived from current EV registrations on the road and future EV sales projections, though the latter would yield imprecise numbers. Aggregating vehicle sales by ZIP (postal) code in a way that vehicle make, model and fuel type can be determined is also a possibility. Opportunities to help states and the federal government in this initiative appear ripe for savvy new technology companies willing to innovate and accept the challenge. States also have to determine where the chargers should be placed. Federal guidelines already call for charging stations to be installed no more than 80 kilometres apart and no more than 1.6 kilometres of driving distance from AFCs. A Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) report from March 2022 put forward the idea of a digital planner, which layers relevant data into geospatial mapping software so that lawmakers and operators can visualise over 60 factors such as current charging stations, retail areas, multi-family housing and median income. The planner then uses multi-criteria decision analysis to weigh a state’s, county’s or city’s unique mix of priorities and rank charger sites based on those priorities. According to CSE, the results yield a customised, interactive map and a list of sites best suited for chargers based on the stated priorities, pinpointed to within a third of a square mile.
NEW BATTERIES However, there is also a part of the conversation that seems to be missing as the country prepares to build out a nationwide charging system. Namely, how improved EV battery technology can reduce the need for so many EV charging stations in the first place. Bemp’s Paul Matthews argues that next-generation batteries hold the key. Matthews cites the development of lithium or sodium sulphur batteries instead of the currently used lithium-ion battery which is an already ageing technology with a host of problems, including overheating, short lifetime, easily flammable so combustible at high impact speeds and high cost—even if they have fallen rapidly in the past decade. Matthews says that the longer an EV battery holds a charge, there is less need for charging stations. “If the range of the car is 1600 kilometres plus and it can be charged in 20 minutes or less, then that would clearly cut down on the charging infrastructure needed since you wouldn’t need to stop and charge very often at all. “You could also charge the EV during a weekly or biweekly run at the grocery store in 20 minutes. You would then bring energy home, as well as groceries,” he adds. “Next-generation chemistries like lithium or sodium sulphur prototypes, when commercialised, will be able to achieve those metrics. Also, 2030 adoption goals will only be met by regulation and technological breakthroughs,” he says. •
TEXT Tim Daiss