Photo: Arizona had the seventh-highest number of electric vehicles in the nation in 2020, but charging stations remain scarce. Grand Canyon National Park is among the spots in the state accessible by electric vehicle. (Photo courtesy of Michael Quinn/NPS)
With more electric vehicles humming down highways, states are under increasing pressure to install more public charging stations to make sure the juice keeps flowing.
The challenge is particularly acute in California, which adopted a rule in August to gradually phase out sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 with the goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to help fight climate change.
States can take advantage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which gives $5 billion nationally for public charging stations as part of the new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program. States that write up strategic plans to expand charging station infrastructure are eligible for a grant from the program to help make it possible.
The program should benefit Arizona, with wide open spaces and long distances between major cities. It recently was granted $76.5 million over three years to install stations along interstate highways in the state.
The Arizona Department of Transportation is holding a series of public meetings, including Nov. 16 in Phoenix, to gather comments on the plan.
“The plan basically calls for electrical vehicle charging stations to be placed either upgraded existing stations and eventually new stations no more than 50 miles apart initially on the interstate system in Arizona,” said Doug Nick, an ADOT spokesman.
There are two exceptions, both involving proposed stations up to 70 miles apart. One would be on Interstate 8 between Gila Bend and Casa Grande, the other on Interstate 40 between Kingman and Seligman.
Electric-vehicle owners say additional public chargers will help give them peace of mind that they won’t be stranded without juice.
“When I first got the Tesla, I didn’t have the at-home charger,” said Samatha Solis, who attends Arizona State University. “So honestly it was such a hassle having to recharge it or find a charger.”
Arizona had 1,952 charging ports as of 2021 and California had 34,185 according to evadoption. Evadoption’s goal is “to provide data-driven analysis and forecasts.”
The need is even more acute in California now that it intends to eventually end sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles. The state has set a goal of having 35% of all new vehicles sold starting in 2026 will be zero-emission. The number increases to 68% by 2030 and to 100% by 2035.
Such a radical change in transportation has raised fears that demand for EV charging will strain the power grid, that enough electricity can’t be generated to recharge all of those vehicles.
It’s easy to see why when visiting a large charging station like the one Tesla has built in Santa Monica, west of Los Angeles. Even at midday on a weekday, Tesla cars and SUVs were coming and going steadily, with most of the chargers in use at any given moment.
The Biden administration says that Tesla is working to build new supercharger equipment that will permit non-Tesla drivers to utilize the equipment.
But one renewable energy advocate said California is producing so much renewable energy that the grid “They’re installing more solar and wind energy on the grid every year than all the electric cars sold that year or whatever need and it’s by several orders of magnitude,” said Paul Scott, co-founder of the advocacy group Plug In America. “So the grid will continue to get cleaner even with the added demand from electric vehicles.”
Nick, the ADOT spokesperson, said Arizona’s major power producers have been brought into the conversation to make sure there will be ample power as transportation electrifies.
6 Responses
Not a single negative statement about the total concept of a battery powered car. Remember the early 1900’s and the advent of the horseless carriage. Few paved roads, few gasoline stations and a growing number of eager buyers of these new vehicles. There was also a few steam powered carriages.
Enter the world wide push to phase out CO2 creating vehicles. Did it come form a consumer demand? No. Did it come from a pending worldwide man caused disaster? Well, those who seek to rule from a world wide platform tell us we must stop CO2 creation if we are to have an inhabitable planet. STOP! A little research will show CO2 is 1/40 of “one” percent of our atmosphere and we know in the past CO2 was 5 times or more higher.
We are living in a worldwide fraud. America can free itself from this with a change of government in Washington. Hopefully, that will occur in the next two elections or our constitutional republic will be no more.
I try to show Mr. Steele respect, he is earnest when writing his comments, but he does not understand science and he refuses to learn. Please disregard his comments re: CO2. If you are interested in finding out more about the science re: Carbon Dioxide and it’s effect on climate, here is a link: https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/02/25/carbon-dioxide-cause-global-warming/#:~:text=As%20CO2%20soaks%20up%20this,.
Careful, Anthony “Kickback” Fauci won’t take kindly to your claim that you represent science.
Besides, you just clobbered your own scientific credibility by referencing an article by the clowns at the Columbia Climate School. FACT: the only things that interest the Columbia Climate School are big fat government grants and the money they can make writing stuff to support the Radical Left’s Climate Fear Campaign. They have zero credibility. Now you do too.
CRONKITE NEWS HEADLINE: “Driving an electric vehicle doesn’t need to cause range anxiety.”
FACT: Electric vehicles have only a fraction of the range of a petrol-powered vehicle
FACT: It takes much longer to charge batteries than it does to fill a petrol tank.
FACT: If you buy an electric vehicle you must ACCEPT RANGE ANXIETY AS A GIVEN.
Anyway, Cronkite News just nuked a bit more of its last pathetic scraps of credibility. They write in a way that implies they’re so smart that we should always listen to them and believe whatever they say because all of us are so stoopid. To fight these nasty, manipulative, condescending clowns, proceed as follows:
Vote in person on Nov 8th.
Vote the Republican Golden Ticket (yavgop-dot-org).
Vote NO on Propositions 209, 211, 308 and 310. Some of them are pure Democrat Radical Left filth.
Never vote again for a Democrat. They promise great things, but in the end they ALWAYS STEAL MONEY FROM THE TAXPAYER AND USE IT TO BUY VOTES & SUPPORT. Filth!
I will ask again, are you alright???
Creepy!