A slow rollout of the national charging system could hinder the adoption of electric vehicles

More than two years ago, lawmakers approved billions of dollars to build a national electric vehicle charging network, hoping to encourage more drivers to switch to cleaner cars. The money, included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill, was intended to ensure drivers could reliably travel longer distances without running out of power.

But a robust federal charging network is still years away. Only two states – Ohio and New York – have done so all charging stations open so far. A handful of others have broken ground on projects in recent weeks, aiming for completion in early 2024. A total of 28 states, plus Puerto Rico, have awarded contracts to build chargers or began accepting bids for projects as of December. 15. The rest are much further behind in starting construction.

Widespread availability of chargers is critical to the Biden administration’s goal electric vehicles will make up half of new car sales by 2030. Americans routinely mention ‘range anxiety’ as one of the biggest barriers to buying an electric car About 80 percent of respondents cited concerns about a lack of charging stations as a reason for not purchasing an electric vehicle, according to a survey. April survey from the University of Chicago Energy Policy Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The Biden administration is trying to entice consumers to buy electric vehicles, offering tax breaks of up to $7,500 and promising to build a national backbone of high-speed chargers. This network must give motorists the certainty that they can reach a reliable charger every 80 kilometers along main roads and highways.

The White House has set a goal of building a national network of at least 500,000 public chargers by 2030, but researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory predict the country will. well over a million needed public charging ports by the end of this decade.

Ben Shapiro, a researcher at RMI, a nonprofit that promotes the energy transition, said the country needs to significantly accelerate the pace of new charging infrastructure.

“People certainly feel like there’s not enough charging going on,” Mr. Shapiro said. “And I think that hinders people’s interest in electric cars”

Electric vehicle sales have grown faster than any other major car category, and the country is on track achieved more than one million sales for the first time this year. President Biden’s signature climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, has also led to a wave of investment in electric vehicle manufacturing across the country. But demand has not grown as strongly as expected.

Some state transportation officials said the rollout took more than two years because they had little experience building chargers and navigating new federal requirements was challenging.

In Tennessee, officials began reviewing bids for contracts last month after applications closed. Preston Elliott, deputy commissioner of the state’s transportation department, said he thought Tennessee was making rapid progress, but it still took officials about two years to reach that stage, in part because they had to submit two plans to the federal government and wanted have conversations with stakeholders before opening bids.

“Federal funds come with many requirements and obligations,” Elliott said. “I’ve been doing this for about 30 years, and this is the first time I’ve come across a program that requires so much planning before you spend a dime.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a statement final rules for the program early this year, which will outline the technological requirements and standards that must be met. Chargers must be within a mile of an exit or highway and have four ports that are all operational and meet the minimum power level 97 percent of the time.

But the law gave states flexibility to determine how to award contracts and distribute funds, resulting in varying degrees of progress.

Ohio became the first state to open a charger funded by the new program earlier this month. Mike DeWine, the state’s Republican governor, cited allegations as the main reason for getting the system up and running. There are approximately 43,200 electric vehicles registered in Ohio.

“This industry won’t develop unless people think they have places where they can charge their cars,” Mr. DeWine said. “We want to send a message that not only are we bringing in companies here that are building things for the future, but we also want our Ohio consumers to benefit from that.”

Six more charging stations are being designed and construction is expected to begin in the next two months, state officials said. Officials expect to build about 50 charging stations by the end of 2026 to meet the program’s requirements.

Most states are far behind Ohio and New York. While some are issuing contracts to build the network, the actual installation of all the chargers could take years as projects must clear environmental reviews and other bureaucratic hurdles in addition to construction, state officials said. Some states are also building chargers in several phases.

“If you were talking about building a sidewalk, we build sidewalks all day long,” said Mr. Elliott of Tennessee. “When you start talking about a charging system, being open 24/7 and meeting certain power thresholds, I mean, think of the complexity of that.”

Mr Elliott said government officials planned to fund 32 charging stations to meet the program’s requirements and aimed to complete these projects within two years once the contracts were awarded.

Some states with small populations and little charging infrastructure have also taken longer to roll out their programs. In Wyoming, the state’s transportation department started accepting comments this month from potential station owners to better gauge interest in using the federal funds, which could cover up to 80 percent of project costs, plus operating costs.

State officials said they did not know when or if they would award contracts because that would depend on the level of interest. Keith Fulton, assistant chief engineer at the Wyoming Transportation Department, said the process took more than two years, in part because the department has never installed an electric vehicle charger before.

States are also considering what types of connectors they will need. While they are only required to provide ports with Combined Charging System connectors, some states, such as Texas, will also require the plugs that Tesla cars use, known as the North American Charging Standard. Ford And General engines also announced that they would equip future vehicles with Tesla ports.

Loren McDonald, the CEO of EVAdoption, a data and analytics company that tracks each state’s progress, said it was concerning that some automakers have not been clear about whether they will provide adapters when purchasing vehicles. That’s partly because it could complicate some drivers’ ability to use the new chargers. But he noted that Tesla has won many of the bids so far and that other station owners will likely make upgrades to adapt to the market.

Senior Biden administration officials said they expected a wave of new chargers to become available in the coming months, and that the federal government had taken steps to help states move faster, including streamlining environmental permitting processes. Once states completed the planning and design work, they would be able to act much more quickly, they said.

Gabe Klein, executive director of the federal Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, pointed to new private investments in charging infrastructure and said he expected the country to reach the government’s target before 2030.

“Private sector investment is staggering,” Mr. Klein said.

Nick Nigro, the founder of Atlas Public Policy, a policy and data research firm, said states have made significant progress, but much of the work has not been visible to the public.

“I can imagine from the outside that it looks like this is going to take a while,” Mr. Nigro said. “But that’s the process we’ve set up in this country for how we spend money. There are a lot of checks and balances.”

While some drivers said they wanted government officials to use federal funds to build more chargers, they were still hesitant to make the switch to electric vehicles.

Barbara Ziegler, 66, a psychologist in Sheridan, Wyo., said she welcomed more chargers but didn’t yet feel comfortable buying an electric car. She said she often drives more than a hundred miles to see a diabetes specialist, attend conferences and go shopping in larger cities, and she worried she would be stranded along the way due to the lack of chargers.

Ms. Ziegler said she would consider buying a hybrid car, but for now she planned to stick with her 2012 Toyota RAV4 until it needed to be replaced.

“Here we have long, long highways with no towns in between,” Ms. Ziegler said. “I would be too worried if I tried to do the ride solely on electric power.”