U.S. Charging Network Growing Nicely

[Fun TC Driving]

{Admin, if should be moved thanks for doing so}

The U.S. Is Now Adding 1,000 New EV Chargers Every Week

By: Rob Stumpf

Public EV chargers are becoming more commonplace than ever. It's becoming normal to plug in while shopping at your favorite mall or grocery store, and road trips are becoming a breeze for EVs as many popular highway corridors are sporting flashy new DC Fast Chargers. If you're wondering why, it's because EV charger deployment has doubled in the past four years—and you've got grant money to thank for that.

InsideEvs

The latest count of public EV chargers has swelled to 192,000. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this number has doubled since the Biden administration took office and is continuing to grow at a rapid rate of 1,000 new chargers every week.

Along with the announcement comes the awarding of $521 million in grants to further expand charging access across the U.S. highway system. This includes 29 states, the District of Columbia, and two Federally Recognized Tribes—a total of 9,200 new EV charging ports.

"The Biden-Harris Administration has been clear about America leading the EV revolution, and thanks to the historic infrastructure package, we’re building a nationwide EV charger network to make sure all drivers have an accessible, reliable, and convenient way to charge their vehicles," said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. "The awards that we’re announcing today will build on this important work and will help ensure that the cost savings, health and climate benefits, and jobs of the EV future are secured for Americans across the country."

The growth rate is rather impressive, actually. In mid-January, the U.S. government reported more than 169,000 chargers were deployed and online, meaning a 14% growth in just seven months. The number of chargers deployed weekly has also grown by 11%—from 900 to 1,000—during the same period.

The DOE's Alternative Fuel Data Center hasn't been updated to reflect all the new locations, but comparing the numbers to January shows us that the U.S. is prioritizing the deployment of DC Fast Chargers over Level 2 chargers. In January, 23% of online chargers were DCFC compared to 25% today. This could be explained by the grant throwing gobs of money at fast-charging "corridor" projects along the nation's highways, a goal to make traversing the States easier while in an EV.

Ultimately, the U.S. government aims to deploy 500,000 public chargers nationwide by 2030. With five years left to go, it's about a third of the way there. However, officials believe this number won't be met; it will be eclipsed. Earlier this year, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that figures pointed at the U.S. reaching 1.2 million chargers by the top of the decade.

https://insideevs.com/news/731390/critical-materials-20240827/

 

[PanameraFrank]

I can tell you from real world experience that supercharging is getting worse, not better.

The pace of expansion is far slower than the addition of new EV owners, and reliability remains dreadful.

I have tens of thousands of road tripping miles in EVs. Never been stranded, always had a good time, but if you're expecting to roll into superchargers at perfect intervals and have no problems you're in for an unpleasant surprise.

If you're trying to use a supercharger for a weekend trip, best of luck. Even in the EV mecca that is the West coast, you should expect maybe half of the chargers to be working and expect a line, including people that leave their car for hours.

I love owning EVs. I love road tripping EVs. But I want people to go into it with their eyes open to the reality of it. Supercharging is getting more difficult, not easier, and the real trick is finding destination chargers and free slow chargers.

 

[Fun TC Driving]

Fully agree that we need to prepare, with back up locations pre-scouted out, before going on a road trip. Also, like you though with many fewer road trip miles than you, every EV trip of ours has gone excellently.

 

[RunningOnSolar]

The major sea change here is when almost every charging location is an option. This will happen when NACS adapters are available to us, hopefully by next summer.

It is also extremely important to charge earlier than needed rather than use an ICE mentality of running to near empty. Also as stated, to be very aware of alternate charging locations and not to travel as much during peak traffic times. This is always good advice for long trips that I’ve been following for my major road trip every year.

 

[RunningOnSolar]

Speaking of adapters, this YouTube video (at 11:00 in) shows how ChargePoint plans to make adapters unnecessary at their charging stations:

Hopefully Electrify America and others will follow suit as Tesla provided a related solution with their “magic dock”

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