EV road trip anyone? White House says more electric vehicle charging stations are on the way

15.01.2024 - 21:09 / thepointsguy.com / Joe Biden

The White House says it is making progress on the charging network the country needs to enable long road trips in electric cars.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced $623 million to fund 47 electric vehicle charging and alternative-fueling infrastructure projects in 22 states and Puerto Rico, the latest round of money stemming from the Biden administration's investment in building an EV charging network across the U.S.

One of the biggest hurdles to the American transition to EVs has been range anxiety among consumers due to the lack of available and working chargers, illustrated by the approximately 170,000 public chargers currently available to charge the estimated 4 million EVs on American roads per government data. In September, the U.S. Department of Transportation authorized $100 million to repair and replace existing but non-operational charging infrastructure.

The recently announced funding is just one part of the way the government is trying to solve the range anxiety issues preventing more Americans from adopting EVs.

The funding includes money for some 7,500 new EV charging ports in states such as New Jersey, California, Texas and Arizona.

The administration wants at least 500,000 public chargers across the U.S. by 2030.

"I actually think we're going to hit 500,000 chargers a couple of years before 2030," Shailen Bhat, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, said in a Zoom interview late Thursday. "It's a function of how quickly the states are able to get agreements with private sector companies to go build them, but I'm quite confident we're going to hit the 2023 goal before 2030."

Bhatt, who was sworn in as the 21st FHWA administrator one year ago, likened the challenge of Americans with range anxiety embracing EVs to the country building out its interstate system in the 1950s and '60s. The difference now, he says, is the advanced technology to help locate and use charging stations.

"We had to come up with rules around rest areas every 50 miles, and organizations like AAA sprung up so that people could get information," he recalled. "Through technology, people are going to be able to check out apps or Google Maps or whatever it might be to get access to that information."

In addition to funding for more charging stations, funding to address the reliability of existing chargers will be announced soon, according to Bhatt. The most common reasons for failed EV charging stations are problems with station connectivity, internal station fault errors and credit card reader problems, according to Kara Eastman of the National Consumers League, a consumer advocacy organization based in Washington.

One condition of the new 500,000 charging stations being installed is that they have