Electric Vehicle Charging Is Going to Get Political

The question is whether each local authority is willing to chip in where federal funding may fall short. “The next 10 years [in EV charging] About urban environments, cities, middle- and low-income people,” Rigg said. In a world where electric vehicles become a political lightning rod, those places are likely to see the most charger action.

EV charging as bipartite

Many people would love it if EVs—and their chargers—avoided the culture wars altogether. Joe Sachs is executive director of the bipartisan EV Politics Project, an advocacy group, and says getting more public chargers on the ground is critical to getting more electric on the road. The group’s surveys suggest that consumer fears about EVs’ range and an unreliable charging network are keeping some of them from buying electrics.

Charging companies are still in their early days, and some struggle to operate as profitable businesses. The Chargers-funding roadblock, then, may be a near-existent concern for the industry. “There’s this scary trend where electric vehicle funding is seen as low-hanging fruit by some people in the incoming administration,” Sachs said. Some political operators “use EV bashing as a tool to formulate policies of whatever flavor appeals to them. It’s disappointing for us.”

For those dependent on federal charging money, even during a less-than-enthusiastic Trump administration, there is some good news: It will be very difficult for the feds to roll back those federal charging funds. The government has already Allocation at least In the state of $3.5 billion charger money. Forty-two states have begun taking bids on charger contracts, and 12 have at least one station in operation. These states span the political spectrum: Texas, Utah, Kentucky and Ohio all voted Republican this October, and the Chargers are ahead in the build-out. So are Democratic states, including New York, California, Rhode Island and Maine.

“There is broad support for electrification among a whole bunch of critical stakeholders,” said Jason Mathers, associate vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund’s zero-emission truck initiative. Manufacturers, labor unions, community organizations, politicians who want more EV-related jobs in their districts, and big companies already experimenting with EVs, including Walmart and Amazon, all have reasons to want chargers on the ground. Advocates like Mathers don’t believe a change in administration alone will make these constituencies go away—meaning the pressure to build charging networks will continue.

Sacks, the EV Politics Project director, said the abundant EV charging-related messages should appeal to politicians of all stripes. “We want the Trump administration to see that the EV transition is not only important for the jobs here, Maintaining our competitiveness vs. China“

The sacks find it palatable, for example, that the Trump administration seems to want investment in the domestic battery mining industry. (Today, most battery material mining and processing takes place overseas, and especially in China.) To create demand for this kind of industry, more Americans will have to buy electric cars—and they can’t do that without plenty of EV chargers around to make sure all Americans have these new chargers. Access, not just those living in certain “EV-friendly” states, may come across that message.