The federal government has even required states applying for public money to submit plans detailing how they will support a new workforce to serve them. “One of the biggest things we’re really excited about is the continued emphasis on reliability,” said Walter Thorn, lead product at ChargerHelp, which provides operational and maintenance services to charging companies and governments. The company is working with the Society of Automotive Engineers, an international standards body, to define what skills are required to service loaders and create certifications for them. It is a first step in training more electric vehicle charger repairers.
Construction Crunch
In the meantime, enough chargers have to go into the ground. EVGo, one of the country’s largest charging companies, says it currently has more than 4,500 chargers in its engineering and construction pipeline, the most in its more than a decade-long history. And at this point, fitting a new charger can take years.
Part of the delay comes down to an essential but snoozed problem: allow. Fast chargers, which can charge a car battery in less than an hour, require a lot of construction work. The process of getting them into the ground doesn’t differ much from place to place – it requires coordinating with utilities, digging trenches and then installing the equipment.
But the process of getting permission to do that can vary wildly in each jurisdiction or city, experts say. Charging companies have called for a streamlined process that applies to many different places — one that can, for example, conduct an automated assessment for local safety and code compliance, the kind the Energy Department set up when it funded a similar solar panel program.
Meanwhile, shortages of electrical equipment, especially transformers, have persisted in the pandemic era. “There’s a reason you have to start early,” Matt Horton, CEO of the charging company Voltera, said in an interview last year. Getting even the most carefully planned charger up and running can take longer than many governments or EV owners think.
Sustainable effort
If the great US charging project is to succeed, companies need to know that there will be money for electric vehicle charging once the current federal money fest is over. While it seems obvious that at some point electric cars will be so common that charging them could be a good thing, it’s unclear exactly when and how.
Companies building or operating charging networks are concerned about competition from monopolistic public utilities, which can build their own chargers and, in some states, charge station operators significantly more for electricity during times of peak demand. There are also concerns that, despite the large expenditures of the US government, there may not be enough public funds to make ends meet.
Chargers have high upfront fixed costs, including the purchase and construction of real estate. In places with relatively few electric vehicles, it can take a long time to recoup that investment. States are required by climate law to build chargers along every 50 miles of highway, regardless of local EV traffic. “Some help is needed,” Jamie Hall, a senior EV policy strategist at General Motors, said at an industry event in December. “The current business case for fast charging on highway corridors can be difficult.”
Some more optimistic industry observers see this as a short-term problem that could be solved in the next five years or so – and before government funding runs out. Mullaney, the Rocky Mountain Institute analyst, says there’s a lot of investment capital flowing into charging companies. The idea is that companies that can build a charging infrastructure now and get drivers used to it can benefit from their loyalty for decades to come. “We are approaching a tipping point where public charging will really be necessary and will also start making money,” he says. In other words, hard work can pay off.
