Great article on the state of NEVI deployment and challenges by Hannah Lutz ... I know she put a lot of work into this piece, and a lot got cut. While I'm not in love with the headline (written by editors), the article does a great job capturing many of the factors that lead to the roll out of the NEVI program taking several years. The biggest speed bump to NEVI are the states themselves. Some have embraced NEVI and have moved quickly (5 states have already issued two rounds of awards); while 16 states have yet to even open their round 1 NEVI RFP process. People also need to understand and embrace that the value of NEVI is not the number of fast chargers that will be built under this program, rather WHERE they are built. Private industry simply hasn't deployed fast charging stations in areas where they don't currently make economic sense - chicken and the egg situation. With the up to 80% (in reality most sites are actually receiving funding for about 70% of total costs) in federal funding, the economics of these sites becomes significantly better. And this helps eliminate charging deserts and increases confidence in current and potential EV drivers that they can take that road trip to upstate New York or from Idaho to North Dakota.
Many news outlets have reported the single-digit tallies of open charging stations funded by the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program more than two years after it launched. The number (just eight open stations) is staggering on its own, but there's more to the story. Like America’s electricity grid, the EV charger deployment process is fragmented. The sluggish rollout of charging infrastructure underscores the complexity of constructing a nationwide fueling infrastructure led by states. There is no uniform way to build it. Companies that win funds through the NEVI program can’t employ an efficient cookie-cutter strategy nationally because state regulators and utility companies have unique sets of rules. Here’s a look at which states are leading, which are lagging and why. https://lnkd.in/e24m_SVQ cc: Automotive News #ev #electricvehicles #evcharging #chargingstations #NEVI
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