The Race to 10X EV Charging Stations
You’re driving from LA to Mammoth for some powder because ’tis the season, and you see Tesla after Tesla (and the occasional Volt) passing you by.
Your girlfriend poses the question, where are they all charging? Are there really enough charging stations on this route?
It gets you thinking. Are there enough charging stations? And what if we were headed to Denver? What about Phoenix?
An internet deep-dive ensues and you learn that we’re in need of more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, pronto.
The State of EV Charging Stations
According to BloombergNEF, we reached 5 million EVs worldwide in 2018, with 632,000 charging stations. And if EVs are to grow to the 30% market share by 2030 as forecasted by the International Energy Agency, we’ll need upwards of 14 million charging stations globally.
That’s a lot of charging stations in just 11 years. And there are 3 main issues we’ll need to address:
1. The amount of chargers
The challenge with increasing the number of public chargers available is that demand for EVs will stagnate without widespread charging networks. At the same time, implementing widespread charging networks before the increased demand means less resources like investment to get this done.
2. The speed of chargers
A tiny fraction of EV chargers available today are “fast” or “accelerated.” Most are “mid-accelerated” or “standard.” And in a fast moving world, what do we want? We want fast. We want convenience. So we’ll need many of the new charging stations to be at the “fast” and “accelerated” level.
3. Standardization of chargers
As of now, different car manufacturers use different plugs and outlets, so if you go electric, some stations will work with your vehicle while others will not.
So where to from here?
Insight on the Future of EV Charging
Cleantech Rising co-founder Zoheb Davar also happens to work in strategy and business development for EVgo, the U.S. leader in EV public fast charging. Davar is encouraged by rising demand for EVs.
“Companies are waiting to see the uptick in EV sales before they invest in charging infrastructure in order to ensure a good ROI. Fortunately, Tesla has accelerated the uptick of EV sales with its Model 3 becoming the #1 selling car in the U.S. (in terms of revenue) last summer.”
The other source of demand that will continue to pull the charging industry forward comes from organizations like FedEx, Amazon, and city governments moving to electric fleets.
In terms of charging speed, Davar acknowledges there are two groups who are particularly in need of fast-charging. Millenials who want to go electric, but who live in apartments and can’t charge overnight.
The other is rideshare drivers. “Lyft is helping the shift to carbon-free mobility and just launched a ‘Green Mode’ option in Seattle and Atlanta where people can opt to hail an EV. EVgo is supporting that program by charging those Lyft EVs.”
Lastly, on standardization, we discussed the possibility of standard charging stations with adapters for different cars. EVgo has adapters that work with Tesla models, so this is an avenue that will continue to be explored.
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