Electric Car Charging Starts in Politics

The question is whether any states are willing to take action when federal funding is likely to decrease. “The next 10 years (of EV charging) is about rural areas, cities, middle- and low-income people,” says Reig. In a world where electric cars are a political lightning rod, this place could have a lot of chargers.

EV Charging as Bipartisan

Many people would love it if EVs – and their chargers – could avoid traditional wars entirely. Joe Sacks is director of the bipartisan EV Politics Project, an advocacy group, and says getting more chargers on the ground is essential to getting more electricity on the road. The group’s research shows that customers’ fears about EVs and unreliable networks are preventing some of them from buying electricity.

Payment companies are still in their early days, and some struggle to operate as profitable businesses. Therefore, the financial barriers to charging chargers may be an imminent problem for the industry. “There’s an alarming trend where electric vehicle costs are seen as cheap by some of the entrants,” says Sacks. Some politicians “use EV bashing as a tool to legislate for any flavor that pleases them. That’s disappointing to us.”

For those who rely on federal tax dollars, even during Trump’s lackluster administration, there’s good news: It’s going to be very difficult for the feds to pay back all federal tax dollars. The government said so already to be given at least $3.5 billion in foreign investment. Forty-two countries have begun ordering charging stations, and 12 have at least one station in operation. Those states are based on politics: Texas, Utah, Kentucky, and Ohio all voted Republican this October, and are ahead of the pack in charging. So are Democratic states including New York, California, Rhode Island, and Maine.

“There’s a lot of support for electrification among a whole group of people who have a lot of problems,” said Jason Mathers, associate vice president for zero-emission vehicles at the Environmental Defense Fund. Manufacturers, labor unions, community organizations, politicians who want more EV-related projects in their communities, and large companies that are already testing EVs, including Walmart and Amazon, all have reasons to want chargers on the ground. Advocates like Mather don’t believe these areas will go away as a result of the regulatory changes – meaning the pressure to implement toll systems won’t go away.

Sacks, executive director of the EV Politics Project, says the broad range of messages about EV charging should appeal to politicians of all stripes. “We want the Trump administration to see that the EV revolution doesn’t just need existing jobs, either maintain our competitiveness against China.”

Masaka finds encouragement, for example, that the Trump administration appears to be seeking investment in the domestic battery industry. (Today, most battery mining and processing takes place abroad, mostly in China.) To create demand for such an industry, more Americans will need to buy electric cars—and they can’t do that without more EV chargers. around. Making sure all Americans have access to these new chargers, not just those living in “EV-friendly” states, can get the message across.