Representatives from General Motors, the National Automobile Dealers Association and the UAW appeared before a U.S. House panel this week to discuss the accessibility and feasibility of electric vehicles in rural parts of the country.
David Strickland, GM’s vice president of global regulatory affairs, told the U.S. House panel the automaker is working to make EVs less expensive and more convenient, helping to promote EV adoption in parts of the country that will likely see a very slow transition to the technology in the coming years.
The House hearing was held by the House Agriculture Committee, which called the proceeding to address potential problems with the transition to EVs as automakers like General Motors and Ford begin to make large-scale investments into battery-powered cars, trucks and SUVs. Rep. David Scott, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, likened future EV access in rural areas to how telecommunications coverage was implemented in these regions previously.
U.S. Congressman Glen Thompson Jr., a Pennsylvania Republican, also expressed concern over the impact of EVs on rural communities during the hearing. While automakers like GM and the federal government have touted an all-EV future, Thompson believes rural communities will need to have a variety of choices in order to meet their demands.
“Drivers in the marketplace must decide what technology meets their transportation needs, especially rural residents for whom vehicles and private transportation are an essential service,” Thompson said. “The ability to choose ensures vehicles remain a productive tool and not a technological burden to work around.”
GM last year said it would invest $750 million to install up to 40,000 Level 2 EV chargers across the U.S. and Canada. Many of these chargers will be installed at GM dealerships, ideally giving access to GM EV owners in a wide variety of regions.
“GM and its dealers will work together to expand access to charging in local communities including in underserved, rural and urban areas where EV charging access is often limited,” the automaker said at the time.
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Comments
How about the cities are we going to have extension cords running out to the streets at every house to plug in there cars? What they going to do in the winter? Heck California can’t even keep the power on without electric cars draining the grid as it is. People need to wake up and soon.
What about when the grid goes down? Then what?
We’ll also be purchasing electricity from the state, since the states regulate power production and pricing.
The state’s will effectively control how much it is to charge your vehicle.
Then they’ll add additional taxes at the charger to fund their drug needles program and whatever other dystopian programs they want to push. Just wait.
People think “great, I don’t have to buy gas anymore.” How Naive. You’re going to pay one way or the other.
If GM would have done more work on there Volt and made it better with a better battery life and keep the engine for back up EV power I don’t think they could keep up making them.
There will be fighting in the streets. “He took my cord”.
As a rural American, there is nothih you can do, repeat NOTHING! To increase our ability to have these. We don’t want them. How about working to increase the physical efficiency of gas engines instead of forcing people to buy cars that are smaller, more expensive, less powerful and rely on large quantities of parts coming from foreign enemies. It’s basic common sense.
Lol Jake. You guys complained about fuel economy standards too. Keep rolling coal while you can.
While they can? Everyone on this website will be dead and gone before gas powered vehicles are gone.
With an attitude like that I’m sure you will be Hank
Attitude like what? If you think that gas powered vehicles will be gone in less then 60-70 years you are kidding yourself.
Sail boats and horses still exist too Hank. EVs are the fast approaching future. Just get used to it.
Sail boats and horses have absolutely nothing to do with this. I am used to it you must have comprehension issues because I said gas powered vehicles were not going to be gone anytime soon. I hope you understand now if not my phone has a great translator tell me the language you need and I while see if I can’t write it in the language you understand the best.
You are spitting in the wind. People that think like this are always going to find an argument to go against EV’s. The big issue is when we hit majority EV’s the electric companies are going to jake all our rates up. It is the American way, whatever is in high demand, bleed them dry!!!!!
They are already talking about a mileage Tax on Ev cars .
They are already talking about a mileage Tax on Ev cars . And Ev cars are agly as sh*t
Well said. I like the idea of hybrid technology to increase performance and/or efficiency…that supplements current tech, but doesn’t replace it…but have no desire for an all-electric, plug in vehicle, nor do I like the idea of battery replacement costs.
I think Ferrari is the only company I’ve seen with the exactly right approach to this.
The other thing that completely scares me is the idea of getting hit by a 10k pound electric vehicle in my regular car…either rear-ended or while going through an intersection…it is too easy to kill someone with such a heavy car and one mistake…sure they’re safe for the occupants, but you’ll survive just to face your involuntary manslaughter charges…it’s practically going to be more dangerous than street racing unless the rest of us upgrade to a tank-like vehicle too.
How you think that folks in less expensive cars like a Honda Civic feel when some cowboy wannabe in an oversized pickup truck is riding their butt?
Get out of the passing lane and you won’t be bothered!
Touch a nerve did I?
Just do the speed limit instead of being a prick and you won’t have this issue.
Jake, I seriously doubt you are a farmer. Growing up on a farm I can promise you that farmers are for the most part technically savvy and extremely smart about their money. They have to look at the long term cost benefits for when they buy, say, a combine. And I can guarantee you that if a Farmer saw an electric combine that would get the job done as fast as a gas one, require less maintenance and less downtime, and was much less expensive to use over the life of the product vs their gas one, they would start saving and planning for the transition…and likely start mapping out areas of land or just building tops to place solar cells or wind turbines to ensure they could charge up that combine and other equipment without paying to have gas delivered to their tanks anymore. Farming is all about saving money and surviving, not playing political games or posturing for the oil industry…unless maybe they have oil wells on their property :). For other information about EV use in rural areas there is a link on this page: AntiAntiEV.com/fm-frequent-misinformation
Probably grandstanding for Brandon and they know it, it’s no advantage if you’re a farmer in Kansas somewhere owning an E/V truck or if you do you’ll have ICE vehicles doing heavy work that negates the reason for an EV. Like gas and diesel yes offer EV but it shouldn’t be the only choice..
Remember south park episode. They’ll take our jobs! Thats all I can think about when these crazy down south folks cry foul over EV’s. Funny as.
It has nothing to do with people down south. People in California and NY are the ones experiencing the outages and being told not to charge there ev. You must of never graduated high school because neither of those states are in the south.
Um… it is 1.5 hours to a GM dealership for me now days. Was as little as 10 minutes decades ago. How is charging there going to help me if I use 1/4 of my range getting home and another 1/4 getting back to recharge?
Anyone talking down on EVs have obviously never owned or driven one. I can’t wait until my electric truck arrives so I’m not tied to the gas pump like an addict. EV=freedom
Until you tow….
Your tripping. Are you using a eye droplet to pump your gas? The way you are talking you act like you are sitting there for 2+ hours oh wait sorry that’s just charging station.
No problem, but I want you to PAY THE FULL PRICE FOR THE VEHICLE. No subsidies to design or manufacture it in any way. To tax credits. No free electric anywhere. YOU pay market prices for the power to recharge it INLCUDING whatever is necessary to cover the cost of the charger, its power supply etc…
WHEN YOU ADD ALL OF THAT IN YOUR ELECTRIC VEHICLE IS NOWHERE NEAR AS INEXPENSIVE AS YOU MAKE IT OUT TO BE. I am already reading about EV owners complaining that they are paying to much to charge outside of their homes. TOO BAD. Far too many EV owners are freeloaders who want someone else to help pay for their vehicle and charge it. Try doing it on your own dime.
You don’t think ICE has been subsidized for the past 120 years?? The drunken oil party is over.
No tax dollars should be given for any of this. Pay for it yourself or get a bike. To many entitled people looking for handouts all the time.
I’ve driven several…I can appreciate them but do not want one currently and I think there are legitimate, unresolved concerns before they are right for everyone. The need to stop at gas stations is not a priority issue needing solved…for me, right now.
Like being tied to a electric cord.
Cut the cord
I’ve towed an enclosed trailer with my Model Y, it pulls great. Range takes a bit but still makes it from charger to charger.
Screw the Dealers Association. They have no problem charging people $50K over MSRP for a popular model
I live in a rural community with many mountainous roads. We do not have a single charging station for EVs. I know one couple who has a Bolt and I have seen maybe 2 Mach-E Mustangs aside from an occasional Tesla from out of State. Charging and cost of the EV itself are 2 major problems and when you factor that most people cannot afford an expensive new vehicle, then sales will be low. I personally do not want to pay over $20k for a vehicle.
biden is not going to get any of his tax the rich programs thru congress so where is he going to get the big bucks for the rebates he promised the buyers of EVs ?? people are not going to buy them without govt subsidies and this could put the manufacturing companies like GM in trouble.
Tesla has had no issues selling their cars for almost 3 years now without subsidies. They’re the number one selling EV
Tesla has continued to receive literally millions in subsidies over the past 3 years. WTF are you babbling about?
Why does the thumbs up/down go to zero when I click on one of them? The farmers I know here in the central and southern states use diesel fuel in all their equipment including their trucks, and are not the slightest bit interested in EVs. EVs can be successful in metropolitan areas for commuting, but are impractical in rural areas. They’re also impractical for people in apartments or condos, so only people who live in areas where they can have the high amp chargers in their garage. People who are promoting EVs are not thinking this through, they use their personal situation to think of applying their ideas on every one else
I drive my Nissan Leaf to my lake house so I can pull out my 73 El Dorado with the 501 cid V-8 that gets 8 mpg on 91 octane premium fuel. 5300 lbs of Detroit steel😎. I like to balance things out!
Here is the deal. The people in the country will need more help with he cost and install of charging equipment at home. To help with this would ensure MFGs will make more sales.
I also expect that Hybrid systems will be offered in trucks that will be used in remote locations. Many companies are working on install system Like Magna and Mahle to sell to MFG to install in low volume Hybrids for industry and farms.
I visit areas in West Virginia that are well off the beaten path. The closest Mc Donalds is over an hour away. But if you had a charger in your home you could easily function there with an EV. It is the people like the loggers who have on site equipment with no electric that will need the help the most. Many of the miners in WV have been using EV equipment for years in the mines so they know how things work.
The grids will be upgraded and only limited areas are problem areas.
Most early adopters of EV will be people who will have chargers at home. The public charging will increase with he number of cars increasing just as Gas stations did 100 years ago.
Gas engines will be come rarer in new vehicles but they are not going to vanish over night. The transition will carry out over 20 years and could be shortened or lengthened based on the progress and technology.
Lets face it the price of the batteries is coming way down. The latest Chevy truck will do 400 miles and with a 10 min charge will do 100 more miles for 500 miles. This will do for the majority of the drivers out there.
Charging times will come down and I expect many gas stations will have charge islands where you can get a full or majority charge in the time it takes to fill a tank of gas.
You can not base where this will be based on known tech of today. you need to look deeper at what is coming and planned to be here soon. There is a lot of tech still pending and when it arrives it will resolve mush of the issues we face. This is why ever MFG is now committed to the change. They are not doing this to save the planet but to make money as this is where the future profits are.
We saw the MFGs fight this till they finally got to a point they can see the light at the end of the tunnel for them.
Add in the majority of the buyers today are buying vehicles like they would a refrigerator. They have no pride or relation to a vehicle they just want safe, affordable and economical. It used to be we were a Chevy Man or Cadillac man. Today no one is a Hyundai man. Or woman.
The greatest thing is to get chargers in the rural areas are to get the chargers into the home as even if they don’t buy new cars they will buy used electric cars and if they have the charger they are good to go.
Note the town we visit has one gas station. The next closest is 25 miles away and gas usually is very high priced.
Pay for your own chargers.
No you want it you buy it with your own money. I’m sick of my tax dollars paying for this bs man up pay your own bills pay your own electric freeloaders can beat it.
What about the people who don’t own homes but live in apartments or condos? How do they recharge, do they plug into a charger downtown and take a gas powered taxi home for 2 hours then take a taxi back to get their charged up car?
I have an EV (2014 Volt) and since I can charge at work it’s nice to use for my high traffic city commute. For everything else I drive my good ol’ ICE vehicles (Both 1968 Impala and C10). The Volt is nice for sitting in city traffic congestion and there are lots of other pluses that go along with it. It is also the technology I prefer with it’s onboard range extending ICE generator BUT that technology requires a “different” kind of service technician and GM has very few good EV techs so that is problem one and charging stations outside Tesla are a rarity here in the capitol of Texas problem two. I prefer my ICE vehicles for the most part given the ease of use and service. Rural America is not going to embrace EV’s anytime soon if ever. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
So what do farmers do when their EV farm equipment dies in the field? You can’t go grab a 5 gallon of electrons and fill it up to get it back to the charging station. Then when you do, it’s out of service for the next few hours. EVs are great for commuter cars where the owners have easy access to a charger, but those who live in condos or apartments don’t have that option. Electric trucks again can work if the vehicle is used as a work vehicle within the battery charge radius and if the user has access to charge his vehicle overnight for the next day’s work. But trucks that are used a towing vehicle won’t benefit from being an EV. The gaps without chargers are still too wide for a vehicle pulling a load, as that will significantly drop the distance the truck can go before it needs to be charged again. Then us in Commiefornia have a governor that is promoting EVs, but at the same time he’s shutting down fossil fueled power plants with nothing on the books to replace them, then the utility companies tell us that we need to do our housework and vehicle charging in the off hours, if they don’t do a grid shutdown to “conserve” power. It looks great on paper until you look at the realities of it
GM was paying to install level 2 chargers if you bought a new bolt
What do you do if you live in an apartment or condo in the city that doesn’t have a garage or place to park other than the street?
Farmers can carry power generators in their pick ups to recharge while in the field.
Does the generator run on gas or diesel?
As a farmer, this is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
And that negates any reason to have an EV on a farm.
Better idea, don’t take an EV to the field. What’s the sense in driving to the field and carrying a generator to recharge it for the next 2 days burning that dirty gas. Think about your questions before engaging you mouth.
What makes GM, sorry gm, think that we would want to visit the gm Dealer to charge the EV?
Do they want to establish a “Charge Club” kind of like the ‘Shave Club’?
As a farmer, this is the dumbest thing I have ever heard
So gm is going to install 40,000 level 2 chargers. Anyone charging away from their home would want to be charging on a level 3 fast charger, unless they were overnighting at a motel with a level 2 charger.
100 miles in 10 minutes on a DC fast charger, or 4 hours on a level 2 charger. Pretty stupid gm.
Some of these comments really read like a bunch of elitists. “How dare you have needs unfulfilled by battery vehicles.”
Bottom line, I can’t even get high speed internet in my community. How long before I have a charging station? I travel for leisure. Range is still an issue. We have settled on batteries because China owns the lithium mines, and they have bought the politicians. GM is happy to accommodate because their engines and transmissions are trash.
Battery is good for some, but you have to be awfully pretentious to think because it works for you it’s best for everyone. I am capable of determining what’s best for me. And before you go on about environmental concerns, visit a lithium mine, and refining facility.
I suppose its fitting that the last photo in this article has the car plugged into an unreliable ChargePoint docking station… Both the original version of this was junk (the handles would release from the holster in the cold), and the new ones don’t recognize ChargePoint’s own RFID card that they force you to use….
Or else the computer gets confused and tells you it won’t do anything until you stop a previous charging session – as if the person who walks up blind to the thing is going to be able to do that.
Went to 2 different ChargePoints today and finally got the SECOND location to work by calling the broken english Representative at CP who finally decided to turn the stupid thing on. I tried to tell him I’m not trying to purchase any HOME CHARGERS when I’m standing out here in 10 degree F weather, and that my hands are getting cold.
Because mechanically these things are such junk I’d never purchase anything they make… But if its a public charger in a good location then I’ll try to use it in the hopes I find one that kinda works..
A working one in the Hood? HAHAHA!!!! These things break if you look at them cross-eyed.
GMA editor : You can’t edit for the past several days…
Please Change “Handles would ” to “Handles would not”
, \
and “A working one in the Hood” to “As far as the related GMA article about a working docking station in the Hood?”
I have driven 50,000 miles on a 2015 Nissan leaf. One of the best cars and certainly the best automobile investment I’ve ever made. Worry wart doomsayers All of whom do not own and are not familiar with an EV are so frightened and afraid of not finding a place to charge a car. I’ve only used a public charger two or three times in 5 years and 50,000 miles.
Every household that owns more than one car should have an EV. The majority of Americans fill up their tanks on a weekly basis and burn that gas up by making 3 to 15 mile little trips. I plug my electric car in to a 110 wall outlet every evening and in the morning it is fully charged, warm inside from the preheated function and ready to go.
Car companies did not build or maintain the network of gas stations. Why do they need to be involved in EV charging networks? There should be energy companies doing this. I would rather have all that charger money be used to lower the price of the vehicles.
Most of the hater comments are from ignorant gas car people. California does not have a power shortage problem and if you can’t charge at home, you charge at a fast charger! Do these gas car people really think about their comments? Do they have their own gas station at home? No, they go get it at a station. If you don’t like paying the power company 1/6 the price of gas to charge your car, put in solar and drive for free like we do. We haven’t driven a gas car since 2012.
Bring back the horses, they never gave any trouble and with all the manure you can grow more crops!
in the lib cities the hoodlums will be cutting off the cables to sell the copper
And stealing the charging stations