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U.S. Details $5 Billion EV Charging Network Plan

The Biden Administration this week offered more details on its plan to make $5 billion in federal funds available to states to build out an EV charging network along major U.S. highways.

The funding for the chargers was previously approved by Congress through the passing of the $1 billion infrastructure bill in November, however this week’s announcement provided more insight into how the $5 billion will be used.

A $615 million portion of the $5 billion fund will become available to states later this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday. To access this money, states must submit an EV Infrastructure Deployment Plan that outlines their plans for building out EV charging locations.

“We’re not going to dictate to the states how to do this, but we do need to make sure that there are meet basic standards,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a press conference held Thursday.

“The President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help us win the EV race by working with states, labor, and the private sector to deploy a historic nationwide charging network that will make EV charging accessible for more Americans,” Buttigieg added.

The DOT said the funding will build on the previously announced Alternative Fuel Corridors that were outlined in the infrastructure bill last year. The federal agency says these corridors “will be the spine of the new national EV charging network,” ensuring Americans have good access to chargers while they travel on the interstate.

“Americans need to know that they can purchase an electric vehicle and find convenient charging stations when they are using Interstates and other major highways,” Deputy Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack said this week.

President Biden previously laid out plans to help drive EV adoption in the U.S. and laid out a target to have electrified vehicles account for roughly half of all new vehicle sales by 2030. GM, for its part, said it will bring 30 new EVs to market by 2025, including ever-important electric pickup models like the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV Pickup and GMC Sierra EV.

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Comments

  1. What we need are the Charging Stations out of the big city and only in small towns. Bet they can’t even find RT 90 or 95 west of the Mississippi. It’s the same thing Big city wants you there so you can get SHOT or Beat up. Try Mitchell S. Dakota or Devils Lake N. Dakota.

    Reply
    1. Can you imagine how these things will be vandalized sitting out in the open?

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      1. Or turn into mugging stations. Long time to charge, wealthy people own them, and a lot of the chargers are in poorly lit, obscure areas.

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  2. Let’s go Brandon!

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    1. Let’s go Darwin!

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  3. They are badly needed at Service Plazas on the Turnpike in my opinion.

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  4. The only way I can see this actually becoming mainstream is if EVs become more efficient. Charging is currently way too slow. There’s no way around it.

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    1. EV’s are already the most efficient vehicles to have been built. You might be pumping gas, but your vehicle actually uses only 15% of the gasolines theoretical energy output. 85% is lost as a form of heat.

      An EV can charge fully in as little as an hour. Honestly, about 15-20mins at a charger, will give you enough range to get to the next charger. (Great estimate of much needed restroom breaks).

      This myth that electric vehicles are not viable, has to stop. Every person I pickup in my Model 3 long range, is impressed with the mileage per charge, charge rate, lack of maintenance. And new cars being released, have even faster charge rates, just as good of range, and are even more affordable!

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      1. 15-20 minutes is still long compared to 5 minutes of filling a gas tank. On level 2 chargers, EVs only gain 20-30 miles of range in an hour. If a smart company managed to double the efficiency of their EVs, then they would gain 40-60 miles an hour on level 2 and level 3 charging would take 7.5-10 minutes. That would be a lot closer to mainstream expectations. That will be the catalyst for EV success.

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        1. I agree with you. Level 2 Chargers need to reach a standard of 15kWh+. Currently anywhere between 4kW-11.2kW. I currently reside in Palm Springs, and the city has worked with businesses, parking structures, to install Level 2 chargers through the valley, and local municipalities. While they’re great, being faster would be greater. Although the City also has DC Chargers Free to the Public as well, maxed at 50kW using Chademo and CCS.

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      2. I don’t know anyone who takes 15-20 to use the restroom along the road. Also, if there is a line at the charging station, I am waiting an extra 10 minutes to use it for each person that is ahead of me in line.

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        1. @Tigger
          Some of us do more than just use the Restroom. We can grab some coffee or a snack or something.
          The main difference between my BEV and your Gasoline vehicle on a road trip right now is the following….I pull into a spot and plug in, go inside use the Restroom and grab my drink or snacks. I then walk out unplug and get right back to the Highway. You in your ICE vehicle needs to get in the car and driver to Gas Pump and get out and start pumping Gasoline and wait your five minutes or so to get full. Then get back inside your vehicle and get on the highway.
          Yes ICE right now is slightly faster overall especially if someone can drive 400 miles with no stopping (I do not ) but most people actually do not either as they might have kids or an older person or most any human that wants to get out and just stretch their legs and use the bathroom or grab a drink.
          If you actually use an EV on a road Trip it really isn’t that slow as you think. And remember that BEV’s will continue to get more range and charge faster in the years to come.
          I do see two main Problems right now with BEV’s…….
          If you do not own a house and can charge at home there’s not enough Charging stations right now.
          And if you do not own a Tesla (hate saying this but true) your car will not be charging fast enough at the Superchargers and most do not get the same miles that a Tesla gets right now. Tesla just has am amazing amount of Superchargers. It is insane and they say they want to at least double the amount by 2025.
          GM has some cool vehicles coming but still months away.

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          1. I forgot how hard it is to pump gas good grief all the strength it takes to stand there.

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      3. SonicFan:

        15% seems a bit low… The Toyota Prius brags around 40% thermal efficiency – and of course these numbers skyrocket in the wintertime when the jacket heat is productively used defrosting the windshield.

        ‘Stationary’ ICE’s used for power generation and some Cruise Ships brag over 50% thermal efficiency even before heat recovery programs.

        Herein lies the concept of a PRIME MOVER, which almost all EV DRIVERS forget (I drive 3 evs, but realize that the efficiency claims made by other EV drivers are an Apples and Oranges situation)…

        Saying EVs are ultra high efficiency might have a point if you could get electricity for free out of the ground…. My 38 solar panel house system is almost as good, but there was a large capital investment required, and its overall efficiency is in the 14% range – but no matter – the SUN is prolific.

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    2. Say that to the Porsche Taycan that went cross country in record time.

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  5. How is GM tracking on that fictitious 30 EV’s by 2025?

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    1. A lot of them will be sister cars. So, the Equinox EV will be copied by the Terrain EV. The Silverado EV will be copied by the Sierra EV and so on.

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      1. Because badge engineering has worked so well for gm in the past 🤣

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    2. Pricing for the Silverado EV was just announced…..ONLY $105,000.00 !!!!!

      And you know the stealers will be marking that price up above MSRP in their never-ending greed just like they have been doing with Yukons and Tahoes !

      Doubt that that has been going on Nationwide ? Take a little trip over to the Yukon/Tahoe forum and read all about it !

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  6. Just watched morning New. People are seeing electric bill through the roof. From $90 to $500!! Wait till they start charging evs. Utilities blame increase on rising natural gas prices. Thanks, Brandon.

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    1. If electricity prices increases, so will gasoline prices since you need electricity to distribute, store and pump it. Gasoline does not fall from the sky like water. Oh, by the way, electricity does fall from the sky as sunlight! So that money can pay for solar powered chargers! Since sunlight is free, that price of electricity will never increase.

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      1. Yes, but the soar panels and the vast amount of real estate they eat up are not free. The sun does not fall from the sky as often in the northern climates.

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        1. Also the storage of electricity is a major issue. All the energy in the world is useless if your can only generate it sometimes and can’t store it. Renewals stored as hydrogen is the real sustainable future imho.

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          1. @h4cksaw
            Have you not seen what Tesla is doing with Energy Storage?
            Imagine just how insanely quicker they will grow that Business with Cheap LFP Storage Batteries.
            Hydrogen is most definitely not the long term answer at all. Hydrogen with obviously Batteries might be used in the Future for Airplanes and Ships. But that is only if Solid State never gets to a high enough production volume to justify the cost of them. The Tech will work but it doesn’t matter if they cannot scale it to huge volumes that the World will need at an affordable cost.

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      2. Raymond:

        Gasoline ‘Stores, Distributes, and Pumps’ very efficiently. A typical large gas dispensary having 16 hoses has 2 – 2 kw 87 octane pumps (the second pump kicks in should their be more than 8 people requesting gasoline simultaneously), and 1 – 2 kw 91 octane pump intermittently run when 89 or 91 octane is requested… The lot lighting and nowadays, built-in TV sets in each dispenser combined use more power than the pumping operation…. Its much lower than trivial.

        Compare that with the several 100 kw CONTINUOUSLY REQUIRED to compress hydrogen in those dangerous hydrogen stations..

        The biggest expense is trucking the gasoline from the distribution depot to the neighborhood station itself, – but that too is relatively efficient.

        The main problem with Fast Charging stations is that the usage of them will happen when electricity pricing is very dear… Some of the larger stations – once they get a few month’s utility ‘Demand’ charges will – all things being equal – install large stationary battery packs (my utility charges on average $14/month for every additional 1000 watts drawn – therefore a large station consuming 2000 kw peak for the month incurs a monthly $28,000 fee, to which admittedly low cost energy usage charges are added.

        I AM AGAINST the current NY State Edict that states the “All Public Fast Chargers must have NO demand charges”…. This simply means that other Rate-Payers must subsidize those presumably wealthy ev drivers – who do much of their charging at these fast chargers – when the totally fair way to implement this is to have the Fast Charger Companies install batteries to arbitrage the expense at cheaper times of the 24 hour day. Which is defacto what happens in most states.

        We EV drivers should pay our own way, or at least to the extent that Gasoline powered vehicles currently do.

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        1. The oil industry has been receiving huge government subsidies for ever! Let’s remove government money from all forms of energy and see where things go. No question, it would speed up the switch to electric vehicles. That said, don’t really take issue with incentives for the switch to electric. It’s too important for our country and frankly, survival. Add to the list, Oil will run out someday. Electric power won’t. We must think beyond our lives and plan for future generations.

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  7. Nothing like the Biden administration doling out tax dollars to states, to destroy the American auto industry so we have to buy autos we don’t want.

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    1. @Yates
      What is the difference of a Government in any Country paying Fossil Fuel subsidies or Green Energy subsidies?
      If anything, they are trying everything they can to allow Chrysler, Ford, and GM to try and catch up to Tesla and most imprtantly to Europe and China so they actually will not need us the Tax Payers to bail them out again. So not sure what your Point was that you were trying to make. If you do not want to Purchase a BEV you do not have to. I would assume in your lifetime there will be plenty of used ICE vehicles to chose from even if BRAND NEW ICE vehicles do indeed get scrapped in the near future.

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    2. It’s really simple. Buy and drive what makes you happy. There will be plenty of gas powered vehicles for your lifetime. Most will choose electric vehicles once they find out how great they are. We absolutely love our EV, would never go back.

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  8. Joe doesn’t even have a plan of where the extra power for the charging stations will come from. Solar won’t work wind won’t work then where will it come from? Studies have already shown the goal they have will need to double the grid. Does anyone believe that can happen. Power generation for the stations will come from fossil fuel. We are all being duped. Lets Go Brandon

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    1. Joe does not have a plan for ANYTHING.

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    2. Biden is doing the right thing for our country. EV’s are the future. We have one and love it. The good news, nobody is taking away your gas powered vehicles, there will be plenty available for the rest of your life. If you don’t like EV’s, don’t buy one. Simple. Just don’t put down those that do.

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  9. I thought the infrastructure bill was to improve roads. Instead, money down a s*** hole to shove EV’s down my throat, and speed cameras to rip me off.

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  10. Wait till the homeless hook up to them for tent their tent cities.

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    1. Or tear the things apart for scrap metal.

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  11. With all the emphasis on the future of electric vehicles and charging stations going up across the country, I wonder if there has been any thought given to supply of batteries for these vehicles. Wouldn’t it be ironic if our supply of batteries could end up the same way as our current supply of zero computer chips for our gas powered vehicles. I have been interested in the purchase of a new truck for 3 years. First, it was the GM strike that reduced dealer inventories, then it was COVID-19, now it is the lack of computer chips. It is a shame dealer lots have been reduced to a fraction of what they once were.

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    1. No, these politicians and CEOs don’t think. They are just about getting votes and telling Wall Street what they want to hear. I can see where these raw materials could be used as a weapon by countries like China to destroy our economy the way the middle east used oil in the 1970s.

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      1. @Tigger
        You do know we have the choice to mine here in the USA if we so chose to for these materials correct?
        Have you not heard of all the deals GM, Ford, VW, and Tesla have signed with Mining Companies so that we will not be dependent on China?
        Paying American workers!!!

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        1. I would hope so. But it has been the practice of business in recent decades to go to the cheapest source of labor and materials.

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          1. @Tigger
            Agreed.

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    2. They will work the shortages out. Batteries are advancing at Warp speed. Electric vehicles are the future, but gas powered vehicles will be available for a long, long time. Buy whatever works for you! Once people experience electric vehicles, most will make that choice. They are great!

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  12. Well, we have Solar Fields, Windmills now so let’s add Charging Stations in parking lots, etc. to add to the visual blight on the the countryside.

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    1. hahaha Robert – I’m sure most electric car people (not me even though I have 3 evs) grimace at the thought that 2021 was THE RECORD FOR COAL FIRED ELECTRIC GENERATION world – wide,
      and that 2022 seems to be ready to even beat THAT record!

      Of course – all the new Coal fired plants are going in the eastern part of the Globe – but even in the USA, the usage has INCREASED from 20% to 22% nationwide… Of course, in NY State – coal power has been outlawed effectively for several years now – so OTHER states are making up more than their share… This is due to existing coal plants in the USA being used far more often, now that Natural Gas Prices are now increasing…. Coal IMPORTS are happening in Europe and China for similar reasoning.

      Meanwhile, although the INSTALLED CAPACITY of solar increases greatly every year, it still amounts to only 3-4% of the yearly electricity supplied in the USA due to its intermittent availability (in other words – coal power provides about 6 times the kilowatt-hours than solar – since the Coal plant functions best when running at high loading 24 hours per day. And EV people doing 80% of their charging at night IMPROVES the situation and cost structure for these base-load plants)…

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  13. iIl bet visiting a government charger will be even less pleasant than visiting the post office or DMV.

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  14. Gotta love all these negative naysayers. If you don’t want a EV, don’t buy one. Fortunately millions do. Waited several months to buy a Tesla. American made by the way. Really like it. Not a problem on trips. I do admit, it’s best suited for California mild climate and owners with a garage. We charge at home, like waking up to a full tank every morning.

    Not putting down gas/diesel powered vehicles, to each their own. Hopefully, as more EVs are used for regular transportation there will be more gas/diesel available and at lower cost. Eventually, electric vehicles will be the primary form of transportation. Charging will get faster and faster. Biden is doing what’s best for America. Oil is a finite resource. Electricity is not. We can produce electricity forever. Please, let’s think beyond our life times, let’s work together for a better future for our children and grandchildren.

    Reply
    1. @Scott
      I live in a cold climate and I do not have any issues with my Tesla, and I DO NOT have the newer one with Heat Pump. One point is that in the Future with Solar, Wind, and Hydro we will be making much more Electricity than we can actually use when we store our extra capacity in cheap LFP Battery Storage. Imagine what that Tech will do to Third World Countries that cannot currently have Electricity. Agreed about us Humans think Short Term and not Long Term. Tech will not wait and will keep changing and improving. Always has and always will……Fortunately and or unfortunately.

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  15. It’s funny that the most efficient charging infrastructure in the world is built by Tesla and yet no one in Government has thought to have them build a national charging grid that would be second to none! I guess lobbying controls decisions rather than reason. Can this be fixed?

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    1. @Robert
      Could not have said it any better. But I also can see the Government not wanting Chrysler, Ford, and GM to completely fold. Those are a lot of voters for both sides HAHA
      Our original Big Three have some serious Lobby power and are trying whatever they can to Keep Tesla from completely destroying them. German Automakers are lobbying to keep Tesla from getting their Permit in Berlin to start building their vehicles.
      And I was made fun of when I said years ago that Tesla will be a HUGE problem on the site.
      I have been saying for years that Tesla won they are the Apple of the Auto World and the race to become Android is between VW and GM. I really like the moves GM is making compared to VW. I truly feel confident that it will be GM that will hold that Android Spot in the Market.

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  16. It is also interesting to see that for being an EV story non interested Motörheads show up to troll bomb negative misinformation constantly while non EV stories are much less active in the comments. Makes you wonder if there are paid trolls only on the EV stories…

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  17. What will be the price to charge a vehicle? And will people plug them in correctly or unplug before the charge is finished causing the tips to burn and become unusable who will monitor these for repair? These chargers are high amp output which charge battery’s quickly but reduces battery life and long flat roads will allow farther travel than say the Smokey mountains I believe you will a lot of dead cars on the side of the road

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    1. There is a lot of good information on EV charging on the YouTube channel Now You Know. Charging is actually quite safe (smart electronics 🙂)

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    2. Biker: On public fast charging stations, the plug is LOCKED to the car until the power is removed, either at the end of charging, or by pushing a usually RED button on the Charger.

      Level 1 and Level 2 (slow alternating current charging) need no such precautions, but on most of those – the moment the unlatch button is pushed the juice shuts off anyway to be doubly safe.

      AS far as ‘fast charging’ harming battery life – the batteries in vehicles are getting so large that the battery size, and requisite refrigeration systems in the cars themselves mitigate any concern regarding battery life. The majority of the new stations in my area have typically 6 – 150 kw charger facilities but only 1 – 350 kw facility…..

      Rather like being worried about all the Cats who DIDN’T get stuck in the tree today.

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  18. I would feel a lot more confident of the EV viability if all the government rebates, promotional discounts, charging station incentives to force the market were eliminated and these vehicles were allowed to find their own level of competitive sales.

    Reply

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