4 Major Investments in EV Charging Infrastructure

CHICAGO -- From New York to San Francisco, the electric-vehicle (EV) market and charging infrastructure is getting a boost from local governments and a major automaker.

Here are four recent developments in the evolution of the EV market ...

Chicago is attempting to catch up with strong EV sales by expanding the area’s charging infrastructure, which now includes more than 30 DC Fast Chargers.

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and City of Chicago have partnered on the Drive Clean Station program with Calstart, a nonprofit that focuses on green transportation, to fund the installation of public DC Fast Chargers in northeastern Illinois’ six counties: Cook, Will, DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry. The program, open to private, public and nonprofit entities, awards grants that would fund up to 30% of new station equipment and installation costs. 

Program administrators will review and award applications on an ongoing basis until July 31, 2017, or until they award all of the funding. Recipients will get the grants after the station is operational and they have paid all project costs. To learn more and apply, click here.

Volkswagen Group of America is investing $2 billion in EV initiatives, including charging infrastructure, as part of its settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) on diesel-emissions cheating.

The German automaker’s “Electrify America” initiative would devote some of that money installing EV chargers in about 16 population-dense metropolitan areas, for a total of more than 300 stations. These would include a combination of Level 2 and DC Fast Charger units. It would also go toward developing a cross-country network of more than 200 DC Fast Chargers along high-traffic highways. Volkswagen will invest $800 million in California alone.

Locations for the chargers could include retail such as gas stations, restaurants, stores, malls and hotels, as well as workplaces, municipal properties and apartment complexes.

Volkswagen said it plans to fulfill the initiative’s goals—which also include EV awareness and sustainable mobility programs—in four 30-month investment cycles. The planning for the first cycle is reportedly in progress. For more information and to submit a proposal, click here.

In New York, a new campaign is underway that would support the state’s Charge NY EV initiative, including the addition of more charging stations.

Charge NY is more than halfway to its goal set by Gov. Andrew Cuomo of installing 3,000 charging stations by 2018. The state is banking on EVs to help it meet its goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 40% by 2030.

The work includes the installation of 450 charging stations around the state in Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, Utica, Albany, the Hudson Valley, Westchester County, New York and Long Island. About 150 charging stations will be installed at workplaces. Three contractors—EV Connect, Energetics and Calstart—will install the stations, with $4.8 million in funding.

Meanwhile, Rochester has plans to become an EV model city, with the goal of creating an environment that encourages EV adoption. This will include adding charging stations as well as EVs to the city’s fleet.

Thirty U.S. cities have made a commitment to invest in electric vehicles, according to Bloomberg.

The cities, which include New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, are taking the first step in the bidding process on 114,000 EVs, which would include police cruisers, street sweepers and trash haulers. This would equate to about 72% of total plug-in EV sales in the United States in 2016. They have invited EV manufacturers to provide costs as well as the possibility of providing electric-powered fire engines and heavy-duty trucks, which are not currently available on the market.

Colin McKerracher, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said such a large order of EVs could help drive the U.S. plug-in market, which in 2016 reached 160,000 vehicles. Even though the purchases would stretch over many years, they would give EV manufacturers a reliable demand source in the face of shifting federal policies and gasoline prices.

“I wouldn’t underestimate this,” McKerracher told Bloomberg. “What automakers really want in investing in electrification, whether that’s for passenger vehicles or commercial-use vehicles, is certainty.”