With the growing number of electric vehicle users, the US needs to equally grow the numbers of charging infrastructure across the country.
According to a news report of Business Insider, a New York City-based multinational financial and business news website, a new report out of S&P Global Mobility stated that to accommodate electric vehicles in the US, charging needs to expand quadruple by 2025 and eightfold by 2030.
Now that the US has hit what others call a “crucial tipping point” in EV adoption, with 5% of new car sales being electric last 2022, it is important that the country must also add more charging infrastructures to cater to the increasing number of EVs.
According to the report, S&P Global Mobility stated that the current number of charging stations in the country are:
· 126,500 Level 2 charging stations – five hours to fully recharge an EV
· 20,431 Level 3 charging stations – 15-20 minutes to charge an EV to 80% battery
· 16,822 Tesla Superchargers and Tesla destination chargers
Notably, thousands of those charging stations were only installed last year.
So how many more charging stations are needed?
S&P Global Mobility mentioned that if 7.8 million EVs are projected to be in use by 2025, the country will need to install the following:
· 700,000 Level 2 public charging stations
· 70,000 Level 3 public charging stations
S&P Global Mobility added that by 2030, assuming that there will be as many as 28.3 million EVs in the US, the country will need to install the following:
· 2.13 million Level 2 public charging stations
· 172,000 Level 3 public charging stations
S&P Global Mobility also stated that these numbers are in addition to the home charging setups users may install.
The Automakers’ Side
Business Insider describes that the automakers would stake their future on readily accessible charging. The lack of charging infrastructure is and will be a problem for both the users and the automakers.
The charging infrastructures are essential to the automakers for them to continue being in business. Almost every major automaker invests billions in new manufacturing, technology, and models to embrace electrification.
According to Deloitte’s 2023 global automotive consumer study, 46% of US consumers surveyed last year pointed to a ‘lack of public charging’ as a reason why electric vehicles cannot fully penetrate the car market.
For those in the EV industry, charging hasn’t generated much money. It frequently necessitates expensive, labor-intensive, and complicated electrical and construction work.
Choosing the ideal locations for charging in advance is essential. Still, it is also critical to prioritize lower-income communities that have been overlooked in the EV movement. However, this could all slowly change as the Biden Administration plans to build and install 500,000 public charging stations by 2030 and has allocated $7.5 billion towards its construction.
