Charging Infrastructure Zooms Ahead Despite Trump Attacks

45k3i5mnhxns1s73082tnm1a_media_dl_1.png US Department of Energy

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(Bloomberg) — While buying an electric vehicle is about to get slightly more expensive for some Americans, charging one just got quite a bit easier. 

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Some 703 high-speed, public charging stations opened in the US in the second quarter, the second-largest such infrastructure boom on record, according to Department of Energy data. There are now about 11,400 places in the country to quickly top up a car battery, including dots on the most rural swathes of the map. 

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Plans for nearly all of the new chargers were likely underway before the Trump administration began gutting EV incentives, according to BloombergNEF analyst Ash Wang. However, retailers are still keen to add charging spots in their parking lots to  attract a wave of first-time EV owners as they establish charging habits. Meanwhile, charging networks are encouraged by rising electric car sales and emboldened by new dynamic pricing strategies that make their electron pumps busier and more profitable. 

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“We’re continuing to expand as fast as we can,” saidElectrify America CEO Robert Barossa. “This is a long journey; it spans more than one administration, one political climate, one economic climate, for that matter.”

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The Trump administration’s freeze of a $5 billion federal plan to subsidize new charging stations has had little effect on new construction, according to Wang at BNEF. “Deployment has been mostly driven by the private sector,” she explained. “And we’re seeing increased utilization for a lot of these networks.”

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As EV adoption grows beyond the coasts and urban areas, chargers are following. Nearly two out of three stations opened in the recent quarter are located in states that don’t have a mandate for zero-emission vehicles. 

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Consider Mississippi, one of the lowest states on the list when it comes to EV adoption. Its map is now dotted with nearly 60 high-speed, public charging stations, including six that just switched on for the first time. The biggest charging desert in the state is now a stretch of  188 miles — from the Chevrolet dealer in Lucedale up to the Bonita Lakes Mall in Meridian.

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Much of the recent growth can also be attributed to Tesla, which comprised 15% of the stations switched on from April through June. Since the company started letting other brands of cars plug into its chargers last year, lines have increased, as has revenue, Wang explained.

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Meanwhile, EVgo, which operates about 1,100 fast-charging stations in the US, says there is still an imbalance between the number of electron pumps and the parade of EVs now on the road. It now has 1.4 million customers on its platform, or nearly 1,300 people for each of its stations.

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“Importantly, our business is increasingly not reliant on new EV sales in any one year and instead reliant on the overall number of EVs on the road,” CEO Badar Khan told investors on a recent conference call.