The question is whether all municipalities are prepared to step in where federal funding might be lacking. “The next 10 years (of electric vehicle charging) are all about the urban environment, cities, middle- and low-income people,” Reig says. In a world where electric vehicles become a political lightning rod, these locations could be where the most charging happens.
Electric vehicle charging is bipartisan
Many people would prefer if electric vehicles – and their chargers – could avoid the culture wars altogether. Joe Sacks is executive director of the nonpartisan EV Politics Project, an advocacy group, and says installing more public chargers in the ground is critical to getting more electric vehicles on the road. The group’s surveys suggest that customers’ concerns about electric vehicle range and an unreliable charging network are deterring some of them from buying electric vehicles.
Charging companies are still in their infancy and some are struggling to operate as profitable businesses. Obstacles in the financing of chargers could therefore represent an almost existential problem for the industry. “There’s this scary trend where financing electric vehicles is seen as a bit of a challenge by some in the new administration,” Sacks says. Some political actors “use EV bashing as a tool to push through policies of any kind that are of interest to them. This is frustrating for us.”
For those who rely on federal fee money, even during an unenthusiastic Trump administration, there is good news: It will be very difficult for the government to reclaim all of the federal fee money. The government has already assigned at least $3.5 billion in charging funds to states. 42 states have begun accepting tenders for charging contracts, and 12 states have at least one station in operation. These states run the political gamut: Texas, Utah, Kentucky and Ohio all voted Republican this October and are ahead in charger expansion. This also applies to democratic states such as New York, California, Rhode Island and Maine.
“There is broad support for electrification across a range of key stakeholders,” said Jason Mathers, associate vice president of the Zero Emission Truck Initiative at the Environmental Defense Fund. Manufacturers, unions, community organizations, politicians who want more electric vehicle-related jobs in their districts, and large companies already experimenting with electric vehicles, including Walmart and Amazon, all have reasons to want in-ground chargers. Advocates like Mathers don’t believe these constituencies will disappear just because of a change in government – meaning pressure to expand the charging network will remain.
Sacks, the director of the EV Policy Project, says numerous messages about EV charging should appeal to politicians of all stripes. “We want the Trump administration to recognize that the transition to electric vehicles is critical not only for the jobs that exist, but also for them.” to maintain our competitiveness against China.”
Sacks, for example, finds it encouraging that the Trump administration appears to be seeking investment in the domestic battery minerals industry. (Today, most battery material mining and processing takes place overseas, and particularly in China.) Creating demand for this type of industry requires more Americans to invest in electric vehicles — and they might not be able to do that without plenty of electric vehicle chargers around. Ensuring that all Americans have access to these new chargers, and not just those who live in certain “EV-friendly” states, may be important in getting that message across.
