FHWA Offers Grants to Repair EV Chargers
Slowly but surely, the electric vehicle revolution is coming. One of the greatest obstacles slowing it down is the need for a more robust charging infrastructure, and one subset of that problem is the repair of existing but damaged EV charging stations. To that end, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is offering state Departments of Transportation and local governments $100 million in grant money to help fix derelict devices.
Details
“Charging your electric vehicle should be as easy and convenient as filling up a gas tank – and this investment will make our EV charging network more reliable, full stop,” said Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt in a statement regarding this announcement. “We’re building a bigger EV charging network to keep up with driver demand, and we’re also going to make sure the currently available network is working when you need a charge.”
FHWA found in early September 2023 that there were a resounding 6,261 broken public chargers and 151,506 public chargers deemed as “temporarily unavailable” that may justify further examination. These are the chargers that are eligible for the grant.
One of the requirements for being able to obtain grant money is that the charger in question is “available to the public without restriction.”
FHWA estimates that fixing a Level 2 charger, common for four-wheeled vehicles, will cost approximately $5,000 per unit, while a Level 3 charger, the good stuff for big rigs, can carry a price tag ranging from $50,000 to $125,000 apiece. Level 2 chargers should mostly be able to service Class 8 trucks when it comes to overnight charging, but Level 3 will be necessary for a commercial vehicle to get back on the road in a feasible time horizon.
Conclusion
If we assume the most expensive estimates of nothing but Level 3 chargers at $125,000 each, this grant will repair 800 chargers that will be able to help electric trucks get back on the road in the time it takes for a driver to explore a truck stop.
One of the stipulations of the grant is that projects that use the money must be completed within 12 months of receiving the money, so depending on how fast the federal government is at handing the money out, we could see a plethora of repaired EV charging stations as early as the start of 2025.
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