Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
A Toyota Prius is connected to a electric-vehicle charging station in a Washington, D.C., parking garage, March 2021.
In nine years, gas stations will be obsolete if all goes according to President Biden’s American Jobs Plan. One of the most closely watched, if thin-on-details, provisions sketches the parameters of the administration’s electric-vehicle initiative, which calls for 500,000 charging stations across America by 2030.
Therein lies a major problem. To be sure, prices are declining and the used EV market is picking up. But the challenges posed by charging-station access and the amount of time to charge an EV—anywhere from roughly half an hour to top up fast-charging models to around five hours or more for slower chargers—could make or break the EV rollout. EV first adopters have charging figured out, but average drivers considering EVs will balk at having to enroll in different charging-station networks to get going, especially since they are hardwired to the existing gas station culture of getting in and getting out as quickly as possible, and are long accustomed to their ability to fill up at an Exxon or Chevron or any station that’s nearby.
Equity issues also have reared up. Today, there are only about 42,000 charging stations and 101,000 charging outlets. Wealthier, whiter neighborhoods have more charging stations than any place else, making range anxiety and charging deserts a valid concern for everyone else.
The Biden plan tackles the problems posed by range anxiety, but picking up the pace of widespread adoption will hinge on setting charging-station standards. Right now, the American EV landscape is pockmarked by a couple dozen different charging-station networks, each offering a range of coverage options. Tesla has the most extensive network, with thousands of the fastest-charging stations available across North America and beyond. But if you don’t own a Tesla, you’ll have to drive right by those Tesla charging stations. If a driver doesn’t charge at home, which can take hours, or needs to charge up on the road, she’ll have to search for public chargers. Conversely, Tesla drivers have adapters that allow them to use other charging networks.
Just this week, in a bid to take on Tesla, EV manufacturer Rivian announced its plans to create a network of charging stations exclusive to Rivian owners and set up a separate larger public-charging network. As Vice senior writer Aaron Gordon notes in his deep dive on the EV charging conundrum, the obsession with exclusivity and proprietary features is the gathering storm looming over the Biden plan—one that could stall the green automotive revolution.
It’s Herbert Hoover, of all people, who offers a blueprint for success. Before he became the president undone by the Great Depression, Hoover was an enterprising secretary of commerce in the 1920s, promoting the then-revolutionary idea of product standardization. With a goal to reduce waste and inefficiency in American industry, Hoover persuaded companies to adopt uniform standards for consumer products. So, beginning 100 years ago, the 78 different sizes of mattresses and bed frames were reduced to four; types of bricks from 66 to 11, and milk bottles from 49 to nine.
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The electric-vehicle component of Biden’s multitrillion-dollar proposal constitutes a mammoth stand-alone program: a $174 billion package that includes $160 billion for job training, retooling factories, and fleet electrification (with $25 billion to mass transit and $20 billion to school buses) and another $14 billion in tax credits and incentives. That’s too much money to sprinkle on a universe of companies with the hope that they can sort out the tech amongst themselves. At the same time, rolling out a complex regulatory framework in a backdoor effort to compel standards won’t win friends or influence people either.
“I can’t see the federal government funding five different networks of different kinds of charging stations; it seems inefficient to me,” says Jeff Davis, a senior fellow with the Eno Center for Transportation, a Washington-based think tank. “We need some serious top-down leadership to get all the manufacturers in the room and try to encourage standardization of EV outlets and systems wherever possible.”
What the EV charging infrastructure ultimately looks like hinges on the developing federal-state relations with EV manufacturers, whether they come along willingly on setting standards or whether the charging status quo persists. According to Davis, auto manufacturers would likely prefer some federal direction on the question of aligning technologies rather than having to engage in competitive battles over charging networks. That is, except for the EV industry leader who has so far set the pace and won’t want to be hemmed in by federal dictates. “It’s a Tesla versus everybody else situation,” says Davis. “As popular as Elon Musk is, I suspect that the political power of all the other manufacturers in the U.S. is going to be more than his.”
Last year, when Ford announced its plans to pump billions into EVs and autonomous vehicles, the decision signaled the auto industry’s acceptance that electrification was the path to net-zero emissions and the last opportunity to avoid climate catastrophe. In January, General Motors disclosed that it will end production of fossil fuel–powered vehicles by 2035. How the industry and the Biden administration confront charging standards will spell the difference between a successful transition and a possible Who Killed the Electric Car II, a sequel no one wants to see.
This article is part of our ongoing series on sustainable mobility, transportation, and climate.
