The Weakest Link
This is part two of a three part series on the development of EVs and their supporting infrastructure in the United States. It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In terms of the transition away from internal combustion engines towards electric vehicles, charging stations are the said “weakest link.” As essential as gas stations used by their ICE counterparts, EV charging stations are a fast developing but greatly lagging piece of the EV adoption puzzle in the United States. According to the White House in February, there are currently about 130,000 charging stations across the country which service three million or so EVs. Five years ago, the number was a little over half of that. While growing steadily for the last 10 years, the need for car charging stations is on the cusp of an explosion. The Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) actively encourages and incentivizes the mass adoption of both light EVs and medium/heavy duty commercial EVs, which will require significantly more powerful and larger charging stations. If the US is to expect tens of millions of new light EVs, medium duty EVs, and heavy duty EVs to hit the road by 2030, substantial steps need to be taken to make sure that there are enough charging stations to meet the massive demand. https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=7033500277189233670&li_theme=light The first step will be to provide funding for companies to build the required number of charging stations to meet this demand. S&P Global, a NYC based financial analytics company, estimates that by 2027, the United States will need 1.2 million level 2 chargers and 109,000 level 3 chargers to meet the EV electricity demands. This is a stark increase from current capabilities, and at an estimated need of a 10 to 1 ratio of EVs to charging stations, it will take quite some time to reach these goals. Fortunately however, the Biden administration just this past week announced that over $2.5 billion in funding will be made available to local, city, and county governments for the express purpose of building more EV charging stations and expanding the availability of chargers to underserved areas. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in the White House press release that “extending EV charging infrastructure into traditionally underserved areas will ensure that equitable and widespread EV adoption takes hold,” and will ensure “that charging stations more visible and accessible in our communities addresses the concerns many American drivers have when considering making the switch to electric.” So already, steps are being taken in the right direction to meet infrastructure demands. https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=8836377427900808895&li_theme=light The second step for EV charging will be to fix the chronic reliability issues that plague the current charging network. According to a J.D. Power study and recently reported by Automotive News, between Q1 2021 and Q3 2022, failed charging attempts rose from 15% to 21%, and in the last year, nearly 2 in 5 charging attempts were unsuccessful. If the average American is expecting to be able to rely upon an EV to get them from point A to point B, a near 40% failure rate to “refuel” their car will not be sustainable. Reasons for these failures can include out of service chargers, vandalism, software problems, and payment processing issues. These errors are partially caused by the volume of traffic received by each station, with some stations having nearly no downtime at all because of availability issues. This creates a vicious cycle in which there are not enough charging stations, so the ones that do exist are strained to the point where they break, therefore causing less charging stations to be available overall, and so on. To fix the overall problem, some of the resources dedicated to building the new charging stations need to be used to shore up the already existing charging infrastructure dotting the US. https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=9178542192637438259&li_theme=light The EV charging station situation is not optimal or perfect by any means, but when a revolutionary new technology enters the market, there are always bound to be some bumps along the road towards implementation. Continued investment from private companies and at all levels of government will be required to fix the problems outlined above, but fortunately great funding and emphasis is already being put into this widely acknowledged problem. The goal of the US government is to create a seamless transition to EVs in which charging a car has the same level of convenience as filling a car up at a gas station, and by dedicating a combined total of $7.5 billion to doing so, it shows that the necessary funding and support exist to make it a reality. Stay tuned in two weeks for Part 3 of AMA’s story on the development of EV infrastructure in the United States. Learn more about how the AutoMobility Advisors team can help you and your business seize the amazing opportunities to serve the new mobility market. Click on the link below and get in touch, we’d love to talk with you! #evcharginginfrastructure #evcharging #ev #electricvehicles #futuremobility #newmobility #connectedvehicles #digitaltransformation #AutoMobility Advisors
Cars and Copper
This is part one of a three part series on the development of EVs and their supporting infrastructure in the United States. The automotive industry of the 21st century is experiencing a paradigm shift across all facets of vehicle production, distribution, maintenance, and consumer experience. Gas and internal combustion engines are no longer the sole method of powering automobiles. In fact, their long reign of dominance in the automotive market seems to be on the way out. In its place, EVs have exploded forth as an alternative capable of saving the environment through zero emissions and smart technology. Dedicated EV producers, led by Tesla, have gained substantial market share over the last five years, while long established OEMs like GM, Hyundai, VW, and Toyota have started to roll out brand new EVs at a breakneck pace. As EVs continue to gain ground, and with the introduction of medium and heavy duty commercial EVs to the market, the capacity for electrical charging will need to increase rapidly and efficiently in order to meet the ever increasing demand for electric vehicles. As this demand grows and more charging stations are built, a fundamentally important question must be addressed: how will the US power grid be able to keep up with and sustain America’s future power needs? Currently, only a minority of the total automotive market share is occupied by electric vehicles. A variety of news organizations including the New York Times and Automotive News reported that as of last year, only about 1% of the total cars on the road in the US were electric vehicles, and in 2022 made up a 7% of all new car purchases. Despite these relatively small numbers, there have been a number of incidents in which the electrical grid has struggled to support the charging demands even from existing electric vehicles. During a heatwave in California last September, grid operators advised customers to not charge their EVs in the evenings in order to avoid an overload of the grid. So we see that already problems have begun to surface in the power industry’s ability to keep up with demand, especially during times of inclement weather. As EVs continue to eat up more and more market share, incidents like what happened in California will become more widespread without major improvements to the power grid. https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=6925531279594137372&li_theme=light Another, and perhaps more arduous issue facing the American electrical infrastructure is the coming launch and mass marketization of larger commercial EVs. The Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law last August, and the bill laid out enormous incentives for the mass adoption of medium duty and heavy duty EVs (over 14,000 lbs). With a $40,000 tax credit available for all medium and heavy duty EVs, the miniscule market share currently occupied by these vehicles is projected to take off by the end of the decade. While substantially cleaner for the environment than their diesel and gasoline counterparts, these kinds of vehicles also demand significantly more energy to go the same distance as a lighter passenger EV. The energy usage for medium and heavy duty EVs is between 0.5 and 5.2 kWh per mile, while light EVs consume 0.2 – 0.4 kWh per mile. In 2022, over four million semi-trucks were operated in the US alone, excluding all other types of medium and heavy duty vehicles. It isn’t hard to imagine that an already beleaguered electrical grid will noticeably struggle to provide enough power for four to five million new EV semi-trucks, let alone all of the other segments of the market. https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=7258730335952157014&li_theme=light However, these power concerns are not insurmountable. The Wall Street Journal reported in an article last month that the 2.1 million EVs on the road in 2021 only required 0.2% of the total electricity consumed for the entire year. It is not likely that the US power grid will be able to stay ahead of demand to such an extent as EVs shift towards a dominant position in the automotive market, but with such a head start, the problem is certainly not unsolvable. Continued investment in optimizing clean energy, nuclear power, and upgrading electrical infrastructure across the country will ensure that power needs are met 24/7. These upgrades are essential to ensure the solvency of the nation’s power grid as it grapples with the rise of EVs, but the next step requires thorough examination, expansion, and further investment in the powerpoints themselves. Part 2 of AMA’s EV story will dive into the progress, flaws, and necessary actions needed to shore up one of the most essential components of the United States’ switch to electric vehicles: EV charging stations Learn more about how the AutoMobility Advisors team can help you and your business seize the amazing opportunities to serve the new mobility market. Click on the link below and get in touch, we’d love to talk with you! https://www.linkedin.com/embeds/publishingEmbed.html?articleId=7797880136967695981&li_theme=light Read the latest AutoMobility Roadmap here and subscribe today. #evinfrastructure #electricvehicles #evcharging #newmobility #futuremobility AutoMobility Advisors