More than 50 power companies nationwide have agreed to accelerate the build-out of electric vehicle charging stations on freeways across the country, according to The Verge. The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) announced the formation of the National Electric Highway Coalition on Tuesday.
“EEI and our member companies are leading the clean energy transformation, and electric transportation is key to reducing carbon emissions across our economy,” EEI President Tom Kuhn said in a statement. “With the formation of the National Electric Highway Coalition, we are committed to investing in and providing the charging infrastructure necessary to facilitate electric vehicle growth.”
Each utility in the coalition has to make a promise “in good faith” to create an EV fast charging network in the territory it serves by the end of 2023 using “any approach they see fit,” according to the Daily Energy Insider (DEI).
Currently, the 1.8 million or so electric vehicles registered in the U.S. are only able to power up at approximately 46,000 public charging stations. It would require more than 100,000 fast charging ports to service the 22 million electric vehicles expected to be on U.S. roads by 2030, according to the EEI.
The EEI aims to help fill EV charging infrastructure gaps on major roads – the rollout of which has stalled in the past due to the technical process of hooking up new power stations to the existing grid. Experts say utility companies’ involvement may speed things up thanks to their existing knowledge of the grid’s capacity at any potential new charging point location.