New Hampshire has a $4.6 million plan to boost electric vehicle road trips across the state, with plans to install electric vehicle (EV) fast chargers along 6 major routes in the geographically small state.
The $4.6 million is coming from Volkswagen Group, thanks to the settlement that eventually came out of the massive, years-long, widespread diesel emissions scandal.
States can choose how they use the “dieselgate” settlement funds. Many have focused on EV charging, but there have also been electric bus, natural gas bus, and other approaches. In the case of New Hampshire, it is also not using all of the funds on the EV charging infrastructure. Another $15.5 million is going to be used to replace state and municipal vehicles and equipment with lower-emission vehicles (it’s unclear how many will be purely electric vehicles and what other powertrains and fuels will benefit from the cash).
“New Hampshire has recognized that we want to be a welcoming place to the people that own electric vehicles and as such we need to make sure that those folks are able to come here and charge and move around the state,” Rebecca Ohler, administrator of the technical services bureau in the air resources division at the state Department of Environmental Services, said. “But it’s also a matter of supporting New Hampshire residents who want to purchase electric vehicles and either don’t have the ability to install home charging … or that travel longer distances and can’t cover the territory they need to cover just from charging at home.”
The state recently had a request for proposals (RfP) out there for the new charging corridors. Winners will get 5 year contracts starting in April. The specific corridors include:
- Interstate 93 from Manchester to the Vermont border.
- I-89 from Concord to Vermont.
- Route 101 from I-93 to Keene.
- Route 16 from Portsmouth to Jackson.
- Route 2 in northern New Hampshire.
- Along an east-west route from I-93 to the Seacoast, which could be either Route 4 or Route 101, Ohler said.
It’s unclear yet how many charging stations or ports will be installed, as it depends on the responses to the RfP and the winners chosen.
“According to the state Division of Motor Vehicles, there are 2,366 electric vehicles (EVs) registered in New Hampshire, out of the 1,250,713 passenger vehicles registered here,” the New Hampshire Union Leader reports. “That’s nearly three times the number of electric vehicles that were registered here (835) in mid-2015.”
Map courtesy New Hampshire DOT
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