Now 1 EV Fast Charging Station for Every 15 Gas Stations in USA
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Electric vehicle fast chargers are growing strongly in the United States. Thanks in large part to Joe Biden’s $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, the number of public EV fast chargers in the country grew by 7.6% in the first quarter, to nearly 8,200 stations. That’s from about 600 new fast charging stations going online, about a quarter of them being Tesla Supercharging stations.
In fact, with this recent growth spurt, there’s now one EV fast charging station for every 15 gas stations — about 8,000 charging stations (~2,000 Tesla Supercharger stations and ~6,000 non-Tesla stations) versus about 120,000 gas stations. Of course, the vast majority of EV charging isn’t done at fast chargers — it’s done at homes, workplaces, and other “Level 2” charging stations. So, it’s not really an ideal comparison. We should never need as many fast chargers as we currently need gas stations.
Thanks in part to large convenience store networks Buc-ee’s and Wawa committing to EV charging support and thanks in part to the geographically broad NEVI program, states not as far along in the EV revolution and more neglected when it comes to EV charging infrastructure got a boost last quarter. Indiana got 16 new EV fast-charging stations, Missouri and Tennessee got 13 each, and Alabama got 11. Together, Buc-ee’s and Wawa added 19 new stations in the US — 10 at Buc-ee’s and 9 at Wawas.
Aside from “greening up” charging deserts and making it much easier for people without home or workplace charging to easily and conveniently charge, the progress and growing EV market are reportedly helping in another big way. “We are getting closer to where a lot of these charging stations actually turn profitable,” says Philipp Kampshoff, the head of McKinsey’s Center for Future Mobility. “Now, you have a sort of line of sight and then obviously it makes sense to scale further.” If that’s true, we could be in for a big inflection point in this portion of the EV industry. Naturally, this would be great news and a turning point for companies like EVgo and Electrify America. In the case of Tesla, it’s a whole other matter. Tesla has never looked to make money on its Superchargers, but with practically every other automaker gaining access to the network, and with Tesla facing other corporate and financial issues, one has to wonder how much money Tesla could make in the coming years with some slight changes to its pricing.
In any case, the good news is that the EV charging industry is growing, advancing, and potentially reaching a somewhat mature phase in the United States. For sure, there’s a lot more to do and a lot more to come, but we are far beyond where we were a few years ago, let alone a decade ago.
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