The charging of Electric Vehicles will be political

The question is whether any local authority is willing to step in where federal funding might fall short. “The next 10 years (in EV charging) are all about the urban environment, cities, middle and low income people,” says Reig. In a world where electric vehicles are becoming a political lightning rod, those places could see the most charged action.

Charge EV as Bipartisan

A lot of people would prefer that EVs – and their chargers – could avoid the culture war altogether. Joe Sacks is the executive director of the Bipartisan EV Politics Project, an advocacy group, and he says getting more public chargers on the ground is critical to getting more electricity on the road. The group’s survey suggests that customer fears about EV ranges and an unreliable charging network are preventing some from buying electric.

Cargo companies are still in their early days, and some struggle to operate as profitable businesses. Shipper financing roadblocks, then, could be an almost existential concern for the industry. “There’s this scary trend where electric vehicle funding is seen as low-hanging fruit by some in the incoming administration,” Sacks says. Some political operators “use EV bashing as a tool to enact policy of any kind of flavor that interests them. It’s frustrating for us.”

For those who depend on federal charger money, even during a less-than-enthusiastic Trump administration, there is good news: It will be very difficult for the feds to recover all federal charger funding. The government has already assigned at least $3.5 billion in tax money to the states. Forty-two states have begun taking bids on freight contracts, and 12 have at least one station in operation. Those states cover the political gamut: Texas, Utah, Kentucky and Ohio all voted Republican in October, and are ahead in the build-up. So are Democratic states including New York, California, Rhode Island and Maine.

“There is broad support for electrification among a lot of critical stakeholders,” says Jason Mathers, the associate vice president of the zero-emission truck initiative at the Environmental Defense Fund. Manufacturers, labor unions, community organizations, politicians who want more EV jobs in their districts, and big companies already experimenting with EVs, including Walmart and Amazon, all have reason to want chargers on the ground . Advocates like Mathers don’t believe these constituencies will simply fall apart because of a change in administration, which means the pressure to build the charging network will remain.

Sacks, the director of the EV Policy Project, says a lot of messages related to EV charging should appeal to politicians of all stripes. “We want the Trump administration to see that the EV transition is not only critical for the jobs that are here, but also for maintain our competitiveness versus China.”

Sacks finds it encouraging, for example, that the Trump administration seems to want investment in the domestic battery mineral industries. (Today, most of the extraction and processing of battery material is located overseas, and especially in China.) To create demand for this type of industry, more Americans need to buy vehicles. electric, and they couldn’t do that without lots of EV chargers. around Ensuring that all Americans have access to those new chargers, not just those who live in specific “EV-friendly” states, could help convey this message.