L’America! The frontier land — where majestic vistas and metropolises interconnect in a vast neural network of roads — now aims to become more electric vehicle friendly. In September, the Biden Administration confirmed its plan to make $5 Billion available to build new charging stations through 53,000 miles of freeway.
“We’re building the future of the electric vehicle,” the US president promised.
The funds will be allocated to state governments in increments, the first of which has already rolled out, over the course of five years, to install charging ports in designated corridors. Biden eventually plans to have 500,000 of these charging stations assembled across all coasts in a bid to create one of the most intricate tourism infrastructures of the electric vehicle era.
“It’s important to see this funding as something that will hopefully kickstart further private sector funding, and push forward this shift towards electric vehicles”, said Jessika Trancik, a professor of MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society.
The main framework of this strategy is to have at least four charging stations installed per area, separated by a 50 miles radius along the designated corridor, where electric vehicles hailing from different models can charge between states.
As electric vehicles transition into a mainstream commodity becoming more affordable to the average American, the plan to create a sustainable ecosystem for EVs grows ever more important to drive tourism and generate revenue for businesses that will operate around those areas. Biden’s step also intends to proliferate the sales of electric cars, as the more planned stations there are, the more likely Americans are to invest their money into buying one.
“What does it take to tip people who are considering buying an EV into buying it?” said Jonathan Levy, chief commercial officer of EVgo, a charging company, “The infrastructure, the visibility of it, and the existence of it will help.”
As for existing electric vehicle owners; who have so far gone on road trips with a chip on their shoulder, they can now breathe freely as the United States makes its first true foray into an EV-friendly future.
