> That means mapping out charging stations in a comprehensive, thoughtful way … not leaving it to the whims of the commercial sector, … It will require cities to develop plans for how and where to locate public chargers
I spoke at public hearing last year in favor of an EV ordinance that my city passed. I believe that if we are to involve government with EV adoption, which is necessary, we need to be prepared for backlash and controversy, and it will require non-insignificant effort to arrive at consensus required for government action. After the ordinance was passed I exited the council chambers and I was approached by a middle aged woman who identified her self as a property developer. She told me how unfair the code amendments were because of how much it was going to cost her business. I told her that solutions like this are necessary because people are concerned with range anxiety. She responded that she was concerned with “regulatory anxiety” and the encroachment of government, and briefly grabbed my shoulder during her tirade. After that I quietly and uneventfully left the area.
I realized that if people are edging into getting physical with a small city ordinance that requires developers to provide limited charging stations for EVs, our civilization is woefully unprepared to address climate change, which will require reforms to many institutions, and the retirement of others. We need to make big changes in a lot of areas, and I don’t see the leadership, technical expertise, and outreach required to do that.
A thing to think about is: Do we in fact need top-down government mandates to do this? People with gas cars have range anxiety, too, and you need to be strategic about placement of gas stations to ensure that they don't get stuck in a place where they can't charge. And yet... this turns out to be a problem that largely solved itself without a centralizing authority, because "people want to buy gas/electricity for their car, and they want to buy it more in certain places, and there is money to be made by serving that demand" is where the market does well.
Market failures are real, the need for regulation is real (there are, quite sensibly, piles of regulations around how you can store the tanks of toxic chemicals needed to fuel a legacy gas car, and there will be regulations around EV charging as well), but in terms of making sure EV charging places exist where needed, this is probably a place where just "get out of the way, and don't let zoning regulations block necessary construction" gets you 90%+ of the way to where you need to be.
You may not need government to mandate EV chargers. You may need government to remove barriers to deploying them, and that will require some nice encouragement and some not-so-nice arm twisting.
To install EV charging, unless you’re planning on generating your own energy on site, you’re likely going to procure power from your local utility, most of which are monopolies that are heavily regulated by your state utility commission.
Some estimates say it could cost utilities up to $5,380 per EV to upgrade the electrical infrastructure to support them [1]. Although utilities will earn more revenue through selling electricity, this will not completely offset the infrastructure investment. Will the costs be paid by ratepayers, some of whom may not have an EV? Your state utility commission may balk at that.
Of course federal incentives exist to offset costs, but many programs require participation by your state executive branch, who may not be in lock step with federal policy. Your state utility commission may not be in lock step with your state administration. If you can get agreement with your state policy makers, your utility will have to be employed to expand grid access. They may expect certain amount of consumption to make it worth their while, which you may not be able to provide for a few years until EVs gain adoption. Some utilities will charge you extra too if you use too much electricity, called demand charges, to disincentive consumption. Utilities will have their own schedule to build out the infrastructure, which may not match yours. They’re also a monopoly, so you can’t exactly shop around. Then you have the code and permitting requirements of the municipality your setting up the infrastructure in. The permitting process also follows their schedule, not yours.
With EV charging we have a massive coordination problem, with actors you can’t choose who aren’t strictly driven by market incentives. You’ll need some kind of combination of carrots (tax breaks and grants) and sticks (fines and penalties for slow walking a process) to make the infrastructure needed to support wide EV adoption.
> People with gas cars have range anxiety, too, and you need to be strategic about placement of gas stations to ensure that they don't get stuck in a place where they can't charge.
Right? But I can’t buy 5x20l canisters and fill them up with x kWh of electricity. I can to that with diesel or gasoline.
Aha, 2770kg for a jcb bobcat and roughly 550kg for a battery pack. Let me guess - on a trailer? What would towing that do to the range on the first battery pack? Or are you being sarcastic?
Threatening someone’s livelihood is not a good way to get them on your side. It has a real “some of you may die, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take” feel. On the other hand, if you really are willing to leave these people behind in your march of progress, be prepared to defend tourself.
Government has been doing this for decades, with minimum parking requirements. I don't ever hear businesses complain about how those cut into profit margins.
Our civilization is a joke, really. We can't seemingly get anything done if someone is making money off of it not being done, and anything actually getting done is in severe danger of being dismantled so someone can make money off of it not being done.
I spoke at public hearing last year in favor of an EV ordinance that my city passed. I believe that if we are to involve government with EV adoption, which is necessary, we need to be prepared for backlash and controversy, and it will require non-insignificant effort to arrive at consensus required for government action. After the ordinance was passed I exited the council chambers and I was approached by a middle aged woman who identified her self as a property developer. She told me how unfair the code amendments were because of how much it was going to cost her business. I told her that solutions like this are necessary because people are concerned with range anxiety. She responded that she was concerned with “regulatory anxiety” and the encroachment of government, and briefly grabbed my shoulder during her tirade. After that I quietly and uneventfully left the area.
I realized that if people are edging into getting physical with a small city ordinance that requires developers to provide limited charging stations for EVs, our civilization is woefully unprepared to address climate change, which will require reforms to many institutions, and the retirement of others. We need to make big changes in a lot of areas, and I don’t see the leadership, technical expertise, and outreach required to do that.