Where the Heck Are We Going to Charge All of the Electric Cars? [View all]

[NickB79]

https://slate.com/business/2021/10/electric-vehicle-tesla-charger-curb.html

Ann Arbor is one of many cities confronting a vast challenge as Democrats pin their hopes to reduce U.S. emissions on the rapid, widespread adoption of electric vehicles: How do you get power to people who park on the street? Does electrifying cars mean changing the way we park?

One in three U.S. housing units does not have a garage, according to the 2019 American Housing Survey, and many of those households do not have their own parking spots. As gas stations slowly yield to electric chargers, the ratio of fueling nozzles to vehicles is plummeting, with some studies suggesting we’ll need as many as one charger for every two electric vehicles. The bipartisan infrastructure bill contains $7.5 billion to charge EVs, which President Joe Biden hopes will make up half of U.S. auto sales by 2030, up from around 2 percent today.

Where to charge them? Many cities are experimenting with EV charging at the curb, and extension cords have been spotted hanging from the windows of East Village tenements and Boston triple-deckers. Street parking has long been a lawless affair, and so far, electric vehicle charging at the curb is working much the same way: every driver for him or herself. By and large, experts fear that EV adoption will lag in places where curbside parking is dominant, such as New York City, which despite its liberal voters and enormous wealth counts just 15,000 electrics among its 2 million cars.