U.S. to Expand EV Charging Network

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s Federal Highway Admin. today announced plans to establish 48 charging networks for plug-in vehicles across nearly 25,000 miles of highways in 35 states.

The new network combined with existing facilities will result in a charging station about every 50 miles along covered routes. Signs will be added along the roadways to alert drivers to upcoming charging stations.

As part of the plan, 24 state and local governments have committed to buy hundreds of EVs for government fleets and add new EV charging stations. States participating in the program include California, Minnesota, Montana, Rhode Island and Vermont.

California alone plans to buy at least 150 zero-emission vehicles next year and provide EV charging for at least 5% of state-owned parking spaces by 2020. And Los Angeles has agreed to nearly triple its plug-in fleet to 555 vehicles—most of which will be used by local police—by the end of 2017.

Eight years ago President Obama set a goal of having 1 million plug-ins on U.S. roads by 2015. But only about half that many EVs have been sold in the country since then.