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The simple answer is that to meet our collective sustainability goals, we’ll need to significantly increase EV infrastructure across the US. While EV ranges are growing with each iteration, to improve and increase EV travel for both short and long trips, we’ll need more charging stations in more locations.
Along the same lines, your city may be looking to decrease its carbon footprint and find ways to help residents do the same. Still, climate concerns aren’t the only reason why public EV charging stations are needed.
As most cities know, the more they build commercial and entertainment districts, and the more desirable those are, the more traffic they will attract. When it comes to helping attract desirable businesses, EV charging stations can help. Further, those same charging stations, as those businesses know, will attract consumers as well and encourage them to stay awhile. So, when planning, developing, or re-developing commercial and entertainment districts, cities would be wise to include EV charging infrastructure and public EV charging stations in those areas.
Finally, a public EV charging program can put your city on the map, and not just the EV charging apps. In fact, when it comes to being recognized for amazing EV charging infrastructure, everything from local and regional magazines to business and travel websites are covering the cities making the biggest impact. That kind of attention can also draw attention from businesses and residents looking for forward thinking cities to relocate or establish a presence.
In short, not only does our overall national EV infrastructure need your city’s participation, but your residents, businesses, and visitors do as well.
When it comes to making infrastructure choices for your city, often, looking at similar cities is a great way to see what initiatives are helping them reach similar goals. Contrary to popular belief, it’s more than just major cities that are implementing EV charging stations and programs, though they’re certainly among the leaders.
Among major cities with EV charging infrastructure, Seattle, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC are among those with the strongest performance when we look at sheer number of stations. For drivers, they’re saving money when it comes to gas vs. KwH comparison as well.
However, everyone following the industry will tell you that for us to hit the critical mass of EV adoption we need, we’ll need medium and smaller cities to invest as well. As noted, this also adds the potential to put smaller cities on the map.
In 2022, Clean Technica took a look at EV charging app Plugshare to see where gaps were and, as one might suspect, discovered large gaps in rural areas and smaller cities. They note that, much like train depots and gas stations in the 20th century, EV charging stations have the potential to put places on the map.
While that map has changed some, there are still large gaps in states across the Midwest and West. Yet, surveys suggest that states with relatively small cities and smaller populations, like Vermont, are still managing to rank highly among EV friendly cities.
And, the Department of Transportation (DOT), in conjunction with the Department of Energy (DOE) is doubling down on boosting infrastructure, offering an urban EV implementation toolkit based on their successful rural EV infrastructure toolkit. These are designed specifically to assist cities with implementation plans as well as help them get the most out of incentives and grants.
Even with support from the DOT and DOE, there are still challenges to implementing and installing EV infrastructure.
First and foremost, site selection can be a challenge as there are many variables that factor into where you place EV charging stations. Not only will you want to consider traffic and demand, but grid capacity, space, and access are important considerations as well.
For example, if, as part of your public EV infrastructure efforts you’re also coordinating complementary municipal fleet electrification projects, then you’ll also want to consider where municipal fleet vehicles might need to recharge or top up. You may also want to look at where there are other public EV charging stations including those at retail, hospitality, multi-use lots, and more.
As with any other EV implementation, you’ll want to consider types of chargers as well. While DC fast chargers are popular, they also pull more power from the grid, so balancing that option with Level 2 chargers is important. And, managing power usage is essential. That means choosing the right EV charging solution provider, one with an EV charging platform management system (CPMS) that allows you to drill down and balance power usage.
In addition, you’ll want an CPMS that allows you to control much more, including those that come with a variety of business models and fee structures, even better if those are versatile and flexible as well. Can you drill down and enable free or discounted charging for specific users, like city employees? Can you create fee structures and rules that vary by day, time, and location?
And, much like these controls, you’ll want to consider the EV charging network as well as its reliability and connectivity, especially to networked EV charging stations, the EV charging app, and EVPMS. There’s no sense in committing to EV charging stations if you, drivers, and the network cannot connect to them to keep them up and running.
Do they use OCPP? Are they prepared for OCPI? As more and more of the industry looks for ways to improve access and flexibility, is your provider prepared for that future?
So, when it comes to choosing your EV charging solution provider, you’ll want to consider one that is technologically prepared but also one that can help you be prepared and that starts with site selection.
To start, some EV solution providers will be full-service turnkey solution providers who will help you with site analysis and selection. Other providers will farm that out to other firms. There’s an advantage to working with a provider who offers a turnkey solution, especially when it comes to site selection as they’ll be far more familiar with challenges related to their set up as well as concerns and challenges that may have come up in other locations.
When it comes to choosing the best site for public EV charging stations in your city, you’ll want to know the following:
Demand and Traffic
Location and Space
Site Logistics
And that’s just an overview, a starting point, as the answers to these questions don’t necessarily mean a location isn’t great for an EV charging station; it may, however, make it challenging and that’s why choosing your hardware provider is among the most important decisions you’ll make when you embark on the EV charging and infrastructure journey.
In fact, that’s why you’ll want to choose a full solution provider, one who can guide you through the entire process and provide the most reliable network, the most versatile EVPMS, best-in-breed warranties, and superior ongoing support.
If you’re ready to talk about how public EV charging can help your city, residents, businesses, visitors, and all of us, reach out to our team of EV charging experts today and let’s get started.