Pellerito: Clearing up misconceptions regarding EV commentary

I have been reading the opinion article from Jane Brady on the EV mandates (“Brady: EV mandates are not justified by technology or reality”) and wanted to address a couple of items that she wrote.

Below are some of the points that I would like to call out based on the article.

Ms. Brady writes “Recognizing that need, in 2021, Congress passed an infrastructure bill that included a $7.5 billion investment in electric vehicle chargers. Since then, not a single charger has been built. Zero. The objective was to have over 1 million public chargers available by 2030 to further the goal of the government that half of all new vehicles sold in the United States would be electric by that year.

“Some of the money has been authorized, but most states that have asked for grants to build the chargers have not yet taken bids for construction, and not a single charger has been constructed from those funds. It has been reported that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory concluded that, to alleviate drivers’ anxiety about the range of EVs, the government would need to construct 25 million public charging units by 2030, with the cost greatly exceeding the number provided for in the infrastructure bill.”

This statement, while it might have been accurate at the time of writing the article, has inaccuracies based on the time of the posting of the article (Dec 20). At the time of posting the article, there have been two sites that have opened which were NEVI funded (Ohio and New York which I've included the media reports from the governors of those states below).

• • • Ohio Nevi Site (12/08/23) - https://governor.ohio.gov/media/news-and-media/ohio-first-state-in-activate-nevi-chargers
    • New York Nevi Site (12/15/23) - https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-new-yorks-first-national-electric-vehicle-infrastructure-funded-fast

2. Report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory

I’m unsure where she references 25 million public charging units by 2030 by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. When reading the 2030 National Charging Network report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, it states within the Key Findings for the Future EV Network that 182,000 publicly accessible fast chargers would be necessary, 1 million publicly available Level 2 charging ports be available,and 26 million Level 1 and 2 charging ports at privately available locations.

• Building the 2030 National Charging Network from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory - https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/2023/building-the-2030-national-charging-network.html

In addition, the sentence saying the government must construct 25 million public charging units by 2030 is misleading and/or inaccurate for the following reasons.

1. The report mentions 28 million nationwide ports and not the 25 million public charging units. Ports are different than units in that each unit might have one or two charging ports.

2. The report does not say the government would need to construct 28 million public charging ports, but instead says the government and private would need to construct 28 million ports based upon their mid-adoption scenario. This is important since EV charging is very different than filling a car up with gas. People would have the ability to charge at home which would be considered either a Level 1 or 2 port.

3. The report is not saying 25 million publicly available ports, but instead that there should be 182,000 fast chargers and 1 million Level 2 charging ports which are publicly accessible ports. The remaining 26.8 million ports would be Level 1 and 2 charging ports that would be privately accessible and located at single-family homes or apartments.

“The governor should abandon the mandate and explore promoting such options as hybrids and natural gas, and allow the science and technology to develop to accommodate our citizens’ needs, while continuing to further his objectives regarding clean and green energy.”

The mandate signed by the governor does not say that all vehicles need to be fully battery electric (BEV). The mandate instead says that vehicles be zero-emission options, which includes battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and fuel cell electric vehicles (this would include natural gas vehicles). So what the author is arguing the regulation should be about is actually what is mentioned in the regulations.

• Delaware Government Press Release on the Clean Car Regulations - https://news.delaware.gov/2023/11/29/dnrec-finalizes-clean-car-regulations/

Thank you for allowing me to comment on the article and I hope this helps provide some additional clarity into some of the areas which I believe might be misrepresented.

Matt Pellerito