With the Biden administration pushing for more widespread EV adoption and planning to convert the entire federal fleet to electric power in an effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the need for a more robust charging infrastructure has been thrust into the spotlight. A recently proposed EV charging action plan outlines how to get to that point, and both Ford CEO Jim Farley and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation – a lobby group that represents Ford and almost every other major automaker – have thrown their support behind these efforts in recent months. Now, Farley is among a number of executives pushing for EV charging standards and a massive expansion of the existing network, according to Reuters.
Jim Farley – along with General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson, Nissan chair Jeremie Papin, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk – met with Biden administration officials this week to discuss both EVs and charging infrastructure. “There was broad consensus that charging stations and vehicles need to be interoperable and provide a seamless user experience, no matter what car you drive or where you charge your EV,” the White House said in a statement.
One of the main focuses of the meeting was to figure out how the U.S. can expand its national EV charging network to 500,000 chargers, a goal that will require a significant investment to achieve. The Biden administration is currently gathering information from domestic manufacturers as it ultimately decides which will build the charging network, with all manufacturing and assembly to take place in the U.S.
In the coming weeks, the Department of Transportation (DOT) will also issue guidance for states and cities on deploying EV charging stations to build out this national network, focusing on rural areas and other places where infrastructure is lacking.
We’ll have more on this EV charging action plan soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
CCS or Tesla is what th e majority of new EV use. Why cant an adaptor exist to use either.
Power grid will never handle a large EV country. Most people can’t afford the Evs, have no place where they live to charge them and range issues in the cold will keep them a local novelity vehicle.
I think EVs have a place in the future however, there is a down side to everything. They will figure out how to get more charging stations and how to get the mileage range on a charge up substantially. But, nobody wants to talk about how to dispose of old batteries. It’s real folks. Just like windmills.
Everybody thought they were the greatest thing since sliced cheese. Now, they are trying to figure out what to do with the 80 foot blades after their 20 year life span is expired. You can’t dump them into landfills. They aren’t biodegradable. The average EV car battery weighs 1000 pounds. You need to look at the list of toxic chemicals that go into making one EV car battery. Most of the ingredients come from overseas. We still won’t be energy independent. Instead of having to purchase crude oil, we will be purchasing the ingredients (ore, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, etc …). These ingredients are mined overseas for each and every EV battery. There are many, many imbedded costs to “going green” and in the end, we are doing more harm to the environment. Where will we dispose of all the EV batteries when their shelf life expires?
Does anyone talk about the disposal fees to get rid of these batteries? It could be several thousand dollars. How much does it cost to replace the EV battery? Upwards of $20,000. Those costs are imbedded in the new car cost. You don’t see them. But, wait until you need a new battery. You will begin to see many of the hidden costs the car industry and the government won’t talk about. There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond the myth of zero emissions. Going green may sound like the utopian ideal but, when you look at the hidden and imbedded costs realistically, you can see that going green is more destructive to the earths environment than meets the eye.
I agree with you 100%. It takes so much raw materials to make the 1000 pound battery. A lithium EV battery weighs about 1,000 pounds.(a) While there are dozens of variations, such a battery typically contains about 25 pounds of lithium, 30 pounds of cobalt, 60 pounds of nickel, 110 pounds of graphite, 90 pounds of copper,(b) about 400 pounds of steel, aluminum, and various plastic components.(c)
Looking upstream at the ore grades, one can estimate the typical quantity of rock that must be extracted from the earth and processed to yield the pure minerals needed to fabricate that single battery:
• Lithium brines typically contain less than 0.1% lithium, so that entails some 25,000 pounds of brines to get the 25 pounds of pure lithium.(d)• Cobalt ore grades average about 0.1%, thus nearly 30,000 pounds of ore.(e) Nickel ore grades average about 1%, thus about 6,000 pounds of ore.(f)
Graphite ore is typically 10%, thus about 1,000 pounds per battery.(g)
Copper at about 0.6% in the ore, thus about 25,000 pounds of ore per battery.(h)
In total then, acquiring just these five elements to produce the 1,000-pound EV battery requires mining about 90,000 pounds of ore. To properly account for all of the earth moved though—which is relevant to the overall environmental footprint, and mining machinery energy use—one needs to estimate the overburden, or the materials first dug up to get to the ore. Depending on ore type and location, overburden ranges from about 3 to 20 tons of earth removed to access each ton of ore.(i)
This means that accessing about 90,000 pounds of ore requires digging and moving between 200,000 and over 1,500,000 pounds of earth—a rough average of more than 500,000 pounds per battery. The precise number will vary for different battery chemistry formulations, and because different regions have widely variable ore grades. It bears noting that this total material footprint does not include the large quantities of materials and chemicals used to process and refine all the various ores. Nor have we counted other materials used when compared with a conventional car, such as replacing steel with aluminum to offset the weight penalty of the battery, or the supply chain for rare earth elements used in electric motors (e.g., neodymium, dysprosium).(j) Also excluded from this tally: the related, but non-battery, electrical systems in an EV use some 300% more overall copper used compared with a conventional automobile.(k)
Several days ago you showed pictures of BEAM GLOBAL’s, ARC (Autonomous Renewal Charger) for EVs. It stated that California invested 2 million for 30 of them to be installed in rural areas where there’s no grid in order to encourage all future new car buyers “JUST IN RURAL AREAS” to consider purchasing an EV rather than an ICE.
You followed this up with another article that said they (CA) will also install 52 more EV ARC systems at 12 state government agency locations. Unfortunately… you failed to mention the dirty little known secret that according to the E.I.A. ~60.8% of the electricity that they (EV owners) will use to charge their EV batteries when they use grid-tied charging stations is produced from fossil fuels.
Hopefully, the other 49 states will soon follow California’s lead by investing in solar powered charging stations which will make the difference between a “GOOD STEP” and a “GREAT STEP” in the battle against the climate crisis when they decide on which type of charging stations to invest in.
I’m fully aware of problems associated the production & eventual disposal of todays renewable energy collecting devices alluded to in an earlier comment but I’m also aware that they will “BUY US INVALUABLE TIME” (~20 years) to solve that problem before we reach the point of “NO RETURN” by not taking advantage of them NOW!
Maybe in the future, we’ll be able to convince the richest multi-billionaires (who don’t pay as much in taxes as teachers do) to send the non biodegradable renewable energy collecting devices into space (which is limitless) rather than spending millions on taking 15 minute joy rides.
Twenty years ago, nobody thought that we would be able to invent devices that could harvest the tremendous amount of renewable energy that we currently do.
I have an F-150 Lightning reserved and whenever possible, I will opt to charge it’s batteries with 100% renewable “P-V Solar energy”. Every EV owner who purchased an EV in even a small part to help in the battle against Global Warming should be made aware of the tremendous difference when they choose to use “100% grid powered” charging stations in lieu of even partially “solar powered” if & when” they have a choice.
Last but not least, we (the free world) MUST NOT be dependent on “FOSSIL FUEL RICH” countries (i.e. Russia, Saudi Arabia, etc.) led by murderous dictators for their polluting natural resources.