In recent months the U.S. and a number of automakers – including Ford – continue to invest heavily in expanding existing EV charging infrastructure, which is generally considered to be one of the bigger obstacles in terms of accelerating electric vehicle adoption. Some – like Mercedes-Benz and Rivian – plan on building out their own charging networks as Tesla has already done, while others – like General Motors and Ford – will soon be adding chargers at dealerships, the latter as part of its new EV certification program. However, a new study from S&P Global Mobility found that much more is needed to support a major EV transition in the coming years, regardless.
Currently, there are around 140,000 EV charging stations located around the U.S., but given current demand and sales growth in the EV segment, S&P determined that the number of chargers present in this particular country will need to quadruple between 2022 and 2025, and grow more than eight-fold by 2030 – even with home charging accounted for. EV charging infrastructure has grown more in 2022 than in the preceding three years combined, with about 54,000 Level 2 and 10,000 Level 3 chargers added last year alone, however.
Currently, there are 1.9 million all-electric vehicles on the road in the U.S., which represents around 0.7 percent of the 281 million total vehicles in operation. However, EV market share is projected to reach 40 percent by 2030, growing to 28.3 million units. To support that figure, the U.S. will need around 770,000 chargers by 2025, 1.3 million by 2027, and around 2.14 million by 2030, according to S&P’s forecast, though needs will vary state-by-state.
“For mass-market acceptance of BEVs to take hold, the recharging infrastructure must do more than keep pace with EV sales,” said Graham Evans, S&P Global Mobility research and analysis director. “It must surprise and delight vehicle owners who will be new to electrification, so that the process seems seamless and perhaps even more convenient than their experience with gasoline refueling, with minimal compromise on the vehicle ownership experience. Developments in battery technology, and how quickly EVs can receive power, will be as critical to improvements here as how quickly and plentifully infrastructure can provide the power.”
We’ll have more on the state of EV charging infrastructure soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
I’d like to see some information on generation sources and transmission constraints.
That would be interesting.
This info and planning ang growth and demand trends are generally well known so it’s just a task of compilation and comparison.
I’m sure Edison Institute and DOE has this info available for planning and grants.
Stick Mayor Pete on the project. He can fix anything.
I never thought you’d be one to have a guy crush on Mayor Pete. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Houghton. Michigan just opened two Chargepoint dcfc chargers yesterday and naturally one of them does not work at all. Other UP Michigans chargers opened in the last 8 weeks now do not work see Crystal Falls.
Any details why not working? Vandalism?
I have a question: do any of the automakers have a financial interest, a revenue stream that is produced , when their customers use the automaker owned charging stations?
(In other words, are they making money directly from the sale of electricity sold at their own charging stations? e.g. they mark up the cost of the kilowatts that the customers are buying
I suppose they could do that now, but as charging points become ubiquitous and we see them at the mall or Costco or Kroger or McDonald’s and these entities discount the rates to either draw customers or reward with loyalty points, it will be more difficult for any charging operator to be too much above the market rate.
I imagine there eventually will be an app called Watt Buddy that will give rate and reservation information.
Bummer. How about we push back some of these arbitrarily arrived EV mandate dates?
So defeatist.
How about we continue to ramp up build out of the EV infrastructure instead.
As someone who works in heavy civil and is looking forward to getting an EV one day, John isn’t being a defeatist; he’s being realistic. The need for charging infrastructure (and by proxy, hopefully the need to update our vulnerable US electric grid nation wide) is going to give people in my industry job security for a very long time; might even shift base wages in a positive direction. However, it is going to take some serious time to get the infrastructure up to pace for current EV adoption, let alone projected needs by 2050 and beyond. This means a lot of private-public partnerships to get things going, and those take longer to hash out terms for involved parties as opposed to design-build or bid-build projects.
Keep in mind that when you are upgrade one piece of infrastructure, others will want to be apart. Upgrading electric lines in rural VA may lead to sewer and water upgrades to prevent future utility conflicts which may transform into full blown highway reconstruction projects if enough roadway is cut up for utility work. That takes years of work from planning to ribbon cutting. You’re looking at 5 years for a segment a few miles long. Now factor in the population type (urban, suburbs, or rural), the income makeup of those area (lower income has different needs than middle class or high income communities), nearby government property (military bases, national parks, etc.), the meteorological and geological restrictions of the area (snowy Rockies vs. hurricane east coast vs. tornado plains vs. seismic west coast and etc.), and other factors, and you have an immeasurable list of challenges to overcome.
Push back EV mandates now is less of a defeatist’s move and more of a preventive step to avoid [more] international humiliation. We all know that if goals aren’t reached next decade or we sloppy throw stuff together to make a date, we’ll be laughed at internationally, and red and blue nimrods in Washington will spend our tax dollars blaming each other as opposed to fixing issues. Then what could have been a 2050 goal that was met early ends up being a rush to beat 2060.
Now if graphene batteries and supercapacitors could experience a major breakthrough before 2030, we may be able to seriously accelerate things without the electrical network needing to be fully updated. But that’s a Hail Mary pass in Lambeau Field during a snow storm; not impossible but very unlikely.
I like the idea of EVs. However, according the EIA data, about 61% of US electricity is produced from fossil fuels. 18.9% from nuclear and 19.8% from “renewables”. Not even considering the amount of pollution that goes into producing the EV (ie batteries), how much pollution is averted from the operation of the EV versus ICEV? If the whole industry goes only in one tree hugging direction, that should be a concern. Consider Toyota and their hydrogen V. Producing hydrogen with electricity doesn’t seem all that efficient either, considering how electricity produced.
The capacity of the electrical grid is inadequate to handle demand now especially in the summer with the added A/C load.
What do you think is going to happen when you add additional load from the expanded charging network?
EVs are already failing financially due to low acceptance by Americans. Major auto manufacturers such as Toyota recently announced they won’t focus on EVs because they know Americans aren’t adopting them at scale, and Toyota is in great financialshape because of that decision. And now with a balanced Congress there is no more tax dollars to float this failed EV push. Ford’s stock lost almost 50% this year due to their failed EV push. We are lucky to live in a Free Market economy where citizens can’t be forced to buy something.
Wow, all those facts that are out there, free for the taking and using to develop and write an informed comment, and you found a way to miss All of them! That’s gotta take a lot of effort!
I’m retired now but I used to work in the electric power industry. The company I worked for provided steam generating equipment to power plants as well as nuclear power generation equipment. The problem we have is that liberal environmentalists will not allow any new powerplants to be built nor any major upgrades to older power plants. They want us to use more electricity all while denying any efficient way to create it. Their thought processes are based on emotion rather than logic, common sense or facts. Unbelievable.
Passenger vehicles will add not much load to the grid – especially since the beneficial overnight load will be about 80% of it.
Funny how all these people ‘in the business’ never mention that increased overnight load in North America REDUCES the strain on central stations… I’m the only one I’ve seen who even mentions it…
The big problem is California and NY State banning Gas Cooktops (even BIDEN tried to do it federally until there was such an uproar, such as professional chefs taping themselves to their stoves, haha).
But NYS and California want to ban natural gas, propane, wood, and oil heat, including all appliances…
That will be a STUPENDOUS load. A large home I was just in had a connected gas load of about 900,000 BTU/Hour what with the large home boilers, pool heater, and outside buildings that had their own water heating, and space heating….It currently has a 150 amp electric service for everything, and the maximum sized residential service supplied by the utility is 400 amperes…
EVEN with TWO 400 ampere services – the amount of heat that translates into is 630,000 btu/hour or assuming 2/3rds of what he has now is barely sufficient – this doesn’t take into account future electric car(s) charging so in this homeowner’s case would be ADDITIONAL loading..
Trying to charge the average passenger car overnight will be like an added 1500 watt room heater in the wintertime, and I don’t see anyone screaming about the grid can’t handle them…
Woke banning policies for the ENTIRE HOME is what will cause problems in those 2 states.
But its a great employment opportunity, seeing as EVERY SINGLE HOUSE will need to be massively rewired, and there will be $100/hour electricians doing that job.
Good article, but I wish some of those numbers were better supported, i.e. sources. The truth is, 2/3 of residences (including apartments) in the U.S. already have an electricity supplied garage or carport. Literally tens of millions of EVs can be absorbed into the current infrastucture right now, today, without causing a problem. See: California.
Additional charging stations being installed now at office buildings, apartments, hotels, etc. (by the private sector) are taking care of much of the rest of demand. Because it is already, now, a competitive advantage to offer that service to your tenants/clients.
But none of that matters – as more people find out through experience that EVs are a far superior vehicle than ICE, the market demand will take care of itself. Those who want to make money off the electricity to charge them will find a way to get in as well.
IF: “as more people find out through experience that EVs are a far superior vehicle than ICE, the market demand will take care of itself. ”
Why are subsidy funds being provided? The market should do that w/o spending tax dollars to prod the market into conformance with someone’s idea of ‘good’.
You think BEVs are far superior. If in SanDiego, you know the infrastructure in CA does not support curent demand, yet you want to add more and believe it will be better. How much will all the charging stations cost? Who will fund them? Where will they be built? How many? Who will bear the cost for home charging stations? BEVs are above the average transaction price for new vehicles by about $20,000 and the cost goes up from there. How will those who do not make $60,000 yearly pay for them? Wonderful idea, but there is a cost associated with creaging a BEV paradise.