Who’s Leading in EV Infrastructure Development?

The latest from FMA President, Ed Youdell

With every drive I take these days, there are increasingly more electric vehicles in the lanes near me on the highway or dotting the parking lots and streets around my current hometown. 2022 has been the biggest year on record for EV sales and in the third quarter over 200,000 EVs were sold in the U.S. EV market share has exceeded 6% which is real progress towards the current Administration’s goal of having half of all vehicle sales in the US to be electric by 2030. The EPA and US Transportation Department have added teeth to the goal by reinstating efficiency standards for vehicles, which require new cars to produce 10% less greenhouse gas emission starting in 2023. Further reductions of 5 percent a year will be required until 2026. The headwind in the face of reaching such lofty adoption rates of EVS is the need to have the needed infrastructure of charging stations and ports to supply the power to the coming wave of EVs.

Metal fabricators seem to me to be the ideal supply chain partners to build the needed enclosures and components that comprise a charging station. The infrastructure bill that passed last year allocates $7.5 billion for charging infrastructure, split between $5bn for states to roll out charging stations and $2.5 billion in competitive grants for specific community-based programs. Finding a charging station manufacturer that you can partner with is the challenge to evaluate the opportunity ahead.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved all states for EV charging stations and according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. has about 47,000 EV charging stations providing over 120,000 charging ports. According to a recent report by Jerry, a car insurance comparison website, projected EVs on the road in 2030 will reach 35 million and the U.S. will need to build 1.5 million new charging ports to supply these vehicles. This means about 478 charging stations will need to be built every day for the next eight years.

The current universe of manufacturers making EV charging stations according to Reuters, is around 300 EV charging companies globally, with nearly 100 in North America. According to Pitchbook, investors have ponied up more than $2 billion in startups and some companies such as EVgo Inc., Nuvve, Charge Point and Volta Charing have decided to go public through SPAC- backed reverse mergers. Corporate money is also in the game including Toyota Motor Corp. Daimler AG, Shell, Chevron, Qualcomm, and eBay all have made start-up investment plays.

There is an opportunity to shape the daily interaction that millions of consumers will have with these charging stations and other critical elements to connecting their commutes. Policymakers should know the reliability and innovation that our industry is uniquely positioned to contribute.

We stand ready if the moment arrives and ask leaders across the country to prioritize keeping the opportunity here for American businesses to build.