Electric avenues: US to build 48 EV charging corridors across the country
The government will be relying on the hard work of many private enterprises to make this a reality.
It's still not easy to cross the country in an electric car, unless you have a Tesla and can use its Superchargers. That could change soon, though, as the government wants to establish charging corridors across a majority of US states.
The US government said it will establish 48 electric-vehicle charging corridors across the country, Reuters reports. This national network of chargers will cover nearly 25,000 miles of highways across 35 different states, although it's unclear which states won't be included. Hawaii is a part of the corridor, but I think it'll be pretty tough to drive your EV there from the mainland.
This isn't going to be some sort of WPA job, though. Instead, the Obama Administration (and, hopefully, whoever comes in after him) will rely on the help of private enterprise. According to Reuters, the group responsible for these stations will include General Motors, BMW, Nissan and several "electric vehicle charging firms," an example of which would be Chargepoint.
Ensuring EV owners can criss-cross the country without spending a majority of their time finding charging stations will be a massive leap forward in helping foster EV ownership. BMW, Volkswagen and Chargepoint have already come together to work on a series of EV charging corridors on the east and west coasts. Connecting those coasts isn't just a nice idea; it's damn near a necessity.
Tesla already has a widespread network of fast chargers spread across the country. However, its Supercharger system only works with Tesla vehicles, and it appears that other automakers either aren't interested in licensing that technology or Tesla won't let them join in the fun.
