US Government Will Blow Up EV Charging Infrastructure

2015 Nissan Leaf (Credit: Nissan)

The Obama Administration wants to give one last gift to the automotive landscape in this country: 48 new charging corridors for electric cars. This comes after the original projections of EV adoption have far exceeded reality.

These charging corridors will be located along different national highways, stretching from coast to coast. Once the project is done, 35 states will have the new chargers located inside their borders. The total length of roads covered by these corridors will be just shy of 25,000 miles. Chargers will be no more than 50 miles apart from each other.

This effort isn’t being taken on just by the federal government. State, county and some municipal governments are pitching in, along with electric utility companies and others in the private sector.

With the Chevrolet Bolt launching and the Tesla Model 3 hopefully coming soon, plus these new charging corridors, we should see EVs start moving more toward the mainstream.

For many car shoppers, the fact there seems to be relatively few places for charging up an EV versus refueling a traditional vehicle is a big roadblock. The idea is that making chargers more accessible, people will buy more EVs. Whether you think this plan will work or not likely depends on your political affiliation.