21 Jan Electric vehicle charging infrastructure – a merciless bottleneck
With rapid expansion of the electric vehicle (EV) marketplace, most owners still charge their EVs at home or at work, where some employers have installed chargers. Others park overnight or “top off” on short local trips at public charging stations, such as parking garages, retail parking lots and converted light poles on street curbs. However, one of the main barriers to mass EV adoption remains the potential customer’s concerns about how far an EV can go on a single charge – so-called “range anxiety.”
The exact number of public charging stations that will be required to support the market demand for EVs and achieve environmental goals in the coming decades is unknown. But one industry analyst forecasts explosive growth of this caliber: from about 1.3 million in 2020 to 40 million in 2030 and 200 million in 2050. Both public and private sectors worldwide are currently investing billions of dollars in EV charging stations and related infrastructure to quell range anxiety and herald the broad adoption of EVs. In the U.S., the Biden bill signed into law on November 15, 2021 allocates $7.5 billion for EV infrastructure. States like Massachusetts, home to Prezerv headquarters, are working hard with public utilities to build out EV infrastructure in order to meet their ambitious goals for electrifying transportation over the next decade.
Turning now to the nitty-gritty details of satisfying EV customer demand: All of these public charging stations must undergo permitting/approval and construction processes, including making sufficient electrical upgrades and connections to the established power grid. In many cases, the permitting process involves months of discussions with various entities such as the Department of Transportation, municipality review committees and conservation boards. On the construction side, building each EV charging station necessitates digging an underground trench and laying down conduits to connect the charging station to the electric grid. This process can be particularly challenging and time-consuming in old, densely populated cities where contractors are forced to rely on outdated, inaccurate maps of underground infrastructure. Underground construction under such conditions raise safety hazards, project delays and cost overruns.
The Prezerv’s Voxler platform and Build Safe application are built to help shorten the design and review process and make the construction project safer and faster. By helping to accelerate the buildout of the EV charging infrastructure, the Prezerv team is proud to support net-zero goal and creation of environmentally sustainable communities.