The Biden administration is going to spend $7.5 Billion to put in 500,000 Charging Stations across America. About $15,000 each.
Hmmm, according to Google, there are about 2.3 million electric cars. So about 1 government owned charging station for each 4 cars.
I’m generally in favor of electric cars (did my engineering master’s thesis on the topic), and this isn’t the worst way to spend money.
But I get the feeling that Biden is going to screw this up – because he screws everything up. This is what I think.
First, this will cost way more than $15,000 per charging station. In fact, after all of the government bureaucratic BS and the states absorbing their share, I think the total number of stations they will install with the $7.5 Billion is about… 18. 18 charging stations will be built.
Second, new kinds of batteries for electric cars are on the drawing table. The cables used now will not support charging an electric car to near full charge in 15 minutes. You need something the size of a couple of crowbars to transmit that much power. And transmitting that much power to a lot of cars might mean and upgrade to the grid connection – a substantial one!
Unlike gasoline and diesel fuel, electric cars have a lot of flexibility for design changes. We might find that the charging stations are obsolete before they are even built. After all, no one will hang on to an electric car that requires an 8 hour charging time, if they can get one that charges in 15 minutes.
The reason the commercial market isn’t installing charging stations all over the place is exactly that. Technical standards can easily change and no one wants to be left with obsolete hardware.
I just know that Joe will screw this up.
Biden unveils rules for nationwide network of 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles
Charging station ? Will they be left with the cables riped off as the telephone booths of days gone bye ? When is the last time you’ve seen a telephone booth ? Will the charging stations change with the speed of technicial advances and with what cost ? The cell phone has had so many changes in the last decade that only kids can keep up with the changes. Do you think that someone that pays 70.000 for an electric auto and can’t charge it after a year of advances with the charging stations is going to be happy ? I think not.
I didn’t even thing about that, they would be vandalized pretty quickly and will require maintenance funds. If inflation keeps at this pace, people will steal the cables just for the copper, like they did in Somalia.
And you have a point, the charging stations will provide inertia for the current unsatisfactory technology, slowing down the advances of the technology.