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