Gavin Newsom can not account for $24 billion spent on the homeless. Now he is caught using Federal dollars to install government owned and controlled recharging stations that can not be used by most of the EV owners.
“But while auto manufacturers are flocking to the charging port technology developed by Tesla, the industry leader for fast and reliable charging, the federal grants will require stations to include separate ports, known as the Combined Charging System, that have been plagued with reliability issues.
Utilities that will work with grant recipients to get stations online are anticipating headaches for drivers.
“It adds more confusion,” said Eric Cahill, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s lead on electric transportation strategy and policy. “Do I need an adapter? How much do adapters cost? Is there really going to be an adapter there for me to use this port or not?”
Newsom is forcing people to buy expansive, unreliable EV’s—and then not be able to find compatible charging stations. Did you expect different?
California’s new EV chargers will have a retro feel
By ALEX NIEVES, Politico, 7/18/24 https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-climate/2024/07/18/californias-new-ev-chargers-will-have-a-retro-feel-00169561
PORTAL KOMBAT: California’s first wave of federally funded electric vehicle chargers hasn’t been installed yet, but the technology is already feeling obsolete.
The California Energy Commission is poised to hand out $40 million in EV charger grants this fall, roughly three years after the state received $384 million through the Biden administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program.
That’s welcome news in a state that needs a million public and shared private chargers by 2030 — a tenfold increase over current numbers — to support the estimated 7.1 million light-duty electric vehicles that will be on the road.
But while auto manufacturers are flocking to the charging port technology developed by Tesla, the industry leader for fast and reliable charging, the federal grants will require stations to include separate ports, known as the Combined Charging System, that have been plagued with reliability issues.
Utilities that will work with grant recipients to get stations online are anticipating headaches for drivers.
“It adds more confusion,” said Eric Cahill, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s lead on electric transportation strategy and policy. “Do I need an adapter? How much do adapters cost? Is there really going to be an adapter there for me to use this port or not?”
As POLITICO’s James Bikales reported last week, the Biden administration is delaying until after the election a widely anticipated update to its plug standard for the NEVI program, which has increasingly looked outdated after the industry moved rapidly last year to adopt Tesla’s J3400 plug technology. Dozens of the world’s top auto manufacturers, including Ford, BMW and Toyota, have committed to making the switch by the 2025 model year, which will hit showrooms in the fall.
Tesla’s supercharger stations are typically much smaller and have lighter components than their CCS counterparts, and their reliability has been a major draw for car buyers who’ve helped the company maintain its position as the largest producer of EVs.
The federal CCS requirement doesn’t preclude charger manufacturers from including J3400 ports or adapters on chargers built with grant funding. Tesla is, in fact, one of the companies receiving dollars in the first round of funding. But the lack of flexibility in adapting to a rapidly developing industry is causing heartburn among some of the players in the EV landscape.
“That’s the kind of nonsense we’ve got to just stop if we want mass adoption,” Cahill said.
The anxiety isn’t uniform.
Johannes Copeland, chief operating officer at Skycharger, a charger manufacturer that’s receiving NEVI grants, said it’s fine to install both ports because there are enough cars on the road already using CCS. His bigger concern is how long it takes to get new chargers hooked up to the grid — 18-24 months, in some cases. He did suggest, however, that federal and state regulators build in more flexibility in future funding rounds.
“Maybe they could have left it open and let the market stick a finger in the air and judge the prevailing winds,” he said.
CEC staff have acknowledged concerns about the CCS requirement in past NEVI workshops, encouraging applicants to offer feedback to federal regulators. CEC spokesperson Lindsay Buckley said in a statement that the agency will continue to follow federal guidelines.
There is one potential benefit for the Biden administration, and that’s avoiding giving Tesla chief Elon Musk a boost while he’s supporting the campaign of former President Donald Trump.
“If I were in this administration I would have to swallow a lot of pride to push a reform that was going to enrich Elon Musk at the moment,” said University of California, Berkeley, economist James Sallee. — AN
