Building an EV Charging Infrastructure Won't Be Easy
Almost all major automakers have been dedicated to developing electrical vehicles (EVs) of their own. Automakers like Ford (NYSE: F), General Motors (NYSE: GM), and Dodge have already announced their plans for EVs or have already unveiled their lines of EVs.
If you’re an automaker and not focused on EVs right now then you’re missing out on a fresh new market to take advantage of. The Biden administration has been focused on the effort to make this shift from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric vehicles to reduce emissions. Reducing emissions has become one avenue to combat climate change.
This major shift is creating new opportunities for a variety of companies — not just automakers. In this article, I want to take a closer look at charging stations for electric vehicles and the opportunities that could lie ahead in that sector.
EV Charging Stations Won’t Be an Easy Task
Recently, Vice President Kamala Harris paid a visit to an electric vehicle charging station in Maryland. During her visit, the vice president laid out a vision for the government’s recent $7.5 billion payout for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This infrastructure is going to be very necessary and it’s going to determine the success of electric vehicles as a whole.
The infrastructure needs to exist so that EVs can become more of a reality for most Americans. For a lot of people that I’ve spoken to and who happen to live in the Midwest, owning an electric vehicle doesn’t seem plausible right now. Because when they’re looking for a new vehicle they want something that’s going to take them long distances and have enough power to tow.
They also haven’t been able to imagine how they’d charge their vehicle and not have to worry about losing charge. It’s hard to imagine something that isn’t available.
They don’t know what these charging stations will look like and how accessible they’ll be.
Not to mention the last thing a person wants to do is spend a lot of time waiting to charge their vehicle.
It doesn’t take that long to fill up your gas tank. I find it hard to imagine people waiting around for a long time just to charge their car. Plus, that would mean there would need to be a lot of charging stations available since people will need more time to to charge their cars.
This is what the Biden administration needs to focus on when marketing electric vehicles to the general public.
The majority of Americans tend to feel like government leaders have no clue about their lives or what they need to survive in the U.S. Americans need to see how electric vehicles will benefit them on a smaller scale and if that reality would even be attainable for them.
Realistic Expectations?
At her visit to that charging station, Kamala Harris said this in regards to the charging stations:
Absolutely make it accessible for everyone and easy… Just like filling up your car with gas.
I don’t quite think it’ll be like filling up your car with gas. Comparing this familiar practice of going to a gas station to charging stations can get problematic. Americans will start to expect things to stay the same and anything different will be disappointing.
There will be a lot to figure out in the upcoming years as more electric vehicles are sold and as automakers continue to spend money to make them. That’s why EV charging companies have been developing products to meet the demands of EVs, but also to give the public a better understanding of what to expect when it comes to a charging infrastructure
Demand for EV Charging Is Growing…
A report from Businesswire expects the global EV charger market to grow from $3.23 billion in 2020 to nearly $11 billion in 2025. This growth will be massive and will give EV charging companies the chance to reap the benefits from the growing demand for their products. One of those companies is JuiceBar.
Source: JuiceBar
The Connecticut-based company recently unveiled its first residential charger — Cheetah — at 2022’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. JuiceBar also sells commercial chargers for both the public and private sectors. Its stations can be found in 140 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The company’s mission is to “build a national EV charging infrastructure that sustains the environment for future generations.” JuiceBar has been targeting areas like hospitals, hotels, office buildings, and apartment complexes because those will be the areas where many people are spending hours of their day.
This could very well be what our future will look like as EVs experience mass adoption. Charging stations at our office buildings, parking garages, apartment buildings, etc. There will be a strong demand for companies like JuiceBar in the next decade. We’re now just waiting on the government to get a plan together on building this new infrastructure, and there’s a lot on the line — I’m talking billions of dollars.
Until next time,
