Addressing Pain Points in Creating EV Infrastructure

A recent GovTech.com article titled “How Biden Plans to Build 500 EV Charging Stations” discusses the President’s goals for creating a nationwide network of 500,000 such installations by 2030. (See the complete article here: https://www.govtech.com/transportation/biden-plans-to-build-500-ev-charging-stations#:~:text=President%20Joe%20Biden%20has%20proposed,charging%20stations%20nationwide%20by%202030)

While it does a smart job laying out many of the pain points we face in facilitating EV adoption, the mention of solutions was far less prevalent, and ones that were mentioned seemed speculative or tenuous. However, over the last three years, EVCS has already taken the lead in addressing many of these challenge areas, allowing us to dominate the installation market across the West Coast.

Below are specific obstacles mentioned in the article that many believe are hampering widespread EV adoption along with ways that we have been working to overcome them.

“Experts say significantly expanding the charging network would require coordination across the auto industry, retail businesses, utility companies and all levels of government.”

Our turnkey solutions are predicated upon a systematic unification of private business owners who host the chargers, utilities that provide the power (including grid balancing and demand response), and local governments that simultaneously act as site hosts, permitting agencies and funding sources. As for auto manufacturers, we’re committed to making chargers that work with any EV on the road that doesn’t utilize proprietary technology.

“Consumers fear that they won’t be able to take a road trip or visit out-of-town relatives in an electric vehicle — which remains one of the biggest barriers to EV adoption.”

We have become the fastest-growing installer of EV infrastructure on the West Coast and are responsible for over half of all new chargers in Los Angeles between 2020 and 2021. Our revitalization of the West Coast Electric Highway has expanded access throughout Oregon and Washington. And we have plans to grow our network to more underserved communities, not just on the West Coast, but across the country. Our ambitious expansion of the EVCS network is actively extinguishing range anxiety through highly increased accessibility.

Photo Courtesy of Norsk Elbilforening (Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association)

“In order for EVs to be more pervasive, it’s going to have to be gas station-like, where you can find an EV charging station with significant capacity almost anywhere.”

In large part, our focus has been on installing charging stations at key junctures like near freeway ramps and at local points of interest such as restaurants, grocery stores, shopping malls, transit centers and city parks. Moreover, we’ve concentrated on key tourist-style destinations that will help facilitate long-distance EV travel, including hotels, casinos, visitor centers and convention centers.

“Level 2 chargers (which typically charge slowly over hours while the owner is at work or at home) cost about $4,000 to install and DC fast chargers… cost between $50,000 and $110,000 to install. Once installed, maintaining the chargers also costs thousands of dollars.”

We research, identify and access myriad federal and state funding opportunities, ensuring that most of our clients pay nothing for their installations. The majority of our network is DCFC, meaning drivers can charge their EVs up to 80% in under an hour – perfect for a quick trip to the grocery store, gym or coffeehouse. In addition, our solutions include no-cost maintenance for five years. So, not only do site hosts save tens of thousands of dollars in costs, but they add a significant new revenue stream with the possibility to attract a whole new customer base.

“Some argue electric vehicles aren’t totally zero-emissions because fossil fuels are still the largest electricity source in the country.”

We have already taken steps to ensure EVCS chargers are powered 100% by clean, abundant, renewable energy. Not only will our customers have access to one of the largest DC fast charging networks in the nation, but they will also have peace of mind knowing that they are truly having a positive impact on the environment by reducing fossil fuel usage.

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Installation of the Month (February 2021): Hollywood & Highland

In the movie Spider-man, Uncle Ben tells Peter Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility.” The phrase, which came to be known as the “Peter Parker Principle,” is just as true today as it was 20 years ago when the movie first premiered. And just as Peter took seriously his newfound powers, we take seriously our responsibility to facilitate broader access to vehicle electrification options – quite literally the “great power” here is the electricity that keeps EVs moving. We also understand the power of movies and television to convey the importance of electric mobility, be it through information, entertainment or influence marketing. As such, Hollywood has become a tremendous partner in advancing the EVCS mission.

Installation of the Month (January 2021): Barlow Respiratory Hospital

While 2021 brings hope and promise for greater widespread adoption of electric mobility, a quick glance at our portfolio reminds us of all the headway we’ve already made toward that end. Last year, we seized on positive customer sentiment and abundant fiscal opportunities in the green energy space, allowing us to become one of the top installers of EV charging infrastructure in the State of California (with 500+ installations completed and counting). As such, we thought it might be worthwhile to share some of these installations with you – a new success story each month – so that you can see firsthand the favorable strides we’re making toward a carbon-neutral future.

2020: A Year in Review

Two thousand twenty has been a year of undeniable adversity, but also one of remarkable achievement. A year of firsts and hopefully a few lasts. A time of toil and tribulation, but also of triumph. For genuine success is partly defined by our ability to hurdle those implacable obstacles that make the result so noteworthy in the first place. Now, as the EVCS team looks back on this unusual year, we take stock of our unique achievements that made 2020 one for the books.

Electrification Progress in the Age of COVID

It’s pretty clear that vaccine or no, COVID will be here for a while, and with it the new normal of face masks, social distancing, telecommuting and (consequently) less road travel. While some might view this with trepidation, we see it as an opportunity. Since the earliest weeks of the pandemic, major metro areas like Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago – those with large reductions in automobile traffic – immediately began seeing improvements in air quality, according to articles in the New York Times and Washington Post. More recent, an NPR story noted ozone pollution has decreased as much as 15% in many of these places. It seems an unintended consequence of the lockdown has been to accelerate the transition to responsible mobility by demonstrating its positive effects on the environment.

Commentary on Geotab’s 2020 EV Fleet Trends Article – Part II

Two weeks ago, we published part one of our commentary on Geotab’s in-depth article, “Electric Vehicle Trends 2020: Top 6 Factors Impacting Fleet Electrification” (https://www.geotab.com/white-paper/electric-vehicle-trends/). Again, the idea was to assess whether each of the trends were evolving as Geotab predicted and, if so, how EVCS was responding to them in the marketplace. Below are the final three trends referenced and our thoughts on each.