Obama Administration Announces National Electric Vehicle Charging Network

It’s a big step toward a diesel-less future. The White House announced that the US is getting 48 electric vehicle (EV) charging corridors, distributed over 35 states and more than 25,000 miles of highways. This means that drivers in those states and on those highways can expect to find charging stations at least once every 50 miles. It painted the move as part of its broader commitment to “combat climate change, increase access to clean energy technologies, and reduce our dependence on oil.”

To help drivers identify the charging stations, the US Federal Highway Administration is developing special signs that will be distributed to participating states. Other highlights from the ambitious plan include bringing on 24 state and local governments to partner with the White House to expand their EV fleets, and funding two Department of Energy studies to evaluate the best way to deploy and configure the charging corridors. In all, 38 businesses (including GM, BMW, and Nissan), universities, and other institutions have committed to giving their workforce access to EV charging.

The White House announcement also noted that earlier this summer, the US government had issued $4.5 billion in loan guarantees to support the deployment of EV charging facilities on a massive scale. Charging stations are a crucial component of ushering EVs into general adoption. Currently, only a few states concentrated in the Northeast and West Coast have a dense network of charging stations available for EV owners, according to Business Insider.

The report also notes that, while the Obama administration failed to live up to its previous promise to bring more than a million EVs to the US by 2015, there appears to be enough support and momentum behind the EV movement now to justify investing in a national EV charging infrastructure.