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Why does the US government subsidize the building of EV chargers?
(driveelectric.gov)
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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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To get them built. Electric cars are only viable if people can use them on the same infastructure, in roughly the same way as gasoline cars. A core part of that is a expansive and reliable charging network that spans the nation.
It doesnt need to be "gas stations" anymore, but they need to be as convenient, at least in their own way.
It's common, and arguably one of the most useful parts of goverment, that highly positive but fiscally negative projects will be "seeded" for a number of years with goverment money. This happened with electrication, telecom, internet access, etc. Goverment subsidies the intial infrastructure for profit to occur, and then profit motives take over and the government can end its investment. In this way, the goverment can shift the nation in positive directions, improving its citizens lives. This fucks up at times (see hundreds of billions in broadband investments and the glacial or non existent improvements), but is largely a sound idea.
Thats why Bidens IRA pushed so much money into various green tech, including charging infastructure. If the chargers are there, it solves a core EV adoption problem, which spurs green car tech forward.
Downtime or disrepair should have been penalized on subsidized stations to force some reinvestment of those profits I think. Otherwise this whole thing turns into the broadband debacle.
Any disincentive may act against the core goal, so you have to weigh their value.
No one wants broken garbage installed, but if they do get installed and can be fixed, youre still farther along the "get infastructure deployed" timeline.
I agree with all of this in theory. Though still, why not require certain profit margins, or something? To me its mostly makes already wealthy companies building infrastructure: even wealthier.
I'm saying all of this as an EV driver too. If I use these chargers, it would be more expensive than buying gas and a similar vehicle. I think to actually get people to move more towards EVs, they need to be cheaper in terms of cost to purchase and refuel.
Also PS: more 350kwh fast chargers pls.
Your last paragraph is probably a good reason why. Its a pot sweetener, just enough to get people to do it and maybe some stipulations to make it more beneficial to the economy at large.
If the government can spend 100 dollars and convince you to invest the other 900, then its a 9x times more effective spend of that money.
The same way that government doesn't cap the price of gas. That's for the market to decide, and EV charging rates are still being figured out. Most lose money.
Because private companies won't build them under those terms. A private company's goal is profit. They can make more money doing other things with their money.
Then the government should build and operate them as infrastructure. Sort of like roads.
Many local governments do install EV chargers. The ones we're talking about are over and above those to incentivize private companies to build out larger EV charging networks.
Eh, I think there is should be a difference in behaviour between ICE refueling and EV charging.
The only people who should be charging their vehicles "roughly the same way as gasoline cars" are those who can't charge where they park. If you own a driveway or a garage, you should install a charger there, charge overnight while you sleep, and leave with a "full tank" every morning.
Definitely this. We don't need as many charging stations as we did gas stations, and "home" should be the most convenient place to charge.