The state has picked the first places that will get grants from the federal government to put chargers for electric vehicles. This is part of a program that aims to fill in charging network gaps in North Carolina.
Along roads in mostly small towns and rural areas where the private sector hasn’t put in chargers on its own, these places include travel centers, shopping plazas, and a sub shop.
As part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) scheme, all communities will have access to EV chargers. This will help people who are worried about running out of power on long trips.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation got $109 million from NEVI, which was set up by Congress in late 2021 as part of the big infrastructure bill. NCDOT picked out areas that needed EV chargers and then asked businesses to come up with plans for how to place and run them with help from the government.
A total of $5.92 million was given out in the first round of awards on Wednesday. These awards will help businesses put in fast chargers in nine locations along U.S. roads 17, 70, 74, and 64 and Interstates 40, 77, and 485.
There is a Pilot Travel Center in Candor and Warsaw, a Firehouse Subs in Elizabeth City, and a Piggly Wiggly in a Leland shopping center. There is also one place in a city: Northlake Mall, which is near where I-77 and I-485 meet north of Charlotte.
There will be four DC fast chargers at each station. A car or SUV can be charged in about 20 minutes using these charges.
NCDOT plans to give funds for about 40 more of these charging stations so that there are at least one of these stations every 50 miles along North Carolina’s major highways.
In a statement, Secretary of Transportation Joey Hopkins said, “Eventually, we’ll have publicly funded EV chargers that fill in coverage gaps along our major corridors in the state and in our communities.” “We want a network that people in both cities and rural areas can rely on and easily connect to.”
Part of the goal of the NEVI program is to help people who have “range anxiety,” which is the worry that they can’t go too far from their home or an urban place with lots of charging stations.
Jacob Bolin of Advanced Energy, a nonprofit energy consulting company, said that it also helps people who don’t own EVs feel better about a technology and fuel they’ve never used before.
“If you see these charging stations in places where you drive and commute, even if you’re filling up with gas, I think that goes a really long way toward giving people confidence that they can drive and charge in those places,” Bolin said in an interview.
In a second phase of NCDOT’s NEVI program, charging stations will be put in places that aren’t yet covered by the private sector. There will be both fast chargers and so-called Level 2 chargers, which take four to eight hours to fully charge a car.