Organizations hoping to exploit the funds of President Biden’s $7.5 billion electric vehicle charging plan will have to satisfy a new series of standards, which have been agreed to even by Tesla.
The Biden Administration revealed on Wednesday the definitive specifications for its plan to construct a 500,000 unit-system of electric vehicle chargers across highways. Required through the Inflation Reduction Act, all EV chargers must be assembled in the United States, including any steel or iron structures or casings. Additionally, by July 2024, at minimum 55% of the total cost of all parts must be domestically generated.
All charging stations need to use a mobile-friendly unified payment program and all plugs must apply the Leading Charging System (CCS), which is popular in the United States.
Tesla has traditionally not employed CCS charging in North America, relying instead on its expansive Supercharger network that uses connectors that can only be used with its own cars. However, the Biden Administration has struck a deal which will bring about a slight shift in this approach.
Tesla is allowing non-Tesla electric vehicles to connect to a portion of its Supercharger and destination charger network. This move is part of the White House agreement that Tesla will have made a minimum of 7,500 chargers available to all electric vehicles by the end of 2024, with 3,500 of them consisting of 250 kW rapid chargers located on highways. All electric vehicle users will be able to easily access these stations through the use of the Tesla app or website.
Significantly, Tesla has consented to increasing its supercharger system more than twofold.
Tesla has now agreed to open access to the $7.5 billion funding after a meeting between their CEO Elon Musk and White House officials recently. Discussions about allowing other EVs to use Tesla’s chargers have been in the works for many years. The White House announced in a memo in July 2022 that Tesla would enable access to its charging stations by the end of the year.
That specific date came and passed. It seemed uncertain if Tesla would proceed with their plan after they made the Electric Vehicle charging connector design known to the public in an effort to push the network operators and vehicle manufactures to accept the technology and to make it the normal standard in North America. It looked as if Tesla had arranged for its engineering to become the model.
Tesla has made it possible to use its Supercharger network in certain areas of Europe since their electric cars and chargers apply the CCS standard. The change will be more challenging in the U.S., however, there is said to be a plan called the Magic Dock that would allow non-Tesla vehicles access to their proprietory chargers in America.
Other firms besides Tesla have agreed to conditions in order to obtain incentives offered in the Biden administration’s electric vehicle charging scheme.
GM and Pilot Company have declared a collaboration with EVgo to construct a cross-country grid of 2,000 speedy 350 kW fast chargers at Pilot and Flying J travel hubs along highways in the U.S. On Wednesday, the companies stated that the first 200 of these chargers are expected to be operating for drivers by 2023. Further, GM is collaborating with Flo, a Canadian EV charging business, to set up 40,000 Level 2 charging units in both the U.S. and Canada.
Recently, TravelCenters of America and Electrify America have joined forces with a promise of a thousand EV chargers to be available at two hundred locations over a five year period. Moreover, Mercedes-Benz, ChargePoint and MN8 Energy have come to an agreement that an additional four hundred hubs with more than two and a half thousand DC fast charging ports will be up in the U.S. and Canada.
Volvo Car, ChargePoint, and Starbucks have teamed up to create a 1,350-mile trial route from Seattle to Denver. By the summer of 2023, 60 DC fast-charging points will be placed in as many as 15 locations along the journey.
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