The Biden administration on Thursday confirmed plans to update the charging station locator and provide updated figures on electric vehicles and chargers being rolled out by federal agencies.
This tool is part of Alternative refueling station locator, updated by the Department of Energy. It will soon include charging cost and charging rate or output power — at the port level — for each publicly accessible charger, the White House said in a press release.
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Alternative Fuel Corridor for Electric Vehicles – DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center, November 2022
hat will be useful not only for electric vehicle owners using this tool, but also for those who use specialized or more complex tools and applications to use Alternative fuel station API (application programming interface) as a building block. The interface already has its own official Apple iOS and Android apps.
It could also be an extension of the data the federal government will need to track as part of the Federal EV charging network rules outlined in February. For a $5 billion portion of the charging network, states have submitted charging plans as part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program (NEVI).
Ford E Transit 2022
Additionally, the White House has provided federal agencies with updates on the move to electric vehicles. In fiscal year 2023 alone, which runs through September 30, federal agencies purchased 13,000 all-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles—about four times the total for fiscal year 2022. Part of that is Ford E-Transit trucks to be acquired by USPSalthough the USPS does not purchase its vehicles with other federal agencies.
Under one Targets announced in 2021 and the government’s Federal Sustainability Plan, agencies must obtain 100% light electric vehicles by 2027followed by 100% mid- and heavy-duty electric vehicles by 2035.
Biden aims to make federal fleet all-electric
The administration also provided updates on charging stations deployed by federal facilities. By the next fiscal year, federal agencies have committed to deploying an additional 24,000 charging stations—in addition to the current total of more than 5,000 at federal facilities.
It’s unclear what percentage of this is included in the total for publicly accessible chargers.
According to the White House, there are more than three million electric vehicles on the road in the US right now, with more than 132,000 publicly accessible electric vehicle chargers nationwide.
Hertz and BP Pulse partners in electric vehicles and charging
The White House also highlighted a series of recent EV investments in the public and private sectors, including First Student’s plan to convert 30,000 fossil fuel-powered school buses to electric by 2035. Trane Technologies plans to convert its entire fleet of 8,000 vehicles to EVs by 2030, and Siemens plans to turn its 10,000-vehicle fleet entirely to EVs by 2030. And Hertz plans to significantly expand its electric car rental service and fleet.
