Though they only make up a fraction of cars and trucks on the road now, many projections — from Wall Street firms, trade groups and automakers themselves — predict an imminent surge in electric vehicles over the next decade.
S&P Global estimates that the nearly 2 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads today will grow to more than 28 million by 2030, when they’ll comprise 40% of all new cars and trucks sold.
The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric utilities, arrived at a similar forecast last year, even before the passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act, which contained big incentives to spur electric vehicle adoption.
That means tens of thousands of additional public charging stations will be needed to be built across the country.
But there’s a big debate taking place at state capitols across the country about who should take the lead role in building them — electric utilities or private businesses?
‘That’s what retailers are there for’
The Charge Ahead Partnership, composed of big fuel retailers, grocery chains, convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses exploring installing vehicle chargers, argues that private businesses, particularly those that have been selling fuel to motorists for years and are already located in optimal spots to serve drivers, are best suited to making the switch to electric chargers. And they say they’ll have a tough time competing with monopoly electric utilities who can build charging infrastructure on the back of their ratepayers.
“The utilities are actively laying the groundwork to extend their monopoly into this new business field,” said Ryan McKinnon, a spokesman for the partnership. “If you’re going to be driving an EV you’re going to want a reliable network of charging stations. … You really want entities to provide this that are good at selling things to people. That’s what retailers are there for.”
McKinnon pointed to recent legislation in Oklahoma, Georgia and Texas that imposes limits on utilities using ratepayer money for charging networks. In Georgia, for example, legislation passed this year restricts utility ownership of charging stations to a single program that allows the dominant electric utility in the state, Georgia Power, to provide chargers in remote and rural areas, with private retailers offered a right of first refusal.
“This will ensure ratepayer funds only subsidize EV charging operations in areas where private industry cannot operate,” the Charge Ahead Partnership said in a news release last month.
But other states, like Minnesota and Colorado, have taken or are considering steps in the other direction. Proposed budget language that would allow utilities to bill ratepayers for electric vehicle charging infrastructure has also come under fire in Ohio.
And in Florida, the nation’s largest utility, Florida Power & Light, is building hundreds of chargers over the objection of critics like former Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, president of GATE Petroleum, which owns gas stations and convenience stores in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Peyton argued in a Florida Times-Union column that “no private business would sink $100,000 or more to install EV chargers with the knowledge that some of the state’s most powerful monopolies can undercut them, using your ratepayer funds.”
An ‘all-of-the-above approach’
Some proponents argue, however, that there could be a place for utility-owned charging, since electric vehicles have long posed a chicken-and-egg problem. Mass adoption isn’t likely until drivers are comfortable they can always find a charger. And companies aren’t likely to build chargers until there’s a critical mass of electric vehicles to help them recoup their investment plus a profit.
Katherine Stainken, vice president of policy at the Electrification Coalition, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization pushing for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles, said there’s too much variation across states and markets to foreclose options like utility ownership. She characterized the debate over who should own charging networks as the “growing pains” of a nascent industry.
