this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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Electric Vehicles

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Why does the US government subsidize the building of EV chargers? (driveelectric.gov)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by csm10495@sh.itjust.works to c/evs@lemmy.world
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At one point I thought that if the Government was giving money for EV chargers, they would be either at-cost or free to use.

One of the first built was at a Flying J truck stop in Ohio.

I looked on plug share and found one in Hubbard, OH and it's 67c per kwh (https://www.plugshare.com/location/582660). The average cost of electricity in that area is less than 15c per kwh. At that kind of price, gas could be a cheaper option.

Why does the government subsidize in a way where already wealthy companies get public money to build chargers, and make a ton more money off the rest of us?

(This is not a political statement at all. I just don't understand why public money goes to make certain private folks more wealthy. I figure I must be missing something).

Thanks for your thoughts!

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[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Just because a charger is subsidized, doesn't mean it's subsidized 100% (but to be honest, I'm not sure the actual amount)

The charger you see costs a lot of money. It may be supplied by another large, expensive transformer (I've seen 150kW transformer boxes outside of fast food restaurants, and you'd need several if you have multiple chargers - oh, and they could be much bigger than 150kW). Once you have it installed, they need maintenance and repairs. Oh, and the energy companies are going to charge a lot more for a line capable of handling the equivalent of multiple houses going full blast on 200A service at once... Both installation and supplying so much power, especially at peak times.

That said, I have seen level 2 charging at very reasonable rates, some of which seems to have some kind of government or energy company involvement. Basically a few cents per kWh more than I pay at home.

[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

How much more is a few cents here? Where I am in CA, every paid level 2 is at least twice as much per kwh as home.

Home is about 15c while outside L2 can be 30c-55c per kwh.

I figure these full time chargers get a cheap wholesale rate too. Seems like a rip off.

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The ones I was thinking of are $.15/kWh. I pay $.12 at home about an hour away.

[–] csm10495@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

For that price difference: nice.