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Today we’re looking at charging infrastructure and the role it plays in the global shift to EVs - let’s get plugged in.

Excuse me? Do you have a charger I could borrow?

When you log on to instagram, it looks like everyone and their mothers has a Tesla. In fact, EV sales have grown more than 40% year on year since 2016. Despite this rising popularity, nearly half of US consumers without EVs cite battery or charging issues as their top concerns.

Match that with the fact that the US government is pushing for half of new vehicles to be EVs by 2030 and this creates a bigger conundrum. Just when people thought they were doing enough the challenge doubles in size. You know when you’re doing the dishes and someone drops in an extra plate - it’s just like that.

A recent McKinsey report estimated that in this scenario, the US would need 20 times the chargers it has today. It’s not only about setting up these chargers but also funding and operating them in the long term. The same report indicated that in order to operate these chargers, the cost of public charging stations alone would be over $35 billion.

The Road Ahead

This week, Daimler, NextEra, and BlackRock announced a joint venture called GreenLane. Under the JV, the companies are committing more than $650m in funding to build out a publicly available nationwide charging network for electric trucks.

As it stands today, these industrial chargers are only available on-premises which severely limits the potential for these trucks. It’s theoretically possible for EV trucks to use standard chargers but the size and speed of these chargers (due to lower voltage) creates multiple practical challenges. It’s like putting a leash on a boomerang, it just doesn’t make sense.

On the other side of the pond, Volvo announced a $500m joint venture earlier this year for a similar network in Europe. The launch of these new charging infrastructure ventures comes as companies increasingly shift the focus of their decarbonisation efforts to their value chains, with transport comprising a significant source of these emissions. On top of this, manufacturers are making moves today to ensure they can take a piece of the transport market as vehicles electrify.

Until next time,

The Strawman