The Arizona Department of Transportation last week held a series of public open houses to promote to the state’s new electric vehicle infrastructure plan. It’s part of a national plan to construct a coast-to-coast network of quick-charging stations.
The National Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act recently made $5 billion available for publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations. They’ll be constructed every 50 miles along certain roadways with alternative fuel corridor designation. Arizona will receive about $76 million to be used over the next five years. At an open house in Flagstaff, Dianne Kresich, ADOT’s Research Center Manager, discussed the phases of the plan.
"The next step is determining what roads in Arizona the public prioritizes to become eligible for charging stations. We're asking people to fill out a survey telling us what their priorities are," Kresich says.
One of the main public concerns is so-called “range anxiety”, the fear of running out of power before making it to the next charging station. Energy consultant Amanda Ormond says it’s a common worry among electric vehicle owners.
"Can you run the air conditioner or the heater and the batteries and the radios and everything else and still feel like you're comfortably can get to where you need to go? It's a new technology. It takes people a while to get comfortable with it," Ormond explains.
Arizona was one of the first states in the nation to have its Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan approved by the Federal Highway Administration.