Electric vehicles in California got a major boost on Monday when EV infrastructure company EVgo announced a deal with Chevron to install fast chargers at select gas stations in California. Forbes Magazine recently reported that homes that are located close to electric-vehicle charging stations, according to a new analysis by realtor.com, sell at a premium — 1.5 times higher than their surrounding metro areas and 2.6 times higher than the rest of the country.
- An EVgo fast charger provides about 90 miles of range in 30 minutes, which makes gas stations a good place to site them, particularly for highway travelers, because they offer food and bathrooms that customers can use while their vehicle charges up.
- EVgo is the largest public fast-charging network, and it already has 1,000 chargers in 34 states offering 50 kW or greater service at a cost of $1.50/hr or $7.99/month.
And it is not just EV cars that are gaining traction. The sale of electric buses increased 80-fold between 2011 and 2017, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. But not enough cities have made electric buses a mainstream transit option, so World Resources Institute examined the problems and in a pair of studies just released they analyze why and provide a roadmap for overcoming the various technological, financial, and institutional challenges. There are many important benefits to switching to electric bus fleets, including that they are quieter and cleaner than traditional alternatives, require less maintenance (which saves money over the long run), and provide good reductions in greenhouse gas emission, not to mention being less expensive than light-rail and subways, which require huge up-front investment.
Why This Matters: Pollution from cars, trucks, and busses is a huge source of carbon emissions. Dual purposing traditional gasoline “filling” stations with EV charging stations seems like a no-brainer given that they are in convenient locations for auto users. And since buses provide more mass transit trips than light rail or other transit sources in the U.S. but are also facing declining ridership, it is important to implement policies that will help to make electric buses the backbone of the U.S. mass transit system. And it is clear from the realtor study that the public values having access to EV charging stations, so let’s get on with building more.
May 21, 2019 » Chevron, electric buses, electric cars, EVgo, EVs, mass transit
