The Biden administration has proposed standards for chargers funded under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program to ensure they are “convenient, affordable, reliable, and accessible” for a wide range of drivers and vehicles. You should not have to worry about completing a cross-country journey.
The standards would require stations to have enough ports to charge four EVs at 150kW or higher at the same time, and to use the CCS plug, which is commonly found at universal chargers. The chargers would have to be operational at least 97% of the time, with a skilled workforce to maintain them. You would also not have to be concerned about how you would pay. There would be “similar” payment systems, and station operators could not impose membership requirements. Regardless of your EV model, common data standards would ensure real-time charge status.
President Biden is using NEVI to help states build 500,000 chargers by 2030, and hopes the program will spur EV adoption to the point where 50 percent of new vehicle sales are electric by 2030. The standards could play a key role in this — you might be more likely to buy an EV if you know you can charge quickly, without waiting in long queues.
There are limitations. The proposal wouldn’t cover chargers outside of NEVI, of course, so you’d still have to watch out for slow or cumbersome stations. It’s also unclear how well the charging specs would hold up over time. While a minimum of four 150kW ports may sound adequate now, that might not remain true by 2030 — Tesla already has 250kW Superchargers, and there’s still the possibility that EV sales could outpace charger installations. If the standards take effect, though, you’ll at least have a baseline you can use to plan your routes.
