The shift to electric vehicles is gaining speed in Washington.
This month state leaders plan to adopt EV sales targets that match California’s, which require all new light-duty vehicle sales by 2035 to be zero-emission.
The number of EVs registered in Washington so far has reached nearly 75,000 — up from just 20,000 five years ago.
“This is a transformational time,” said Tonia Buell, alternative fuels program manager for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).
All of that growth has some drivers worried about an essential element of the EV rollout: Will there be enough EV chargers when and where they’re needed, and will they work?
Even Matthew Metz, the Seattle founder of the EV-boosting nonprofit Coltura, can’t say for sure if the infrastructure build out is on track to meet demand. “I don’t think anyone can give you a great answer to that,” he said.
But efforts are picking up steam to pump billions of dollars nationwide into the construction of charging networks, improve charging technology, and provide resources for charging at home and work.
“It’s going to take work and investment, and more people getting involved in it,” Buell said. “Because for years, it’s just been a small number of us working on it. Everybody’s got to be part of it.”
A network of EV charging
For most EV drivers, about 80% of charging happens at home, overnight, with a Level 2 charger, experts say. An additional 5-to-10% of charging is done while at work.
But when drivers travel long distances that exceed their battery’s capacity, they need to tap into publicly available DC fast-chargers to keep them going. The devices provide about 3 miles of range per minute of charging, depending on the vehicle and charger. Tesla has a network of proprietary fast-charging stations that work only with its vehicles. Retail spaces including hotels, grocery stores and other businesses have started installing chargers for customer use.
Demand is not yet high enough for the widespread installation of charging stations to pencil out from a business perspective. So government funding is currently backing a network of installations.
- Next year, Washington will receive its initial slice of the $71 million earmarked for the state for building fast chargers near highways. The $5 billion, five-year federal program will build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers.
- State officials this fall began the process of allocating $69 million of funding for Level 2 and fast chargers. The Department of Commerce program is targeting rural areas, apartments, ports, schools, office buildings and government offices.
- Seattle officials this summer announced that the city’s utility would install curbside Level 2 chargers, targeting residents who don’t have off-street parking that can facilitate charging. About 1,800 residents requested the chargers, but in the pilot phase of the project, only 60 will be installed next year at 30 locations. A spokesperson said they expect to add more chargers in the future.
- The Department of Ecology has used more than $4 million so far from its $141 million share of the Volkswagen settlement to install 80 EV charging stations at government workplaces and along high traffic corridors.
Will it add up to enough? No one knows for sure.
There are debates over the balance between installing much cheaper, but slower Level 2 chargers versus more costly fast chargers. Drivers’ needs are evolving as new EVs keep stretching their battery range, but a vehicle’s performance changes depending on weather and other conditions. The state has created the Interagency EV Coordinating Council that includes a public advisory committee to help address these issues.
“People are working hard on it,” Metz said, “but it is early times.”
Requiring reliability
In addition to needing more chargers, they also need to work. Both national and Bay Area studies released this summer found that drivers had difficulty charging their EVs at public locations at least 20% of the time. On PlugShare, a platform that helps EV drivers find charging sites, users share tales of success and woe.
“This charger was a lifesaver,” cheered a user named Tisha from a dairy in Duvall, Wash., last year. At the same location months later, a user named Dan lamented to PlugShare, “can’t charge, unit shows a fault.”
Multiple systems need to work together for a charger to function. It needs to accept a payment, bill a driver’s account, communicate with the vehicle, and deliver the amount of charge someone wants. And it needs to be at the right price; when electricity demand is high, the price for a charge can rise as well.
Reliability challenges are top of mind for Washington state officials allocating funds for charging stations.
“That’s what we’re looking for, is a company or companies that have a solid track record, that have strong maintenance plans, where they’re out checking [the chargers],” said Buell. WSDOT and the Department of Commerce are co-leading the state’s EV infrastructure deployment plan.
The state requires 24/7 customer service from EV charging companies that receive funding, Buell said. As the EV chargers “become mainstream, people are going expect these to operate like a gas station,” she said. “We want to make sure that they have a good experience and are able to get the charge that they want.”
Innovating potential solutions
Seattle startup Electric Era is trying to address reliability and cost concerns with its EV fast charging products. Its system incorporates batteries that can provide a cheaper charge when grid demand is high. It also offers software to integrate a charging stations’ disparate systems. The products are targeting traditional gas stations and convenience stores.
“Our technology is designed to be bulletproof and work where you need it, when you need it,” said CEO and co-founder Quincy Lee.
Lee and other leaders at the company came from SpaceX. Their roles included figuring out how to harmonize complicated systems, Lee said, and they’ve been able to apply that knowledge to stitching together the systems in EV charging stations.
The company, which launched in 2020, has raised a total of $8 million in venture capital, with a $4 million round disclosed last month. It recently struck a deal with South Korea’s SK Signet, an international provider of fast chargers, to work on integrating their respective technologies.
Electric Era this week announced a partnership with Northwest Pump, a company that has for decades distributed products for pumping gas. NW Pump will be installing 10 of Electric Era stations that incorporate SK Signet chargers.
“This type of company and others like them are diversifying to EV chargers,” Lee said. “The historic gas industry is desperately in need of this product.”
Jim Moran, a product sales manager for NW Pump, said via email that Electric Era’s technology could help make the “EV fast-charging business case profitable.”
Other Pacific Northwest startups tackling charging include:
- OpConnect, a Portland, Ore., company building charging infrastructure and payment software. It was selected in May for the AWS Sustainable Cities Accelerator.
- FlexCharging, a Redmond, Wash., startup developing software for EV charging during energy off-peak hours that has raised $6.2 million.
- Hypercharge Networks, a Vancouver, B.C., based company selling charging hardware and software that recently began trading on Canada’s NEO Exchange.
‘Gradual’ and ‘possible’
While initiatives are underway to support the shift to electric, the reality is that demand for charging isn’t going to spike overnight.
Every year, about 6% of vehicles on the road are new, and about 5% drop out of use, Metz said. And of that 6%, only a fraction in Washington state will be EVs — at least until 2035.
The transition “is going to be a gradual thing by its nature,” said Metz.
Buell, who has worked in the EV space for years and served as president of the national nonprofit Plug In America, remains optimistic that the region’s ambitious electrification plans are doable.
“I see the big picture,” she said. “It’s successful in countries like Norway, which is 90% EV market share now [including plug-in hybrids]. So it’s possible.”
