The road to widespread electric vehicle adoption continues to be a bumpy one. One of the continuing problems is a relatively limited distance that can be driven between charges and the still-developing EV-charging infrastructure. As a new plug-in hybrid driver, one of the biggest challenges I’ve come across since I’ve started using our organization’s Ford C-Max Energy is charging it at the airport.
I live in Connecticut and need to drive to the airports in New York when I travel. On one hand, it’s great that there are five charging stations at each airport. It was easy to sign up for an account with the company that operates the charging stations. Finding stations is pretty simple, too – you can use the Web or download an app that shows you the closest charging station to you and whether it is working and available.
However, it’s not always so easy. On one trip to LaGuardia, I circled the parking lot twice trying to find a way in to the part of the garage that held the charging stations. There was a gate lowered, and I had to summon a security guard to lift it so I could get in. Had I not left plenty of time to catch my flight, this charging delay would have made me miss my flight for sure.
Another time, the gate was open, but two of the charging stations were out of order. I’m not sure how often this happens, but I have seen two such stations in my recent travels where the outlet was missing – I assume that a driver absentmindedly drove off with the cord still attached to his or her car.
While I can log in and see whether a charging station is working or not, it is difficult to impossible to reserve a station. While this has not happened yet, one day soon, I fully expect to leave my house with several stations listed as available, but have them all occupied by the time I arrive a couple of hours later.
Another hurdle in these early days is cost. The charging stations at the New York airports are free to use but are only available in the daily lot, where the fee is $33 per day. There is no charging at the long-term lots.
According to a recent study of the state of airport EV charging stations by the Transportation Research Board, at least 37 airports in the United States are providing EV charging stations in short-term or long-term parking facilities, usually with no additional charging fees. West Coast airports have led the way and have the largest number of stations, which makes sense considering that 47% of EVs in the United States are registered in California, Oregon or Washington.
The TRB report also found that passengers like me — and even airport employees — have recently started to request more EV charging stations, which is giving airports a new customer service incentive to add chargers on top of an environmental one. In some cases, airports are finding that demand is exceeding supply. Let’s hope that means more chargers will come online soon.
All of this is to say that we at Sustainable America are still quite bullish on electric vehicles. We have done analysis that suggests that increasing the number of electric vehicles on the road can reduce our oil consumption by 3.6 million barrels of oil per day in the next two decades. That is over one-third of all we need to reduce our overall oil consumption by half, which is our ultimate goal. But if we want to get there, we are going to have to work to make it easier. The ability for frequent travelers to arrive home to affordably charged-up cars after long trips may make or break their decisions to buy EVs.
As one of those frequent travelers, here’s my message to airports and EV charging networks: We need to make access to our charging infrastructure easy – the gates need to be lifted. We need to be able to reserve a spot at a charging station like reserving a rental car or a table for dinner – with a penalty for not showing up to actually use it. And we need for the costs to be reasonable. That will make the public at large much more willing to try an EV. And the more of us who drive EVs, the lower our oil consumption, the cleaner our air, the less our impact on the climate. A more Sustainable America.
Jeremy Kranowitz
Executive Director, Sustainable America
