[ad_1]
Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris Insert Chevrolet Volt publicly A charging station in Maryland. “There is no sound or smoke!” she said in the demonstration. As an official announcement The Biden administration is ambitious Spend 7.5 billion US dollars to plan to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations All over the United States.This investment represents the latest iteration of a proposal that started with The budget for the same number of chargers is 15 billion U.S. dollars. If you do math—or even if you don’t, really—some things don’t add up completely.
In short, to build 500,000 chargers at half the budget, the Biden government will have to choose a slower charger. (The faster the charger, the higher the installation cost.) The Biden government plan, which uses funds from the federal government Recently passed The 1.2 trillion dollar bipartisan infrastructure bill, priority Chargers that take hours to fully charge an electric car-this may be a selling point for Americans who are used to filling up their gas tank from empty to full in a matter of minutes. Although more chargers are great, the plan shows how weak Biden’s energy policy has become in the past year.Democrats still Can’t agree In the clean energy plan, if there is no one in place, these electric car chargers can only obtain energy from fossil fuel sources.
However, despite the unstable energy policy, electric vehicles represent one of the most tangible changes that ordinary people can make in addressing climate change, and the Biden administration seems to be aware of this. “We have to take action. The transportation sector is the largest part of our economy that emits greenhouse gases, and cars and trucks are one of the largest parts,” Minister of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (Pete Buttigieg) Tell CNBC Earlier this year.
The ubiquitous and correct type of electric car chargers will play an important role in achieving this goal.Currently has Three different typesOr level, electric car charger. The Level 1 charger plugs into a regular 120-volt power outlet and powers electric vehicles with a glacier range of 3 to 5 miles per hour. At this rate, it takes several days for most cars to charge from empty to fully charged. A level 2 charger converts a 120 volt connection to approximately 240 volts, charging the car about 10 times faster than a level 1 charger, and fully charges the battery within a few hours. Level 3 charger, also known as DC fast charger, is the fastest in its class.For every 3 to 20 miles of range minute.This means that during the time you use the bathroom and have a cup of coffee at the rest stop, your car can be charged with about 80% of its electricity.
You may have heard of DC fast charging because of the technology behind it Tesla Supercharger and Rivian Adventure NetworkBoth of these proprietary charging systems are designed to provide high-speed charging for those who purchase vehicles from these companies. (It’s commendable that Tesla has announced plan Open the charging network to non-Tesla vehicles. ) And other electric vehicle owners must Satisfied with Registering a large number of competitive charging services at various charging speeds, Tesla and Rivian networks promise that customers are accustomed to the speed and simplicity of gas stations. “Just plug in and charge automatically”, Tesla website Say“Unplug and plug without touching a button,” Rivian boast.
But in most cases, industry experts say that we don’t really need every charger to be a fast charger-this is why the charging framework of the Biden administration may work.
“There is a temptation to recreate the gas station model. We say,’Oh, I don’t have enough fuel. I need to fill up the gas now and get on the road in five minutes,'” Zero Executive Director Joe Britton Emissions Transportation Association told Recode. “That would be a mistake.” (Just don’t tell Harris, he said charging the Volt is “like filling up your car.”)
Instead, Britton said, it is important to consider the way most people actually use cars in their daily lives. Most people don’t drive hundreds of miles a day; they drive between home and work or run errands in town. For these people, the level 2 charger can work normally. They can charge the car at home, drive to the grocery store, plug in the power in the parking lot, and then drive home with a fully charged battery. Therefore, although Biden’s plan does include the strategic installation of faster chargers along highways and rural areas, the focus is on building a large number of level 2 chargers in local communities, which is a $7.5 billion stretch. method.
“We make it easier for people to use electricity,” Harris told a crowd in Maryland on Monday. She added that for most people who want to buy an electric car, the biggest obstacle is “figuring out where and how to charge.”
The stakes here are high.Despite having pioneers in electric vehicles such as Tesla and General Motors, the U.S. is still lagging behind Far from Electric vehicle sales in Europe and China. Most of the sales of electric vehicles in the United States are also concentrated in major metropolitan areas. Nearly half Only in all electric vehicle sales in California.Although transportation is the sector with the largest greenhouse gas emissions in the country, energy is Followed by.
Biden’s plan can make the purchase and charging of electric cars easier, but the cleanliness of electric cars depends on the grid that powers them.Research has show Electric vehicles that obtain electricity from coal-fired grids are actually more adverse to the climate than hybrid vehicles. So far, the president’s attempts to clean up the power grid have been repeatedly blocked by senators. Joe Manchin West Virginia, who alone Viscera A proposal to replace coal and natural gas power plants with solar, wind and nuclear power.Most energy policies remains In Biden’s Iconic Building Rebuild Better Act, tax credits surrounding clean energy have almost no penalties for continuously polluting energy production.
Inevitably, more electric car chargers-even if they are slower-are better than no chargers. But they are not solutions in themselves.The whole planet is fighting defeat To fight carbon emissions and climate change, all these electric vehicles need to get energy from somewhere. Through the “Rebuild Better” Act and the new infrastructure law, the Biden administration is formulating a robust plan to adopt clean energy and electric vehicles in the United States. But the plan will only work if the “Rebuild Better” bill is passed and the measures in the Infrastructure Act become a reality.
If so, will these things happen this year?it is Not good looking.
This story was originally published in the Recode newsletter. Register here So you will not miss the next one!
[ad_2]
Source link
