Calif. Utility Sparks Debate, Proposing to Install 25,000 Charging Stations to Promote Electric Vehicles

The biggest utility in California yesterday proposed installing 25,000 electric vehicle charging stations with ratepayers funding the tab, triggering a debate about the best route to get more EVs on state roads.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) wants approval from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to spend $653.8 million on the charging stations and related expenses.  It seeks to get drivers plugged in at workplaces and near multi-unit housing, with 10 percent of the units landing in disadvantaged communities.

Only 1.2 percent of the Northern California utility's customers drive EVs.  But PG&E argued that a major shift is needed to accelerate the charging market.  Gov. Jerry Brown has said he wants 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles, or ZEVs, in the state by 2025. California aims to shrink its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

"There are currently barriers to market adoption" in the EV market, said James Ellis, PG&E's director of electric vehicles.  "To make the charging infrastructure work and help the transition from nascent market to full market development, it's going to take some investment, and it's going to take everybody working together to make that happen."

Calif. Utility Sparks Debate, Proposing to Install 25,000 Charging Stations to Promote Electric Vehicles