White House Announces New EV Charger Standards and a National Network

The Biden White House announced new initiatives in electric vehicle chargers, including new technical standards for electric vehicle (EV) chargers and a combination public-private buildout of a national charging network.

It’s been clear for at least the last year that the CRE industry has to pay attention to charging needs because they will have significant impacts on building and facilities design that mean special considerations and, for existing properties, changes that will likely be needed.

That has meant landlords, builders, investors, and others have to stay on top of how they are going to provide charging facilities at multifamily, offices, retail space, medical buildings, and more. The news today is important for their plans because charging is at the heart of being able to run EVs so people can readily use them.

There has been talk literally for decades about getting cars off fossil fuel and onto a clean substitute, like electric or fuel cells. One problem has been enabling cars to refuel. A process that is relatively quick and easy, as well as ubiquitous, like filling stations hasn’t had an equivalent for EVs.

Even more recently, not all cars and chargers are necessarily compatible, the cars still take too long to charge, and the chargers are too few and far between to enable convenient refills.

The answer is a wide range of chargers built to encompass single standards in electrical circuity and physical connector designs so a single car could in theory use any of the chargers available.

The goal is to have a network of 500,000 chargers in place on highways and in communities by 2030, with more than 130,000 already existing.

Also, companies including Tesla, General Motors, EVgo, Pilot, Hertz, and BP announced commitments to expand their own networks of chargers “by thousands of public charging ports” over the next two years. This will be the first time Tesla opens its network for EVs made by other companies and that will mean at least 7,500 chargers by the end of 2024.

The Department of Transportation is finalizing standards for EV ports so cars are not left incompatible. All EV chargers funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law must be build in the US, meaning “final assembly and all manufacturing processes for any iron or steel charger enclosures or housing occur.” Units are required to have 97% uptime and there will be a single method of identification across all charger networks.

By July 1, 2024, chargers will also have to be made with at least 55% in value of parts and components.