Six U.S. electric companies – Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Entergy, the Southern Company, the Southwestern Electric Power Company, and the Tennessee Valley Authority – have banded together to create the Electric Highway Coalition (EHC).
Together, the utilities will install a seamless network of electric car fast chargers along major highways covering the southeast and south-central U.S.; north to Chicago; and east to Washington, D.C.
Last month, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the state’s conservation department partnered to install fast chargers every 50 miles along Tennessee’s interstates and main state highways.
Fast chargers can refuel an electric passenger vehicle in 30 minutes or less, compared to the eight hours a slow charger typically needs.
The utilities are in the process of determining locations for chargers within their service areas. The chargers are planned to be located at tourist stops, so travelers can eat and shop while their vehicles are made road-ready again.
The six EHC utilities are recruiting other power companies to join their group, to create a nationwide web of fast chargers that will enable electric vehicles to have the coast-to-coast travel capacity of gas buggies.
There will be as many as 35 million EVs on U.S. roads by 2030, according to the American Public Power Association, a trade group of 1,400 electric utilities.
TRENDPOST: The two barriers to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles have been their range, averaging less than 300 miles on a full charge, and the means to recharge vehicles quickly along public roads.
Battery technology is making breakthroughs that could more than double current ranges between charges (see our 15 December article, “NEW BATTERY COULD DOUBLE EV RANGE, SLASH CHARGING TIMES,”) and the Electric Highway Coalition will go a long distance toward solving the refueling issue.
The EHC’s project will further hasten public adoption of electric vehicles and the demise of Big Oil.
Photo credit: Tennessee Valley Authority
