Creating Key Infrastructure
Dan Bowermaster is the Program Manager for Electric Transportation at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), an independent non-profit center for public interest energy and environmental research. His program’s research focuses on the development, deployment, and analysis of plug-in electric vehicles and charging infrastructure and collaborates heavily with the automotive and technology industries.
Forty-six - that's the number of electric vehicle models either on the market or in development to roll into dealers' lots by 2020. It's a number and landscape that is changing almost daily, according to Electric Power Research Institute's electric transportation program manager Dan Bowermaster.
"What is very exciting in the industry is we are starting to see the rise of the mass market of two hundred - two hundred-forty mile range cars. In fact, General Motors is building their Bolt EV as we speak in Detroit," said Bowermaster. "That's a two hundred-thirty mile range car that stickers at about thirty-seven thousand dollars."
Which leads to a question of how utilities may approach a North American charging infrastructure to support electric vehicles as they become accessible to a larger segment of the population.
The most basic concepts, such as what constitutes refueling, are being reimagined. Conversations may focus on charging stations at home rather than gas pumps around the corner, and charging plazas rather than gas stations. And what about the cost of charging?
It could mean paying a premium price for faster charging and a lower price for slower charging.