There aren't enough EV charging stations in the US. Here's why you should still electrify your fleet

More than a million new public EV charging stations will be needed in the US by 2030 to handle the rise of electric vehicles, experts say.

There currently are about 150,000 EV chargers in the US, and about one-quarter of those are Level 3 fast chargers.

It can seem a bit of a deadlock: companies won't build more chargers until there are more EV drivers. Meanwhile, individuals and companies don't want to invest in EVs if they think charging them will be a problem.

Speaking in the Wall Street Journal recently, Dan Bowerman, Senior Program Manager of Electric Transportation at EPRI, outlined some of the difficulties. “One of the challenges today is that there are more than 65 public charging networks, and each is an independent business," he said.

“A customer needs an account, an app, a key fob, etc to use a charging station, and each company has a unique one. There is no way for an EV driver to easily get a comprehensive picture of which network's stations are working and which aren't. It also means that an EV owner gets a bill from each charging network."

For EV infrastructure to be sufficient to support American President Joe Biden's target of half all vehicles sold by 2030 to be electric, several things need to happen.

Firstly, government incentives and investment are important, and then the private sector has to get involved. Long-term planning, including on electricity distribution, must be made.

Encouraging news came at CES with the announcement from Mercedes that 400 hubs will be built in the US by 2027 — but this is only a start.

Range life

What matters to fleet managers is being able to plan journeys and execute them efficiently. There are many advantages to an electric fleet — maintenance and running costs are usually cheaper after the initial investment — but range anxiety can be a concern.

This is where routing tools come in. Being able to plan your trip based on road topology, traffic conditions, and vehicle-specific consumption and charging model is critical.

Tools such as HERE EV Charging Stations API can help logistics teams predict where there will be availability at charging stations, based on historic data.

While the picture in the US and globally looks set to change radically over the next few years, accurate information about where to charge goes a long way. And electric fleets will ultimately help companies reduce emissions and achieve sustainability targets.