New York announces new round of federal funding to build electric vehicle charging stations along travel corridors

As New York looks to build out electric vehicle charging infrastructure, Governor Kathy Hochul this week announced more than $28 million in federal funding to install EV fast chargers along major travel corridors.

Supported by the National Electric Vehicle Instructure program, the second round of funding is intended to create new charging stations in the Hudson Valley south of Interstate 84, New York City and Long Island.

To learn more about New York’s plans for expanding EV infrastructure, WAMC’s Lucas Willard spoke with Adam Ruder, Director of Clean Transportation at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority…

New York State and all the other states in the country have designated a number of highways as “alternative fuel corridors.” In New York State, there are a number of these statewide that traverse many of the major travel roads in the state, and with the federal funding through the infrastructure bill, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, New York State has received, is allocated $175 million to build out charging along those corridors, and once at 50, at least, no more than 50-mile increments. So that makes it able to for any EV driver to take longer trips, but also to charge within their communities. And so, the purpose of this program is to help build out those charging stations along those corridors at regular intervals. And New York State is well along the way of doing that, and this program is focused more on the New York City Metro Area, on stations south of I-84. We recently did a similar program for stations along I-84 and north and west, and we received proposals that were due just last week for that program. And so, between those two solicitations, we expect to build a lot more fast-charging stations along all of the major roads in New York state.

Now, when it comes to investing in charging stations, does NYSERDA and does the State of New York hope that through these investments, it will encourage more motorists to adopt EV vehicles?

That’s part of the strategy, yes, absolutely. We hope that by making it easy for drivers to recognize that wherever they need to go, they can go in an electric vehicle, that will raise the level of comfort with buying these vehicles and driving them. You know, most charging happens at home or at work, but it is important to make sure that drivers can get wherever they want to go. And with these investments and others, we are seeing that that is now very much a reality. It helps, too, that the ranges of the vehicles that they can go on one charge, and the speed of charging has been increasing pretty significantly. And we feel that, generally, people driving EVs are very capable of going anywhere within New York State and beyond these days.

Now, beyond state rebates and, obviously, the build-out of electrical vehicle charging infrastructure is something that motorists consider very important before they make the switch, does New York have any programs in place to encourage people or to educate drivers about the benefits of EVs? And how is New York encouraging people to make the switch?

Yeah. We’ve made New York State and NYSERDA and our colleagues at other agencies, have made a big push to try to reach New Yorkers where they are. We’ve had a presence at the New York Auto Show and the auto shows in Albany and Buffalo and other parts of the state, and at the State Fair and all these types of outreach opportunities, where we get to talk to people and show them the cars, show them the chargers, talk to them about what this actually means. We have a lot of great resources on the on our website and on NYPA’s website to help people compare the cost of electric vehicles to gasoline vehicles, and identify where charging stations are and learn about the technology. So, we’re trying to really meet people where they are. But honestly, some of the best tools for educating the public are through peers and getting more EVs on the road provides more and more opportunities for New Yorkers to hear from their friends, hear from their neighbors, hear from their coworkers, what it’s like to drive an EV, and generally, I can tell you as an EV driver for the last 10 years or so, when you drive an EV, it really…the performance and the benefits of driving the EV are really visceral, and you enjoy…it’s an enjoyable experience that few drivers actually want to go back afterward. There was a recent survey that was just released in the last week or so. It said something like 92% of EV drivers would not consider going back to a gasoline car. So, I think getting that real world experience and hearing from your friends and neighbors is also a really important part of the puzzle.

And I also wanted to ask about repairs and maintenance. Does New York have any programs in place to train up the next generation of auto mechanics or retrain automotive professionals right now to get them up to speed and to teach them how to work on electric vehicles, which can be more complex with electrical systems and computers than some more traditional gasoline vehicles or older gasoline vehicles?

Yes, we do. New York State has a number of programs for workforce development. I do want to correct you on one point that it’s often a lot simpler to work on electric vehicles than it is to work on gasoline vehicles. There are very few moving parts. An electric motor is actually a pretty simple device compared to a gasoline engine. Yes, there are different computer elements, but frankly, gasoline cars these days are lots of, are driven by computers as well. But to the workforce development point, there are programs like at Hudson Valley Community College that have developed curricula for EV mechanics, and there are programs to train people to install EV charging stations. The IBEW, the electricians union has been very aggressive at trying to train their members to be ready to install EV charging stations. And at New York State, at NYSERDA, we have a number of workforce development programs that have funded these types of initiatives and on the job training for people who are looking to enter this workforce. And we’re going to continue doing that.

And then lastly, Adam, how important is it that New Yorkers make the switch to electric vehicles to help New York reach its climate goals?

Transportation is one of the biggest sectors for greenhouse gas emissions in the state, and you know, just about tied with buildings for the biggest emitters. So, switching to electric transportation is one of the most important things we can do to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Just as importantly, there are other benefits to switching to electric vehicles. They reduce the emissions of local criteria pollutants that cause asthma and a lot of adverse health impacts. They are quieter and reduced noise pollution, which is surprisingly noticeable when you when you are near electric vehicles, and especially electric trucks and busses, which make some big impact in communities as well. And they are going to be, they are less expensive to operate as well. So, on a life cycle basis, many EVs are actually lower cost and can help save consumers money and keep more of the money in state, because we all know New York is not an oil producer, but much of our electricity, and especially a growing amount of our electricity from solar and wind and hydro are all generated in-state and so this can help keep the money in New York and not send it overseas or to other parts of the country.