The ‘‘EV-Ready’’ Community: EV Infrastructure Planning

Editor’s Note: This article is selected from manual Electric Vehicle Community Market Launch Manual: A Guide to Prepare Your Community for Electric Vehicles which was prepared by the Electric Transportation Coalition (ETC) and the Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas (EVAA) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

For a community to embrace electric vehicles, the stakeholders in that community—the electric utility, local government, businesses, and citizens—must develop and promote incentive programs that encourage early vehicle sales and investment in EV infrastructure systems. Simply stated, a community can be defined as "EV-Ready" once it has put in place the following policy elements:

  • A policy framework that will encourage the purchase, operation, and support of EVs in the community
  • Building, electrical, health, and safety codes that allow for expedited and cost effective deployment of charging equipment and training of emergency, fire, and rescue personnel
  • A plan and schedule for deploying charging equipment
  • A public information/awareness program

The definition of an EV-Ready community focuses primarily on development and adoption of broad EV policies. However, EV infrastructure planning focuses primarily on implementing the policies that the local community has adopted.

With a collaborative effort at the community level (via the existing Clean Cities net work and/or other community groups), EV infrastructure planning should incorporate the perspectives of policymakers, automakers, implement ors, and the general public to develop a comprehensive plan that, when put in place, will provide EV users with the necessary equipment, support services, and conveniences that are currently available for users of today’s automotive products.

To help ensure success, planners should view the EV and its infrastructure as one cohesive system, not two distinct systems that are eventually merged. Ultimately, the infrastructure that is put in place must be embraced by the EV user.

To implement the four broad policies mentioned above, community EV planners should consider organizing programs in each of these areas:

  • EV charging facilities
  • Support of electric vehicles and charging facilities
  • Public information and awareness
  • Education
  • EV policy support

Organizing these EV programs can ensure that all policy elements are addressed and that decisions related to these policies are coordinated. These infrastructure programs will be dependent on one or more policy committees. For example, actions approved by the Infrastructure and Electrical/Building Codes Committees will affect the ability of the EV Charging Facilities Program to install charging stations. Likewise, the Public Information Committee will help determine what kinds of issues the Information and Awareness Program will focus on in educating the community.

The sections in this volume of the Manual discuss in detail elements that a community should include in its EV infrastructure and deployment plan. To provide readers a real-world perspective, sections also include case studies that focus on the accomplishments—and the work in progress—in a number of leading EV-Ready communities.

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July 8, 2008 · Filed Under Electric Car Conversion Blog

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