800,000 Home EV Chargers In California?

Anyone who studies US electric vehicles probably knows California is the state with the largest number of fully-electric vehicles. California also has the largest number of public EV chargers, and not by a little. What might be less known is that California also has an estimated 800,000 home EV chargers to go with its over 200,000 public chargers. If you asked someone walking on a sidewalk if there are more gas station fuel pumps or public EV chargers, the person may say it’s gas pumps, because there aren’t enough EV chargers. The same person might not know exactly how many public EV chargers there are, but probably believes there aren’t enough chargers — without any precise data.

There seems to be some confusion about how public EV chargers relate to public gas stations, in the assumption there must be the same number of EV chargers as there are gas station fuel pumps. If about 80 percent of EV charging happens at home, and home charging provides enough electricity to cover most EV driving, why would a huge number of public EV chargers be necessary?

For one thing, at the moment, most apartment and condo complexes don’t yet have onsite EV chargers. When they do, the picture may become more clear that perhaps enormous numbers of public EV chargers are not required. This is to say, we might be further along the path toward widespread personal transportation electrification than many people understand.

Did you know there are an estimated 800,000 EV home chargers in California already, and more and more are being installed?

Another point of confusion is the claim from some dishonest politicians that EV chargers cost a million dollars each. However, most EV charging happens at home. Some home EV chargers cost less than $1,000 for the unit, not including electrical work. Many EV drivers charge via normal electricity outlets. There are also government incentives that reduce the cost of home EV chargers. So, home EV chargers are actually rather affordable and charging at home is much more convenient than driving a gas or diesel vehicle to a gas station and back.

While more and more home EV chargers are quietly being installed without many people noticing — because there is an overemphasis on the public chargers — our US charging infrastructure may be doing pretty well without much awareness of this fact. “The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) estimates that by 2030, there will be 33 million EVs on the road and 28 million EV charging ports will be needed to support them. The majority of charging will be at home and work, with the public network for opportunity charging and less common long trips.

“Of the 28 million charging ports, 25.7 million (92%) are expected to be private Level 1 (L1) and Level 2 (L2) chargers at single-family homes. Additionally, there will be an estimated 2.1 million (7.6%) public and private L2 chargers at multifamily homes, workplaces, stores, restaurants, and hotels.”

What really jumps out from the DOE quote is this: “Of the 28 million charging ports, 25.7 million (92%) are expected to be private Level 1 (L1) and Level 2 (L2) chargers at single-family homes.”

So, if such a scenario comes to be, that means there will be almost 26 million home EV chargers. Still, there will be people claiming “there aren’t enough chargers,” and they will not know the exact number of chargers, and likely will continue being focused only on public chargers.

Some years ago, I knew a guy in his 80s who claimed to be an environmentalist but wouldn’t get an EV because he believed EVs don’t have enough range. The same guy drove fewer than 300 miles a month and no more than 50 miles at a time once a week to visit his cousin. If he had purchased an EV and had a home charger installed, the home charging would have provided all the electricity he ever needed and even more. He would have saved money by using electricity instead of gasoline and he would have saved time by charging at home instead of driving to and from a gas station every time his car needed gas. He also would not have been driving a gas car that spewed toxic air pollution everywhere it went while thinking of himself as an environmentalist.

Another example is fleet vehicles because they typically can charge at their depot chargers, so they already have enough charging options. In my little town, a number of the police vehicles are Teslas and they have their own department chargers. They are driven daily, just not on long trips, and taken back to the police department when they need charging. They have plenty of chargers.

For those of us who would not drive an EV long distances and who have a single-family home where we can have a home EV charger installed, there are already enough EV chargers.

More public chargers are needed, but for plenty of people who don’t drive long distances, there are already enough chargers — home chargers.

Not all EVs are cars, pickup trucks, or SUVs — some are e-bikes. E-bikes have their own chargers, and e-bike owners charge at home. In other words, e-bikes have plenty of chargers and charging locations. My neighbor stopped driving his gas car to work for a while and was riding an e-bike, which only cost him pennies to charge.

Electric vehicle adoption does not only depend upon public EV chargers. Currently, most US EV drivers live in single-family homes and charge at home, which is where about 80 percent of charging happens, but there are many more people in similar situations who don’t yet own EVs.

In the last year, there has been much progress made with the expansion of public chargers as well. Chargers are being installed every day in the United States. We are at a much different place than we were a decade ago.

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