Who will build electric vehicle chargers now?
EV manufacturer Tesla rocked the U.S. charging industry late last month when it announced that it was laying off its 500-person team responsible for installing charging stations, and slowing investment in new stations.
Tesla had been at the forefront of the effort to build out a fast-charging network across the U.S. – a project that has received substantial financial support from the federal government.
In a list of the Top 10 Largest Electric Charger Companies in the World compiled in October 2023 by EV Magazine, Tesla took the top slot. The automaker operates the nation’s largest network of fast chargers – which they call Superchargers – and has so far received the most funding as part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, through which the government is allocating $5 billion to states over five years to build 500,000 EV chargers.
So, now what?
Shortly after news of the layoffs broke, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that his company will still spend “well over $500M expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year.”
“That’s just on new sites and expansions, not counting operations costs, which are much higher,” Musk added.
Tesla has also reversed course and re-hired some of the dismissed members of their Supercharging team.
Despite this latest development and Musk’s assurances, questions remain over who will replace Tesla – or at least support their scaled back efforts to build out America’s EV charging infrastructure.
Rather than a single successor, several companies will likely step in to fill the void. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “companies from Walmart to Mercedes to BP to a consortium of carmakers have made bold promises to build their own fast-charging networks across the U.S.”
“Billions of dollars are pledged,” the article says. “But so far no one has built anything close to what Tesla has created.”
Bill Ferro, co-founder and chief technology officer at Paren, a software company focused on EV charging reliability, said the EV charging space is currently “the wild west” as companies vie for the federal grants supporting EV infrastructure expansion.
“Anybody and everybody is trying to put EV charging stations in place,” Ferro told WSJ.
Reuters reports that since news of the layoffs at Tesla broke, charging company executives have been inundated with phone calls from landlords looking for new partners for their private charging projects.
The companies believe that Tesla will soon pull out of the NEVI program altogether. Aatish Patel, co-founder of XCharge North America, which makes EV chargers for fleets and charging station operators, said that if Tesla does withdraw from the program, solicitation by states for NEVI-funded charging projects will have to start over.
“It’s going to delay NEVI rollout. There’s no question about it,” Patel told Reuters. “A lot of these sites aren’t going to get built this year, or within the time frames that were initially dictated.”
A spokesperson for the federal government’s Joint Office of Transportation and Energy told the WSJ that the nation’s charging network “will continue to grow based on investments from the federal government, the private sector and states.”
Daniel Bowermaster, senior manager of electric transportation at the non-profit Electric Power Research Institute, told the New York Times that while other companies may not be able to build chargers as quickly or as cheaply as Tesla, “there is significant opportunity, kind of regardless of what Tesla does.”
“It will be addressed by the market,” Bowermaster said. “How do they do it in a timely, cost-effective manner?”
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the components of electric vehicle charging infrastructure?
Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure refers to the network of charging stations and related services that provide electricity to recharge electric vehicles. This infrastructure includes various types of charging stations, from residential outlets to high-power stations designed for public use. Key components of this infrastructure include:
- Charging Stations: These are places where electric vehicles can be charged. They vary in speed and power output.
- Connectors and Plugs: Different EV models may use different connectors. Common types include CHAdeMO, CCS (Combined Charging System), and Tesla's proprietary connector.
- Network Services: Many charging stations are part of a network that offers services like finding available stations, reserving charging slots, and processing payments.
- Support Services: Maintenance, customer support, and emergency assistance for EV drivers.
What are the differences between regular and fast chargers for electric vehicles?
The main difference lies in their charging speed, which significantly affects how quickly an EV's battery can be recharged:
Regular Chargers (Level 1 and Level 2)
- Level 1 Chargers: These are standard household outlets (110-120V in the U.S.) and provide the slowest charging speed. It can take from 8 to 24 hours to fully charge an EV, depending on the battery capacity.
- Level 2 Chargers: These are higher power chargers (240V in the U.S.) found in homes, workplaces, and some public areas. They can charge an EV battery from empty to full in 4 to 8 hours.
Fast Chargers (DC Fast Chargers or Level 3 Chargers)
These chargers use direct current (DC) and much higher power levels (up to 480V or more). They can charge an EV battery to 80% capacity in as little as 20 to 30 minutes.
- Tesla Superchargers: A well-known example of fast chargers, these are designed specifically for Tesla vehicles and are among the fastest, offering charging speeds that can add up to 200 miles of range in just 15 minutes.
Are EV charging stations free to use?
There are some free public chargers available, but many chargers require payment with a fee-based on how much energy gets transferred to the electric car. The rate can also be based on a per-minute-of-charging basis, battery size, the charger’s power, or the energy delivery efficiency to the vehicle.
Recent experiments with charging an EV while on the go, however, may change the way drivers pay for utilizing these services.
