With high gas prices, the appeal for electric vehicles is rising and that transformation is vital for humanity’s fight to slow the deadly impact of a changing climate but New Jersey has had a poor record for encouraging the futuristic switch.
Vehicles powered by batteries are the clear future of the auto industry but New Jersey had the worst ratio of Electric Vehicles (EV) to charging ports, with 41.7 to 1, according to Loren McDonald, a veteran marketing executive and business consultant who launched the EVAdoption website.
“Our forecasts are based on rigorous analysis of EV sales, auto industry plans, battery advances, charging data, legislation, and economic and consumer trends,” said McDonald.
McDonald said there are more than 145,000 gasoline and diesel fueling stations across the United States, with about 1.2 million gas pumps. By comparison, the budding EV industry is struggling to gain acceptance in the car-buying market for a number of reasons, but one of them is trepidation about recharging options.
The 282 million Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) cars and light trucks on U.S. roads will climb by 36 million before 2030, despite predictions of their rapid replacement by Electric Vehicles.
Motorists have been refueling cars with gasoline for more than a hundred years.
There are several variants from which to choose: regular, mid-grade or premium gasoline, or diesel. However, the refueling process is relatively straightforward, everybody understands how it’s done, and it’s completed in about five minutes.
With electric vehicles, the recharging process is not as simple, or as quick.
New Jersey is handing out $1 million in grants to install charging stations in 24 tourist destinations.
“For a small state (we’re) a leading state in the development and the promotion of electric vehicles,” said Joseph Fiordaliso, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
In New Jersey, there are about 650 public charging stations. The goal is to bring in more tourists using sustainable cars.
New Jersey Transit is also switching to electric. In Camden, the state added charging stations for buses.
“For 100 years we’ve relied on liquid fuels for a proportion, now we’re looking to change that model significantly. It’s a paradigm shift,” said John Geitner, senior director for energy environment and sustainability at NJ Transit.
As of September 31, 2021 there were 2,147,070 electric vehicles (BEV and PHEV) in the United States and 109,307 charger ports. The following table shows the number of charger ports, EVs sold in the US through September 31, 2021, and the ratio of EVs to charger ports per state and the District of Columbia.
The median ratio was 14.2 EVs to ports, with Wyoming having the best (lowest) ratio at 4.2 to 1 and New Jersey had the worst (highest) at 41.7 to 1.
Identifying where EV charging stations are located is but one aspect of a budding EV industry; and yet, it is probably the most critical to get consumers to ‘go electric.’
There are currently 88,000 ports available at 27,000 charging stations across the nation, but with 66,555 electric vehicles in use, New Jersey has only 1,610 of those charging ports.
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