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I'd probably not even engage if it were limited to that, but the narrative has spread to wider mainstream coverage and Democratic politicians (who don't seem to understand the sticking points are with their states). Needs to be corrected, at least in terms of allocated vs. spent.

@@plugandplayEV good points

Great suggestion, thanks. I'll make a note to cover lesser-known and new EVI companies in one of the next updates.

Hey Robert, unfortunately not. Those are under the MassEVIP program that Baker signed off just before leaving office. Not sure why so many are delayed but a bunch got cancelled and others have extended the deadline to complete into the second half of the year. I'm planning a video on it in July.

I find it's quite interesting that Tesla has managed to install 8 stalls for $473k in comparison to the 4 stalls at about $650k by other companies. Wonder why some localities keep picking the more expensive and less reliable options?

@hvu6037 Tesla manages the power differently and caps out at 250kW, so there are limitations with them as well. The site awards themselves are scored across a wide range of items, including location, power, amenities, site accommodations, private matching funds, etc.) My bet is that the ~$600K award winners are building sites closer to just below $1 million a pop (add 20% match minimum and a few on-site extras, like Flying J canopies, funded privately). Tesla can certainly build them cheap and cheerful with the vertical integration, but they might not always be interested in some states, if they have a significant Supercharger presence at the state-desired locations already.

Yep, it's always interesting how much noise the $7.5 billion over five years for charging generates, while the $9+ billion the US sends off in various fossil fuels subsidies *annually* as a matter of course doesn't raise a peep. At least this is intended to help catalyze a new growth industry, rather than lining the already bulging pockets of an existing one!

Tesla hasn't deployed any true V4 Superchargers to the best of my knowledge, here or abroad. The best hope is that now Cybertruck is ramping, they will have more incentive to push 1000V Superchargers and serve their own models. But no timeline that I've seen for that. In terms of full V3/V4 Supercharger access, Hyundai-Kia was late to the game last year and probably won't see adapters until the end of 2024, at best. However, with the Supercharger team restructured and GM access slipping beyond its original deadline of spring '24, 2025 for H-K models is probably more likely.

There are a few pieces to the answers here, some of which are intertwined. In terms of cost per stall, the state plans rarely get that granular. At best, we get an exact amount of funding for a specific site. With Tesla, the company's vertical integration and decade of experience mean they have fast charger installations down to a fine art. They rarely deploy less than eight stalls nowadays, often twelve, but the NEVI funds are typically going to a portion of the install. In any case, Tesla has won the second-most NEVI awards and routinely comes in less costly than competitors. However, individual states have different criteria (power, location, amenities, matching funds, and more) that can rank a non-Tesla site more highly than a Supercharger, so a more expensive option often ends up winning. Regardless of vendor, the stations cost more than the NEVI award total. There is a minimum 20% matching fund requirement that comes from the private entity or some other grant program, where the site host is a public entity. In terms of transparency, the information is mostly there for reporters willing to find a contact or look through the states' reports, which are updated every year. In the case of Vermont and New York, I agree that the amounts need to be clearer. Their sites have, so far, been allocated outside of a formal RFP process. On the one hand, that has helped them move more quickly than other states, but it also makes the spending opaque. The exact numbers will be available eventually, however, so it's more a case of reporting lag than anything nefarious. EDIT to add: any site funded by NEVI has minimum four stalls capable of 150kW continuous power delivery to each stall. Where there are only two dispensers, it's because they have two connectors on one unit, for a total of four handles/stalls.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me! 💪⚡

I'm hopeful it's short term pain for long term gain... assuming NEVI itself isn't derailed, of course 🤞

Nope. Just a vehicle with a different drivetrain, that's all.

I think it was you whose comment prompted me to dig into the discarded update 2 footage to find it, so thank *you*! Either way, it's my pleasure :-)

In at least two senses of the word.

@@plugandplayEV I can’t tell you how “writers” I’ve sent feedback on their lazy tomes about the collapse of the EV market. So clueless.

That's certainly the next debate: is all of this worth it? The argument for is that the individual sites catalyze wider action, so competitors see their rivals installing charging and don't want to miss out. After that, the extra plugs that you rightly want come from 100% private funding (or maybe lingering Dieselgate/pandemic funds) and gives the customer more choice. On the negative side, it's a gold rush for funding that is just being distributed to add the bare minimum. 97% uptime and a couple of dispensers aren't exactly ambitious, with a single outage torpedoing the effectiveness of the installs for a 100-mile stretch on some vulnerable routes. I'm generally in the pro camp when it comes to doing something rather than nothing, but I'm very conscious of the limitations you flag here.

Wish I'd had this comment before, as it could have served as script for the video. Appreciate the balanced digest. This one is part of a series that is developing, so the deeper dive on perceived delays is a valuable suggestion. Thanks for taking the time to offer perspective.

Since this is a NEVI funded site it would have to be a magic dock and support all vehicles.

Right, as Rudy mentioned the site is required to have a CCS1 option in order to receive federal funds. Outside of NEVI, there are still around 70 other Supercharger locations that have a similar "Magic Dock" system to charge any CCS1 EV, where the adapter is integrated into the charge post and activated via the Tesla app.

@@plugandplayEV At a snails pace compared to 350s.

@@JohnCap523 All too true.

@@plugandplayEV Cracks me up all the fanfare for charging eGMP, Rivian, and Lightning EVs at 100kw.

From certain outlets that's true and inevitable, but there are also some big names reaching for the sensational aspect of the story that make me wonder. Perhaps they're op-eds and have been inspired by outside donors, but ubiquity of these headlines over the past six months is definitely suspicious.

Not sure which type of ads this refers to but Tesla has been paying for digital ads for much of the past year.

Nope, Idaho is definitely a slow mover. Their 2023 action amounted to starting the search for a company to develop two pilot sites, neither of which have been identified yet. If the state had wanted to move quickly, it could have easily released the full RFP and zeroed in on Pilot-Flying J bids, as the chain covers at least 75% of the corridors that need to be addressed. Construction isn't even scheduled to begin until 2025 and it's easy to see that slipping.

Too busy trying to waste money on taking over Oregon.

Talking to someone out in Boise, apparently Idaho Power is being particularly difficult with demand charges. That's behind a closure of a CPE250 out in Sun Valley.

It's odd, there's slow and then there's at a standstill. So Tennessee actually announced in reasonable time, this past February. But they're contracting and approval process is suspiciously long, from April through November this year. Construction is supposed to begin in December, which could then easily get caught up in adverse weather. That said, at least we know where things will be and who has won what. Compared to a Wyoming or Florida, who haven't moved much at all, TN is light years ahead.

Correcting myself here: Pilot-Flying J in Gordonsville, TN has units in the ground and looks like it could easily come online this summer. Nothing in progress at the Hurricane Mills site but ground is broken at Monteagle, so that could quickly become your second NEVI activation.

@@plugandplayEV yup, and for a states economy based a lot on tourism they should be focusing on getting the charging infrastructure built out to attract more visitors. December here can be some what mild and also rainy. Usually gets colder in January here.

I can see it now... "Coastal Elitist Wants Your Tax Dollars to Travel for Free in His All-Electric Toy! More at 11..." Yep, I think I'll stick to UA-cam!

Yeah, not exactly convenient to require a border crossing just to get a fast charge. Destination charging at all of the Voyageurs visitor centers would be a welcome addition to bridge the gap though.

Reception for Silverado and Equinox EVs seem to suggest otherwise, but we'll certainly see.

Valuable add, thanks. When it comes to getting a fleet vehicle back on the road, any savings from lower running costs can easily be extinguished if the operator can't get parts immediately and it keeps the EV out of action.

On the fleets side specifically, though, Ford's approach is quite distinct from Tesla. We went on to compare the Hertz debacle with Model 3s to the relatively quiet success of Ford with the e-Transit for fleet use.

@@plugandplayEV I’m not sure the comparative cost and availability of windshields is a definitive metric for which EV best suits a fleet, but I’ll play along… I’m also not sure $88k Silverado 3WLT trucks are a viable fleet option. But hey, if Toyota can buy the uber crappy bZ4X into Manhattan’s Uber community, I guess anything is possible…

For sure, but that extends across other common consumables and whether or not it keeps the fleet vehicle off the road. If it does, the lost time holds a value as well. Not definitive, of course, but it's a notable difference between an established fleet provider with decades of experience and a relatively new actor in the space, like Rivian.

@@plugandplayEV From my experience many fleet purchase decisions are soared logic and specificity. The decisions are made in private with a script to showcase some magnificent bid process. USPS is exhibit A. Decipher their fleet purchase decisions.

Valuable reminder, especially as more and more of these roll out for both standards. Thanks!

Great to hear, thanks Mike! How is your driver's seat trim holding up? With all the long drive days, mine has become a little worn in small patches but perhaps that's just the way I sit...?

@plugandplayEV Hey Steve...just looked at mine and shows no discernible wear. Some wrinkling in the leather surface but nothing other than that. The interior colour was one of my concerns when we bought the car but it has held up amazingly well. We did have the interior ceramic coated and maybe that helps. My wife has gotten ink on the seats in a couple places and it cleaned off no problem at all. Hope you're having a great summer! Cheers Mike

Right, the light grey color has held up very well. I just have a little fraying on parts of the driver seat, but again it's not unreasonable after 60K miles. With two kids and pets onboard sometimes, I'm amazed we've come away relatively unscathed! Enjoy your summer and thanks again for the update 👍

Glad it was useful, thanks for watching.

The P-FJ site is 100% privately funded, so they probably didn't take much consideration around competing locations. Oklahoma's first round of NEVI funds went to only Love's, Francis, and Tesla in April, so I wouldn't expect to see much progress on construction until later this year at the earliest (more likely 2025).

@@plugandplayEV OK, cool. So when this round of NEVI funding’s sites have been built, Tesla will have a total of 8 Supercharger sites in Oklahoma. All of those will be in the northeast quarter of the state except the one at Weatherford. Hardly an equitable distribution in my opinion. Adding two more Supercharger sites within 20 miles of existing sites while ignoring 3/4 of the state does nothing to help with EV charging availability for that brand. Why cannot Tesla just look at their map of sites and decide to fill in a 175 mile gap without requiring federal funding to do so? They have done that very thing all over the country without federal funding, so what is the difference? A year ago there was just one Supercharger site between Amarillo and Dallas, but now there are 6, all built without federal funding. I do not count Francis sites because their existing sites mostly do not work, have been broken for over 2 years, or are limited to 50 kw, so if they cannot fix their current sites for over 2 years, there should be no reason to believe any new sites they build will be any better, regardless of the requirements.

@@glenngore6609 I haven't fully mapped this out in my head, but the first round of OK will live or die with Love's. Site breakdown was as follows: Love’s I-40 exit 287 in Webbers Falls, I-40 exist 140 at Morgan Road in Oklahoma City, I-40 exist 200 in Seminole, I-44 exit 5 in Randlett, I-35 exit 186 in Perry, I-40 exit 221 in Okemah, I-35 exit 157 in Guthrie and I-40 exit 166 in Choctaw. Tesla, three sites: the I-44 exit 240 in Catoosa, the I-40 exist 240B in Henryetta and the I-44 exit 125B in Oklahoma City. Francis Energy, two sites on I-40, exit 308 in Sallisaw and a second on I-40, exit 1 in Thackerville. Hopefully neither of those Francis sites are super-critical, as I have the same reservations as you re. that CPO.

@@plugandplayEV The sites along I-40 east of Oklahoma City are definitely needed as there is currently only one place to charge a CCS vehicle now between OKC and Sallisaw, at Okemah, since the Francis site in Shawnee was destroyed by the tornado a couple years ago and never rebuilt. Why aren’t they replacing it? As for Teslas, there is no Supercharger between OKC and Van Buren, Arkansas, so at least one new one along I-40 is desperately needed. The Superchargers in the Tulsa area are not needed as there are already several Superchargers there, while there are none in the northwest quarter or the panhandle or the southeast quarter of Oklahoma at all. The rest of the new sites are located within short distances of existing charging sites, so the need in those locations is not serious considering the lack of charging sites in the southeast quarter of Oklahoma especially. There are a few Francis sites in those areas, but I would never rely on Francis if I was on a road trip, ever! The problem with this entire round of funding is that any new site must be located along an Interstate highway, which leaves out the vast majority of the state since we only have I-35, 40, and 44. Oklahoma cannot even place charging sites along any of the turnpikes in this round! Except of course, the Will Rogers, Turner, and H.E. Bailey turnpikes but only one of those, the H.E. Bailey, is getting a new site. One more question: Why don’t the Chickasaws have DC fast charging available at the Winstar facility? Surely they have the funds to do that. I could ask the same question to every tribe in Oklahoma who has a casino, that are located in almost every town in the state, why they are not building EV charging facilities at those casinos?

Nothing much beyond the early installations and Florida/Georgia as a starting point. Walmart has a major remodeling program underway for 650 stores, 150 of which are slated to get fast charging in the near-term.

The processes vary state-to-state, as they all submitted customized plans rooted in the same NEVI foundation (AFCs filled first, power minimums, within 1 mile of AFC exit etc.) The individual state plans are all linked from this page: driveelectric.gov/state-plans The DriveElectric site also provides quarterly updates with a focus on recent state announcements, like this one: driveelectric.gov/news/q2-2024-quarterly-nevi-update

Oddly, despite all my rambling around the Midwest, I've only had cause to travel through WV once in the past eight years. That was only through the sliver in the north east side of the state, so the real gaps of I-79 or I-64. Like parts of New Hampshire, it seems easy enough to do a slower destination charging-based trip to the scenic parts, but traveling through at pace is a challenge unless the EV has Supercharger access. Definitely an example where NEVI or VW funding could quickly bridge the gaps.

Surprised myself that Colorado hasn't been right up there with the leading states on construction, given the generous EV incentives and the relatively early awards (fourth quickest state to announce actual sites). Hopefully we'll see some widespread progress and further rounds of awards this summer.

@@plugandplayEV That's something that I'm keep an eye on. Keeps me a touch paused on getting an E Moto (like the Energica Experia is having more places for a mid day top up.

Texas definitely has an odd relationship with Tesla, given that the company has fully embraced the state as home. Still not allowing direct sales at Tesla stores and NEVI awards are just a couple of areas, though Texas was fully supportive of NACS in its guidance.

Thanks for the confirmation. How does it look for private DCFC in Idaho? Any action beyond Tesla?

Thanks for watching 🙏

Thanks for watching!

I share the worry, although a lot gets said during electioneering and priorities can change (or be swept under the rug) quickly once office is taken up. There will also be pushback from states like Ohio, North Carolina, and possibly even Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee and more, given how much investment is flowing into them on the EV side. Not to say that it's not a threat, but a lot of good work that's already been done will reap rewards, whether immediately or a little further down the line.

Thanks for taking it constructively, as intended! And I appreciate the local insight. I plan to cover how the states behind the curve here might keep up... or at least not fall further behind... with private investment and other infrastructure developments. It's important to remember that there are many solutions to bridge these gaps, even when the state doesn't pull its weight.

Definitely a weird one. My instinct would be intentional slow-walking for political ends but there can be other reasons, such as the depth of existing infrastructure actually slowing things down or a desire to see what other states do first. I'll dig a little deeper and focus on individual states as updates continue, thanks.

Great to have that momentum on L2 as well. Should take some pressure off city DCFC stations, in the long-term.

Excellent local perspective, thank you. Hopefully I can use some off this info on our trips this summer and finally make some vids relevant to the PNW.

Thanks for the support! At the time of writing, only the Tesla site in Maine comes with native NACS. NEVI requirements were defined in 2022, before NACS/J3400 gathered pace as a public option, so hardware is still defaulting to the CCS1 connector requirement. NACS is an option for most states, however, so expect to see more and more NEVI sites incorporate the connector as construction continues. I will also try to factor that into my monthly updates here.

@@plugandplayEV Thank you!