Aggressive E-mobility Push: California

"The local government of California partnered with a private company in the City of Richmond on 29 July 2020 to provide free electric vehicle charging spots to public without spending taxpayer money."

Since the launch of Electric vehicles, US government has been actively taking initiatives to promote EV usage and installing EV chargers to facilitate the transformation. US has taken a state wise approach to promote the adoption of EVs. For example, the 2012 Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) program of California state regulation brought a sharp increase is supply and selling of EV in California and 10 other states.

According to French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, the U.S. dominates the market for electric vehicles, followed by Europe and Japan. Speaking about wireless charging, presently, U.S. dominates the market of wireless EV chargers’ market, followed by Canada and Mexico in North America.

The market of EVs runs complimentary to availability of EV charging spots. As of 2019, US installed around 68,000 charging points (Power Technology Research, EVSE Data). This effort was taken to promote installation of commercial EV chargers.

In July 2020, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) proposed a decision on the proposal submitted by the California Edison (SCE) to invest $442 million to deploy approximately 40,600 electric vehicle charge ports in California. The proposal is under review by SCE and the commission is expected to vote by 27 August on the final decision.

In the meanwhile, while actively seeking out for opportunities to develop its EV infrastructure, the local government of California partnered with a private company in the City of Richmond on 29 July 2020 to provide free electric vehicle charging spots to public without spending taxpayer money. These charging stations are not funded by taxpayer’s dollars yet would provide the public free electric vehicle charging facility.

With other states having an incentive to promote EV charging system, California seems to be ahead on the game considering the active role of California in immediately taking steps for developing its electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In the coming few years, California government is expected to take even more aggressive steps towards the installation of commercial electric vehicle charging stations to promote consumption of electric vehicles in the region, providing a business opportunity for OEMs and EV charger manufactures for pushing their EV charging station solutions.