February was a big month for electric vehicles across the nation and in Wisconsin.
Foxconn announced in late February its plans to assemble vehicles for EV startup Fisker, sparking buzz about the likelihood of operations taking place at the company’s Mount Pleasant plant. The U.S. Postal Service in February chose Oshkosh Defense for a 10-year, $482 million contract to manufacture new postal delivery vehicles with battery electric power trains and fuel efficient combustion engines that can be retrofitted with battery electric power trains.
Also in February, Edmunds reported EV sales are predicted to rise to a record high 2.5% of all U.S vehicles, up from 1.9% in 2020. At the same time, Jaguar and Ford announced plans to go all electric by 2035, following General Motors’ January announcement to do the same. Volvo issued their all-electric pledge by 2030 early this month.
All of the EV talk is prompting questions about where the vehicles will charge. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, Wisconsin has 419 publicly available EV charging stations with 812 charging outlets and another 25 private charging stations with 50 charging outlets.
The reality is, most private EV owners — myself included — do the majority of their charging at their homes overnight with chargers in their own garages. But what about those without private garages in single-family homes? Residents of multi-unit dwellings (MUD) like apartment buildings or condominium complexes may want to purchase an EV, but do not have access to charging at their home. For those living in MUD in larger cities with street parking only, the issue becomes even more of a challenge.