As electric vehicle (EV) sales continue to rise, cities are confronted with the exciting yet challenging task of developing critical public EV charging infrastructure to support the demand. This blog highlights key takeaways from our comprehensive guide, “Advice for Urban EV Charging: Ten Tips for Creating Highly Utilized & Equitable Urban EV Charging for Passenger Vehicles”, offering valuable insights for your city’s EV infrastructure plan.
Effective EV charging infrastructure planning recommends using predictive tools that analyze various datasets, including population data, socioeconomic data, and car registration data to anticipate future EV adoption and identify optimal charger quantities and locations. This approach, focusing on future demand, can help maximize resource efficiency, reduce costs, and aim to ensure equitable access, especially for disadvantaged communities. Cities like Hoboken demonstrate the effectiveness of such planning, helping to ensure chargers are conveniently located for all residents. Additionally, engaging with local communities is crucial to help tailor the infrastructure to their specific needs and preferences.
By strategically placing charging stations in locations where people naturally frequent, such as shopping districts and recreational areas, city planners can help facilitate effortless EV adoption. When considering optimal charging speeds, planners should aim for a balanced deployment of both DC Fast chargers and Level 2 (L2) chargers in various locations catered to diverse driver needs: fast chargers for quick top-ups and Level 2 chargers for longer stays. It's crucial to identify locations that maximize accessibility and convenience for all EV drivers, considering urban demographics and driver behavior. High-visibility and accessible locations not only encourage usage, but also help to enhance the network's efficiency.
Installing EV chargers in urban areas can benefit both travelers and local residents by helping attract more people to downtown districts and in efforts to increase local business patronage. DC fast chargers, which take longer to charge than traditional gas station stops, can help encourage EV drivers to spend time at nearby businesses, and can foster vibrant communities. Additionally, accessible charging options can serve to enhance a city's appeal to tourists, which can offer a seamless and worry-free experience for EV users exploring the area.
Effective collaborations and community engagement can be key to successful EV charging infrastructure. Cities can effectively blend global expertise and local talent in EV charging infrastructure projects. By collaborating with global turnkey providers for central planning and engineering, while engaging local trades for construction and maintenance, cities can help bolster the local economy and job market and enrich the project with local expertise and insights. This approach helps to foster community involvement, strengthen the EV network, and align with federal objectives to create local employment, thereby helping to ensure the EV industry's growth is both locally beneficial and nationally coordinated.
Urban construction for EV charging infrastructure should adopt a "dig once" strategy, focusing on long-term adaptability and minimizing future disruptions. This method can reduce costs, preserve city aesthetics, and enable multi-use infrastructure, like for micro-mobility and 5G networks. Close collaboration with local electric utilities is key, especially in early planning stages, to avoid costly changes and accommodate grid upgrades. This proactive approach helps to ensure efficient implementation, supports diverse future technologies, and helps contribute to building resilient, future-ready cities.
Effective communication and education strategies are crucial for helping to foster a community-centric approach and a successful network. Cities should actively inform potential EV owners about new charging stations through various channels like social media, local media, and direct notifications. Providing detailed information on charger locations, types, and usage is key. Additionally, utilizing digital media screens on chargers for community messaging and local advertisements can foster engagement and support local businesses. This approach not only promotes charger utilization but also aids in sustaining the charging infrastructure financially.
The transition to smarter, future-proof cities with effective EV charging is a collective journey. By integrating these strategies, cities can help support the growing number of EV drivers and contribute to their local communities and economies.
For a more in-depth understanding of these strategies, download our comprehensive guide, “Advice for Urban EV Charging: Ten Tips for Creating Highly Utilized & Equitable Urban EV Charging for Passenger Vehicles”.
