Dive Brief:
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Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) last week released a request for proposals (RFP) to allocate $14 million to establish a statewide public electric vehicle charging network.
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The funds for the RFP come from Virginia’s $93.6 million portion of the Volkswagen settlement imposed on the auto manufacturer for tampering with emission testing devices on its cars. The RFP, which closes on Nov. 6, is part of the Gov. McAuliffe’s broader EV Initiative, which aims to support an EV adoption rate of 15% by 2027, equal to about 1 million vehicles statewide.
- Separately, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) this week signed several bills aimed at furthering the state’s adoption of EVs.
Dive Insight:
Long distances and wide open spaces have been cited as the bane of EVs, but recent bills and initiatives aim to counter that handicap.
Earlier this month, seven Western states said they would work on a regional EV plan. The governors of Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico and Colorado signed a memorandum of understanding encouraging the adoption of EVs.
The MOU, among other things, provides for coordination on funding opportunities and the creation of minimum standards for charging stations.
A new National Renewable Energy Laboratory report found "a few hundred corridor fast-charging stations could enable long-distance EV travel between U.S. cities ... [while] about 8,000 fast-charging stations would be needed to provide a minimum level of urban and rural coverage nationwide."
Virginia, for its part, wants to develop a network of EV charging stations along the state’s most traveled highways. “This targeted and rapid deployment of EV charging stations is designed to jump start adoption and generate more private investment in EV technology in Virginia,” Todd Haymore, the state's secretary of commerce and trade, said in a statement.
In California, the bills signed by Gov. Brown include SB 498 that requires at least 50% of the state’s light-duty vehicle fleet to be zero-emission vehicles by 2025, AB 544 that extends a program allowing certain clean alternative fuel vehicles to use high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and AB 739 that requires at least 15% of some heavy duty vehicles purchased by state agencies to be zero-emission starting in 2025.
Cutting auto emissions is one of the key elements to California’s plan to its greenhouse gas emissions. The transportation sector was the largest contributor to 2015 greenhouse gas emissions in California. The state want to have 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2025.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated Virginia's portion of the Volkswagon settlement.