Worried your EV will run out of juice? Mass. plans to add more charging stations

MassDOT announced a five-year, $63 million plan to install EV charging stations no more than 50 miles apart in an effort to reduce “range anxiety” and encourage the transition from fossil-fueled vehicles to carbon-neutral vehicles.

The project is supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula (NEVI) Program.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, NEVI provides money to states “to strategically deploy electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and to establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access and reliability.”

Chris Aiello, senior counsel for the state Department of Transportation’s Climate Initiative, shared the need for increased EV charging stations in the Bay State as part of a nationwide initiative to combat climate change during a MassDOT Conference on Wednesday.

Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts, accounting for 37%, including light-duty passenger vehicles, said Aiello.

“If we’re going to meet our climate goals,” he said, “this is important.”

Another push for the addition of EV charging stations in the commonwealth is to reduce the barrier of “range anxiety,” or the angst of running out of battery life before reaching a charging station.

Under the NEVI plan, charging stations are required to be within 50 miles of an Alternative Fuel Corridor, a network of highways and interstates that have charging stations.

Charging stations funded by the NEVI plan must contain at least four charging ports with a minimum of 150kW per port and a minimum of 97% uptime.

Uptime refers to how often a charging port is operational within a 24-hour period. Ninety-seven percent of the time would mean that ports must be functional a little over 23 hours a day.

There are three charging levels for EVs. Level One has the slowest charge rate, and Level Three has the fastest.

The NEVI plan requires Level Two, which can charge a battery-operated electric vehicle from empty to 80% in four to 10 hours and a plug-in electric vehicle in one to two hours, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In a 2024 study released by Stable Auto, a California-based software development company that monitors the EV market, Massachusetts ranked among the top five most expensive places to charge EVs per kW at a public station, averaging .52¢.

In an article published by EnelxWay, average EV charging costs were approximately $32.39, whereas the average cost for a gallon of gas was reported by AAA cost $3.66, and the average fossil-fuel vehicle costs between $30 and $40 to fill.

As part of the NEVI deployment plan, Aiello said MassDOT identified “Gap Zones” for initial investment and the importance of equity.

Specific areas of concern are rural communities that have fewer EV charging stations as a result of private investors placing charging stations in more populated and metropolitan communities.

“DOT is trying to offset that,” said Aiello, (and) “to make sure we’re taking care of that.”

He added the goal is to promote the use of EVs and simplifying the charging experience is also part of the plan.

“We need to make sure anyone can pull up and have a gas station-like experience,” he said.

While MassDOT was approved for the NEVI Formula Program in 2022, requests for qualified developers interested in working on the project were sent out in December.

MassDOT received initial responses in January and final responses in March. Interviews were completed in early April.

Though a date for beginning pre-development services has not been set, they are expected to begin within the month.

Aiello said the NEVI plan is a starting point, and the program requirements are at a minimum “to get people to go on a road trip and be safe adopting an EV.”

Stations are required to have a J3400 charging adaptor, which Aiello described as a generic Tesla charger.

However, it differs as it is more accessible for other vehicle makes, whereas Tesla charging stations cater more to Tesla vehicles.