Biden efficiency rule a boon for US charging sector

The Biden administration’s final ruling on mandating fuel efficiency targets will provide some much needed certainty to the EV charging industry, according to Terry O’Day, CEO of charging firm Incharge.

The EPA projects that, by 2032, 30-56pc of new light-duty vehicle sales will be EVs as a result of the final ruling.

“This new regulation is an opportunity […] to provide some investment certainty. As we seek to build out the infrastructure we will have some certainty that the vehicles will be out there on the road," O’Day told Yahoo Finance news.

Incharge sells both level three DC fast chargers for road networks and level two chargers for home applications.

O’Day notes the ongoing challenge of getting chargers into apartment blocks and multi-unit dwellings, and says that these consumers may have to use road-based charging networks as an interim solution.

“You have both the tenant and landlord you have to work with to get charging into multi unit dwellings. In the interim [these customers] probably have to rely on the on road charging network,” he concedes.

But, also speaking to Yahoo Finance last week, Brendan Jones, the CEO of charging firm Blink Charging said his firm was now starting to see some penetration in this segment.

“We are seeing charging penetrating in multi family dwellings and apartment blocks,” Jones says.

In January the Biden administration announced $623mn in funding for EV charging stations, with half of this funding is going to 36 projects in communities that will invest in EV charging multi-family housing as well as urban locations such as schools, parks and libraries.

Fleet focus

Both Incharge and Blink are focusing efforts on fleet charging solutions in the near term.

‘We are focused on fleets in particular. These companies are coming to electrification because it saves them money,” says O’Day.

The Qualified Commercial Vehicle Credit in the US Inflation Reduction Act has reduced the cost of BEVs for fleet managers. “The fleet segment is on fire,” adds Jones.

US charging infrastructure is on track to meet the needs of the nation’s growing BEV fleet, according to a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).