Washington State EV Infrastructure Funding

[Mrbrock]

This was passed Feb. 1. $85mil for 5,000 stations.
Grants to expand EV charging across state include stations from Yakima to Walla Walla | Fox 11 Tri Cities Fox 41 Yakima

Here is a map of the sites.

Experience

experience.arcgis.com

 

[1965Falcon]

I wonder if these will be free to residents and business users or will they be using blink/charge point etc. and get income from them.

 

[Mrbrock]

I wonder if these will be free to residents and business users or will they be using blink/charge point etc. and get income from them.

Highly doubtful they will invest 85 million and give away electricity for the public ones. The fleet ones will be responsible for their own power but public sites like the one at the Human Bean drive through coffee in walla walla would be crazy to be free.

 

[PLUS EV]

Is this where all the $75 registration fees are going? How much have they taken in on that one so far? And how much charging infrastructure has the state actually built? Must be the worst ROI in government and that's really saying something!

 

[1965Falcon]

Highly doubtful they will invest 85 million and give away electricity for the public ones. The fleet ones will be responsible for their own power but public sites like the one at the Human Bean drive through coffee in walla walla would be crazy to be free.

Maybe, maybe not. A business trying to attract costumers may be willing to shell out a couple bucks an hour to have people sit and charge if they are buying things. Power is cheap in Washington.

 

[Mrbrock]

Maybe, maybe not. A business trying to attract costumers may be willing to shell out a couple bucks an hour to have people sit and charge if they are buying things. Power is cheap in Washington.

Power is cheap but the amount of free chargers is definitely in the minority. Maybe if the requirement for this grant was to offer free charging I could get behind the idea but I think it’s more to just have chargers. Having 2 L2 and and 2 L3 chargers at a drive thru coffee joint doesn’t make sense in terms of attracting customers.

 

[Warrentt]

We are planning a trip to Silverwood theme park again this summer but the lack of supercharging from Portland metro area until Spokane is forcing us to use our other SUV. such a shame for Tesla only have 2 supercharging sites between the two location for the trip.

 

[1965Falcon]

Power is cheap but the amount of free chargers is definitely in the minority. Maybe if the requirement for this grant was to offer free charging I could get behind the idea but I think it’s more to just have chargers. Having 2 L2 and and 2 L3 chargers at a drive thru coffee joint doesn’t make sense in terms of attracting customers.

Agreed, that's what I was hoping the grant was for. Not to pay for owners to have pay-for charging and where they are going to make income from charging. Drive-through no, but If I was meeting someone for coffee I'd pick the shop with free charging for an hour.

 

[VandalSibs]

We are planning a trip to Silverwood theme park again this summer but the lack of supercharging from Portland metro area until Spokane is forcing us to use our other SUV. such a shame for Tesla only have 2 supercharging sites between the two location for the trip.

Uhhhhh, what? There's ten different Superchargers between Portland and Spokane, on the I84/I82/US395/I90 route alone!

 

[Poiu]

Is this where all the $75 registration fees are going? How much have they taken in on that one so far? And how much charging infrastructure has the state actually built? Must be the worst ROI in government and that's really saying something!

TL;DR - IMO, the $75 is put towards a huge number of transportation items which don't seem to further the goals of RCW 46.17.324, the $75 charge. Hydrogen fueling stations, electric school buses, lots of studies! Most of the money seems to be transferred to the 'multimodal transportation account' - HUGE budget with massive transportation & transit related projects.

I recently spent a bit of time looking into the EV charges that appear on our tabs. The $150 electric car fee (RCW 46.17.323) is easy to understand - pay for transport infrastructure seeing as EV owners don't pay gas tax. I didn't understand the $75 transportation electrification fee (RCW 46.17.324) - what is it supposed to be used for and what has been delivered using the fees collected so far?

I did contact Sen. Lisa Wellman, did get a response, but was no wiser! The response didn't differentiate between the two charges and provided no information on what the $75 fee has been spent on and been delivered!

How much money are we talking about? Given there were about 166K BEVs and PHEVs in the state as of Dec'23, that is ~$12.5 million per year.

The $75 gets paid into the 'electric vehicle account' - RCW 82.44.200

Where does that money go? I found the 2023 transportation budget. Here's what I could find:

• $220K for independent study on electricity utility distribution infrastructure???
• $443K, as part of dept of licensing $430 million item covering a huge number of items, none of which seem EV related.
• $4.7M for public/private partnerships program, which is a $199M budget!!! $3.7M for infrastructure program; $1M for a DC fast charging and hydrogen fueling station near Wenatchee. WTF!!! Millions for replacing school buses with electric versions - really going to make a difference to CO2 emissions??? Millions for hydrogen refueling for all those fuel cell vehicles that don't exist.
• $23M transferred to 'multimodal transportation account'. Special needs transportation, rural mobility, rideshare, rail infrastructure, pedestrian & bicycle safety programs - huge number of items, which are difficult to understand and work out concrete deliverables.

IMO, the $75 fee just disappears into the black hole of the massive transportation budget, does nothing to fulfill the goals of the fee, is not justified, and should be removed. If the state wants EV owners to contribute more to roads, then increase the current $150 fee, but stop making us contribute to various transportation projects.

 

[PLUS EV]

TL;DR - IMO, the $75 is put towards a huge number of transportation items which don't seem to further the goals of RCW 46.17.324, the $75 charge. Hydrogen fueling stations, electric school buses, lots of studies! Most of the money seems to be transferred to the 'multimodal transportation account' - HUGE budget with massive transportation & transit related projects.

I recently spent a bit of time looking into the EV charges that appear on our tabs. The $150 electric car fee (RCW 46.17.323) is easy to understand - pay for transport infrastructure seeing as EV owners don't pay gas tax. I didn't understand the $75 transportation electrification fee (RCW 46.17.324) - what is it supposed to be used for and what has been delivered using the fees collected so far?

I did contact Sen. Lisa Wellman, did get a response, but was no wiser! The response didn't differentiate between the two charges and provided no information on what the $75 fee has been spent on and been delivered!

How much money are we talking about? Given there were about 166K BEVs and PHEVs in the state as of Dec'23, that is ~$12.5 million per year.

The $75 gets paid into the 'electric vehicle account' - RCW 82.44.200

Where does that money go? I found the 2023 transportation budget. Here's what I could find:

• $220K for independent study on electricity utility distribution infrastructure???
• $443K, as part of dept of licensing $430 million item covering a huge number of items, none of which seem EV related.
• $4.7M for public/private partnerships program, which is a $199M budget!!! $3.7M for infrastructure program; $1M for a DC fast charging and hydrogen fueling station near Wenatchee. WTF!!! Millions for replacing school buses with electric versions - really going to make a difference to CO2 emissions??? Millions for hydrogen refueling for all those fuel cell vehicles that don't exist.
• $23M transferred to 'multimodal transportation account'. Special needs transportation, rural mobility, rideshare, rail infrastructure, pedestrian & bicycle safety programs - huge number of items, which are difficult to understand and work out concrete deliverables.

IMO, the $75 fee just disappears into the black hole of the massive transportation budget, does nothing to fulfill the goals of the fee, is not justified, and should be removed. If the state wants EV owners to contribute more to roads, then increase the current $150 fee, but stop making us contribute to various transportation projects.

Thank you for doing the leg work. That is about what I figured, because we have very little in the way of state-funded EV charging, especially when compared to neighboring regions like BC and OR. The one item that seems worthwhile and at least marginally related is the electrification of school buses. Other than that, it's a lot of money going into a government black hole as you stated.

 

[Mrbrock]

We are planning a trip to Silverwood theme park again this summer but the lack of supercharging from Portland metro area until Spokane is forcing us to use our other SUV. such a shame for Tesla only have 2 supercharging sites between the two location for the trip.

Yeah, which 2 spots are you referring to? Are you avoiding major highways?

 

[Teedub21]

IMO, the $75 fee just disappears into the black hole of the massive transportation budget, does nothing to fulfill the goals of the fee, is not justified, and should be removed. If the state wants EV owners to contribute more to roads, then increase the current $150 fee, but stop making us contribute to various transportation projects.

I personally don’t want to pay any more than the $150. I only drive 6k a year. The EV licensing fees in our “green” state of WA are insane.

 

[supergeek]

Just my 2c, but as a person that just moved from a place with home charging to somewhere without it, I loath free chargers. My local EA station in Cap Hill is absolutely packed 24/7 and most everyone I talk to are people using their 2 years of free charges most automakers are offering.

The electrical costs aren't that expensive compared to gas and making the chargers free encourages inefficient network use. I'd much rather be able to pay to reliably access chargers.

 

[Big Earl]

We are planning a trip to Silverwood theme park again this summer but the lack of supercharging from Portland metro area until Spokane is forcing us to use our other SUV. such a shame for Tesla only have 2 supercharging sites between the two location for the trip.

Check www.supercharge.info/map

There are a bunch Supercharger locations between Portland and Spokane:

1. Hood River, OR: 8 stalls at 250 kW
2. Hood River, OR - Anchor Way: 16 stalls at 250 kW
3. The Dalles, OR: 5 stalls at 150 kW
4. Boardman, OR: 8 stalls at 250 kW (open to all EVs)
5. Kennewick, WA: 8 stalls at 150 kW
6. Pasco, WA: 8 stalls at 250 kW
7. Ritzville, WA: 4 stalls at 150 kW
8. Sprague, WA: 8 stalls at 250 kW

Here are some trip plans using only V3 250 kW chargers. You can even some of the distances up by using V2 150 kW chargers, but overall trip time will be longer.

Two-stop trip plan for a long range car:

• Boardman is 164 miles from Portland
• Sprague is 139 miles from Boardman
• 50 miles to Spokane

Four-stop trip plan for a low range car:

• Hood River is 63 miles from Portland
• Boardman is 101 miles from Hood River
• Pasco is 56 miles from Boardman
• Sprague is 90 miles from Pasco
• 50 miles to Spokane

 

[MP3Mike]

$17k per port seems on the high side since most of them appear to be L2 EVSEs...

 

[PLUS EV]

$17k per port seems on the high side since most of them appear to be L2 EVSEs...

Nearly the same cost as a typical supercharger stall!

 

[supergeek]

Chargepoint charges about $7k for those 2 plug pedestals you see everywhere and $52k for their 62kw dc charger. Insanity prices compared to Tesla's level 2 and 3 costs. It's likely WA buys all chargepoint stuff. They've said it's 4,710 level 2 pedestals and 271 dc fast charging units. That's 33m in level 2 chargers and $14m in level 3 chargers. $47m in hardware alone leaves $7.6k per instal left over for all other installation costs. I have no idea what the construction costs are for conduit, cabling, permits, asphalt, concrete, labor, etc, but that sounds at least in the ballpark of a reasonable government job.

I know WA requires a "family living wage" for government funded work of $23/hr. I'm sure that increases the costs across the board for the lower skill labor involved in these installs.

 

[Bandwidth]

I personally don’t want to pay any more than the $150. I only drive 6k a year. The EV licensing fees in our “green” state of WA are insane.

That is my issue as well as I work from home and drove 3.5k miles last year. I am happy to pay my share of road taxes, and even pay in to help with infrastructure, but it should be in line with my own participation/use.