evVG Building Out the EV Charging Network

Current infrastructure

Gabe Klein , former executive director of the U.S. Joint Office of Energy & Transportation, emphasized that EV charging should fit seamlessly into daily life rather than require major behavior changes. As an EV owner since 2018, he noted he’s used DC fast chargers only about 20 times, mainly on road trips. While charger deployment is progressing, reliability remains a key issue as some systems have failed up to 35% of the time. EV chargers are categorized into three main types based on charging speed and power level: 1. Level 1 (120V) – Uses a standard household outlet; slowest charging, adds 2–5 miles of range per hour. Best for overnight home charging. 2. Level 2 (240V) – Requires a dedicated circuit; medium speed, adds 10–60 miles of range per hour. Common at homes and public stations. 3. DC Fast Charging (Level 3) – Uses high-voltage direct current; fastest charging, adds 60–100+ miles in 20 minutes. Found at commercial or highway locations.

than needed by 2030 and is optimistic that non-Tesla fast chargers are filling that gap. He believes home charger installation will need to rapidly increase, that infrastructure and utilities will need to keep up, and ultimately, “collaboration across the utilities, the automakers and charging providers will be key to solving” these complexities. His presentation concluded with technical informa- tion about vehicle charging curves. He demonstrated that vehicles cannot maintain maximum charging rates throughout a session, with power declining as batteries fill. This has implications for site infra - structure planning. For example, ten 350kW chargers don’t necessarily require 3,500kW of capacity. His modeling revealed that anything beyond 150kW chargers may not significantly improve user experi - ence or impact upstream distribution infrastructure with current vehicle technology, though he says, “As new vehicle models come out with higher charging capacities over a longer state of charge, this is going to change.”

overbuilding. Due to rapid growth with EVs and data centers, utilities and regulators are now at odds - weighing growth versus building and costs. Bringing it back to a supply and demand equation for charge point operators and customers, he noted that operator’s revenue is tied to charger utilization, but demand charges, a significant operating cost, remain fixed regardless of utilization levels. This disconnect between revenue and costs becomes more pronounced with higher-powered chargers: “The bottom line for revenue is utilization of your chargers and achieving a high enough utilization that you earn enough revenue but not such a high utilization that folks are queuing up and having a bad experience. And so, revenue is almost linearly tied to utilization, but costs are not.” Fitzgerald also shared global data showing the U.S. lags behind many countries in EV adoption and charging infrastructure. While the U.S. is on track with building DC fast charging ports based on current projections, he disagreed with forecasts suggesting the country will have more fast chargers