“ I think we put so much pressure on DC fast chargers. Some rightfully so. Some maybe we’ve over indexed. And I will admit at the federal level, we didn’t put enough emphasis on low-speed public charging, city streets, municipal garages, so on and so forth. We need a balanced system. Gabe Klein , Former Executive Director, U.S. Joint Office of Energy & Transportation
To address this, the government’s ChargeX Consortium which includes Ford, GM, and over 100 companies, was formed to boost reliability, with new hardware now aiming for 97% uptime. Klein added that public perception has been shaped by both real concerns and unfamiliarity with EV use. Since only 2% of U.S. trips exceed 50 miles and 52% are under 3 miles, most charging will happen at home or work. He cited Norway’s EV success despite fewer chargers per vehicle than in the U.S. and said up to 95% of U.S. charging will rely on Level 1 and 2 stations in public. Klein also thinks the U.S. has under-invested in Level 2 public charging, unlike Europe, where curbside and streetlight charging is
utility to ensure equitable access and concluded, “unfortunately, EVs have been politicized. I think that’s changing. Maybe we can thank Elon Musk for that, sort of balancing that a bit.” Francisco Pineda , COO and EVP for business and operations at The New School, shared his experience from his time overseeing real estate for New York City, where even with federal and state incentives, projects were slowed by stakeholder complexity, lack of technical expertise, and local resistance. He described a shift to outsourcing EV charger deployment to third parties to overcome operational challenges.
common. Since cars are parked 95% of the time, he said slower charging is sufficient if it’s accessible. Fitzgerald echoed that existing electrical infrastruc- ture already reaches most parking areas and just needs to be tapped. Fitzgerald agreed with Klein, noting that home and workplace charging is far more cost-effective, up to 10 times cheaper than public fast charging. Still, he raised equity concerns for those in multi-unit dwellings who depend on public infrastructure and face higher costs. Klein also noted that EV infrastructure rollout has varied by state, with some lagging due to political resistance. He advocated viewing EV charging as a
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