New EV charging stations are coming to Washington State. 

Full disclosure, yes, I drive an electric car. I love my car. Although I find it difficult to make long trips occasionally. Because of a lack of charging stations on my routes. For instance. There are no charging stations on the most efficient route for me to go visit my son in Clarkston, WA. If I need to get a charge on my way there, I must detour through Ritzville. So, when I heard the announcement that Washington State was adding 560 new charging sites. Totaling over 5000 stations across the state. I got excited. 

According to kouw.com, Washington Governor Jay Insley said,
"We are making such huge progress building a clean transportation system in the state of Washington, one that gets people clean, reliable, reasonably priced transportation and fights climate change, and we are rocking it,"

Then I read the details. Now, not so excited. 

The goal is to create more infrastructure for electric cars so that they become viable for more consumers. But we have a problem, (or at least I think so.) In the way these stations and sites are distributed around the state. 

this latest round of for EV charging stations. comes from the Climate Commitment Act’s carbon auctions.   According to Department of Commerce Director Mike Fong, “half of the EV projects are funded for low-income communities, and areas that face greater environmental health risks.” This is a good thing.

But here's my issue. If you look at the map below, you will see that a small percentage of charging stations will be in Eastern Washington. What are the criteria for deciding where these charging stations go? 

The last time I drove to Seattle by way of Snoqualmie pass the one DC charging station I could use was broken. 

Wenatchee gets a couple of new charging stations. Yakima gets a few. Spokane gets quite a few. Omak and Okanogan will see some chargers and there are a few others but what about the I-90 corridor? Tesla has established charging stations on the I-90 corridor, but I can't use those. What about every other EV driver that does not drive a Tesla?

Check out the map below. And click the link for more details. 

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/b0800b33f98b4335b09615c2a338eacf/ 

According to kouw.com,
“Breaking down the EV stations: 

• The charging stations will be installed at 560 sites across the state 
• 4,710 will be Level 2 chargers (with 5,362 plugs between them) 
• 271 direct current, fast chargers (with 420 plugs between them) 

 Stations will be located at: 

• 213 multifamily sites 

• 211 workplaces, government agencies, and school districts 
• 141 public locations (libraries, grocery stores, community centers)” 

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited that Washington State is investing in our electric future. I'm glad that they will be installing level 2 charging stations in or near apartment buildings. I just wish they were spending some of that money to make it easier to travel more than 200 miles in a day in Eastern Washington. 

If you want to find out more about driving electric in eastern Washington, check out, www.pluginncw.com