Nationwide EV charging network gains new alternative fuel corridors

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on Tuesday released a memorandum announcing the 2022/Round 6 Designated Alternative Fuel Corridors, which will help build out the backbone of the national electric vehicle (EV) charging network. 

The newly designated corridors will provide additional connections to highways designated in the previous five rounds of nominations to better complete nationwide coverage of alternative fuels, the FHWA said July 5.

“Whether you drive an electric sedan or an electric pickup truck, or any other EV that saves you money at the pump, you need to be able to count on finding chargers along the road as easily as a gas station,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who added that the latest round of corridor designations “will accelerate deployment of an EV charging network that covers every part of our country.”

With the FHWA announcement, Alternative Fuel Corridor designations are now found in all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The designations now cover 190,000 of the 222,000 miles of the National Highway System, according to FHWA. 

And coupled with funding from President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Law and the private-sector investment spurred by the law, the corridors will hasten the availability of EV charging stations near national highways across the country, the U.S. Department of Transportation agency said.

“These Alternative Fuel Corridor designations will bring EV charging stations to more locations nationwide,” said Deputy Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack. “Having a national EV charging network is key to our transition to electric and alternative fuel vehicles, which in turn will save drivers money and reduce emissions that worsen climate change.”

The new designations come at a critical juncture, according to the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), which represents the nation’s investor-owned utilities. EEI says an ample charging infrastructure is needed to support the coming wave of EV sales.

In fact, according to a June update to its Electric Vehicle Sales and the Charging Infrastructure Required Through 2030 report, EEI concluded that the number of EVs on U.S. roads is projected to reach 26.4 million in 2030, up from the projected 18.7 million as projected in the organization’s 2018 report.

Nearly 12.9 million charge ports will be needed to support those EVs, according to EEI, with roughly 140,000 Direct Current (DC) fast-charging ports also needed to support that level of EVs in 2030.

The EEI report also highlights the ongoing work of the National Electric Highway Coalition (NEHC), formed in December 2021 and comprised of more than 60 investor-owned electric companies, public power utilities and electric cooperatives organized around deploying EV fast-charging infrastructure to support the growing number of EVs. To date, NEHC members have committed to supporting the deployment of more than 4,500 DC fast-charging ports.

The newly announced sixth round of designated Alternative Fuel Corridors adds more new miles of corridors than any other round since the initiation of the program in 2016, according to the FHWA, which says there are a total of approximately 250 new designations nationwide based on nominations by state and local officials. 

Highways were evaluated on predetermined criteria as outlined in the Feb. 10 Request for Nominations Memorandum. Nominations were due to the FHWA on May 13. They were considered “corridor-ready” if they currently contain a sufficient number of alternative fueling facilities, or “corridor-pending” if not, FHWA said.

Specifically, the 2022/Round 6 designations include 177 EV corridor-pending and six EV corridor-ready highways. The six corridor-ready designated highways are in Florida, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Other alternative fuel corridor nominations resulted in the designation of nine Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), nine Liquid Natural Gas, 11 propane, and 30 hydrogen corridor-pending corridors, along with the designation of three CNG and four propane corridor-ready highways.