Examining EV Charging Infrastructure Issues

Electric vehicles (EVs) run on batteries that require periodic charging. A charging infrastructure is required to provide this power. I talked with Jeff Postelwait, Managing Editor at tdworld.com, and Janelle Penny, Editor in Chief at buildings.com, about some of the issues associated with building out the EV charging infrastructure. 

You can check out some Electronic Design articles below about EV charging, including wireless-charging technologies. There's a good article about What building owners need to know about EV charging on buildings.com and How Will the Grid Adjust to EV Charging? on tdworld.com.

In general, the deployment and maintenance of a national EV charging system is almost more challenging than the technology behind EVs and their batteries. Cutting-edge technology is being used for EVs and battery-management systems, including the adoption of solid-state batteries that enable 80% charging in under 10 minutes.

The trick is that newer vehicles need a fast DC charging system like Level 3 systems that push out 50 to 350 kW. Tesla's newer Supercharger systems fall into this category along with networks from Greenlots, EVgo, and ChargePoint. 

Significant deployment challenges arise when trying to fit EV charging into an existing infrastructure such as a business or apartment building. The existing electrical infrastructure is often built to accommodate only the building's needs. Adding a charging infrastructure can significantly increase these requirements, especially if multiple chargers are deployed. The same holds true for houses, but the incremental increase is usually for one or two charging stations, not half a dozen or more for a commercial property. 

The grid is also a consideration—supplying multiple buildings in a region will tax that part of the infrastructure. How this blends with other options such as solar and other green-energy solutions only complicates matters.