Austin Amestoy: Welcome to The Big Why, a series from Montana Public Radio where we find out what we can discover together. I'm your host, Austin Amestoy. This is a show about listener-powered reporting. We'll answer questions, big or small, about anything under the Big Sky. By Montanans, for Montana, this is The Big Why.
I’m here with reporter Aaron Bolton who’s going to talk about electric vehicle charging. Set the stage for us, Aaron.
Aaron Bolton Ann Lansing of Helena is a relatively new EV owner. When she bought her Audi a couple of years ago, she had heard there were billions of federal dollars for building out a charging network across the country
“But I don’t know where that stands in Montana right now," she says.
Aaron Bolton She imagined using the EV to hit the open road at a fraction of the cost using a massive charging network. But that’s not the case right now.
“In the summer, we would be fine going across [Interstate] 90, but if you want to head up to Glacier or the Hi-Line, it’s a little dicey.”
Austin Amestoy Yeah, I’ve seen a few Tesla superchargers pop up along I-90 over the last five-ish years. My apartment complex has a couple of chargers. But, I don’t drive an EV.
Aaron Bolton I’m not an EV driver either, and I wanted to know if other EV owners had noticed improvements in the charging network or if they’re also wondering where all that federal money for chargers went. So, I drove over to the closest charging station in Whitefish to ask.
There, I met Caroline Thompson who drove from the Washington D.C. area, nearly 2,400 miles. I asked how much planning went into her trip.
“Probably not as much as we should have planned. We’ve gotten pretty used to Tesla’s superchargers being readily available. We knew it would be a little trickier coming out to the middle of the country. But it’s been harder than we thought.”
Austin Amestoy Did she get stranded because she couldn’t make it to the next charger?
Aaron Bolton No, but she said there were some close calls. On the drive she pulled up to where she thought a charger would be but found out it wasn’t working. She also went to a charging location, but there wasn’t a charger there at all.
There are also different charging speeds. So sometimes, she had to stay overnight because the only charger she could find took hours, not 30 minutes like some fast chargers. On her road trip, she said she had the most difficulty in Montana. That was the case in Whitefish too.
“But we’re sitting here with a very, very slow charge. So we’re trying to figure out what our next steps are. Looks like we’ll try to charge during the nighttime while we’re sleeping and find a way back here. Maybe an Uber, maybe a bicycle, we’re not sure.”
Austin Amestoy That sounds inconvenient. What exactly does the charging network in Montana look like right now?
Aaron Bolton This is something I’ve been wondering myself, as my wife and I have been talking about getting an EV for our next car. Plugshare, which is an app that maps EV chargers, says it knows of roughly 170 charging locations statewide. Nearly 90 of those locations came online since 2022.
Austin Amestoy Does that make you want to run out and buy an EV?
Aaron Bolton Not really, because the appeal of an EV for us is to cheaply drive home to our families in Minnesota. Most of that drive is across Montana. When you dig into the state numbers a little more, you’ll see that less than a third of the chargers are considered fast. Most chargers are level two, meaning it would take hours to charge your car. That would turn a day and a half drive into two, maybe three days depending on how fast each charger is. So, it looks like we’re sticking with the gas car for now.
Austin Amestoy You said there are billions, with a "b", going toward building more charging stations. How many chargers are we talking here and where are they supposed to be going?
Aaron Bolton You may remember the big “bipartisan infrastructure bill” from a couple of years ago. That bill put up $7.5 billion for this work. A smaller chunk will go toward charging stations in towns and cities, but most will go along major travel corridors.
The idea is that money will build the backbone of a nationwide charging network. The plan is for chargers to be every 50 miles along interstates and major highways so people like Thompson wouldn’t have as many issues driving across the country.
Austin Amestoy So, I’m going to take a wild guess here and say that this funding hasn’t built any chargers yet given what we’ve heard from EV drivers.
Aaron Bolton Not in Montana. But there are some projects that have gotten off the ground elsewhere in the country. You may be thinking, this funding came out about three years ago, why aren’t we seeing chargers cropping up all over.
Nick Nigro with Atlas Public Policy says the bulk of this federal funding is going to state transportation agencies. Many haven’t ever built an EV charging station.
“They have to hire staff, they have to build capacity and these things take quite a long time in transportation land,” Nigro says.
Austin Amestoy So things move slowly in transportation land. But to our listener, Ann's question, where do things stand in Montana.
Aaron Bolton The state will receive $43 million to build out a charging network. Ben Murphy with the Montana Department of Transportation says the state has already mapped out the roadways that will eventually see a charger every 50 miles. They will all be fast chargers.
“I-90, I-94, U.S. 93 and I-15,” Murphy says.
Aaron Bolton He forgot to add Highway 2 in there as well.
Austin Amestoy You already said the state hasn’t built a charger yet with this federal money. When could we start to see chargers built?
Aaron Bolton This will come as a disappointment to people like Ann. There’s no hard deadline and it could be a couple of years before the first charging stations are up and running. For those along the highline or up in the Flathead where I’m at, I will be waiting longer. Murphy says the state will begin work along the interstates before moving to other highway systems.
Austin Amestoy So it looks like you won’t be shopping for an EV for a while?
Aaron Bolton Not anytime soon at least. As great as it sounds to get around town for cheaper, the charging network here in the Flathead and across the state needs to improve before it’s viable for us.
Austin Amestoy Aaron, thanks for your reporting.
Aaron Bolton No problem.
Austin Amestoy: Now we want to know what makes you curious about Montana — especially when it comes to this year’s election. Submit your questions below. Let's see what we can discover together!
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