an additional 100 car-charging stations in five cities: Washington, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.
Ford’s Tinskey says the U.S. automaker compiled its own list of the top 25 EV-ready cities in the hope that other U.S. cities would take notice and follow suit. Xconomy’s six cities-Boston, New York, Detroit, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle-all made the cut.
To create the list, Ford says it considered a multitude of factors, including, most crucially, how well local city and county governments worked together with electric utilities and EV manufacturers to integrate EVs into the urban transportation mix. Getting cities, utilities, and EV manufacturers into the same room , Tinskey says, “They can access most of the issues that come up in terms of getting a city EV ready. In California, it’s being done on more of a regional basis while in Washington it’s more of a state approach.”
“In the past, cities would say how charge-ready they are by just counting how many charging stations have been installed,” Tinskey said. “More recently, we’ve seen a lot of cities take more of an urban planning approach.”
Such planning might include regional and local incentives, such as allowing EVs to use high-occupancy vehicle lanes, preferred parking, and even tax incentives—all criteria that Ford considered for its list. Urban planning won’t necessarily determine how fast the EV adoption rate grows, but it could be a limiting factor as prospective EV buyers consider how easy it is to buy, drive, and charge their zero-emission vehicles.
Many little things must be addressed, Tinskey says. For example, he says a percentage of EV charging stations must be available for handicapped access under the Americans with Disabilities Act. So Ford also considered “streamlined permitting processes” as a factor in its selection. “When a customer buys a car, they don’t want to wait one-to-two weeks,” Tinskey says. “Many of these cities have addressed that and have actually gotten that period down to 48 hours or so.”
Ford also views utility rate structures that encourage users to charge their EVs during overnight off-peak hours as a critical incentive for consumers. Establishing such time-of-use rates, though, typically requires the approval of state regulators.
Atlanta, Tinskey says, has an off-peak charging rate of 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, “so you can get a full charge overnight for about a quarter. That’s the low-end bookmark, but it certainly shows that drivers in that region can benefit.”
Ford provided this map of its 25 most EV-ready cities:
