When you need to fuel up a traditional, gas-powered car, you likely don’t have trouble finding a place to do so in Hampton Roads.
“There's a gas station every block, right?” said Jennifer Privette, sustainability manager for the city of Newport News. But “that infrastructure for EVs is just not there yet. And so that is the number one concern people have.”
That concern, called charging anxiety, is what Privette hears most from people hesitant to buy an electric car.
Newport News and other Hampton Roads localities are figuring out how best to step in and ease this anxiety as EV ownership becomes more widespread.
Leaders around the region said they’re seeing growing interest in electric cars – but more infrastructure is needed to support them.
More than 61,000 battery-electric vehicles were registered in Virginia as of late 2022, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation. That’s only about 2% of total car registrations, but double what it was the year before, and is projected to jump to about 12% by the end of the decade.
These registrations are currently concentrated in urban areas, including Hampton Roads.
Privette said local leaders want to incentivize people to buy electric cars because shifting from gas-powered to electric cars is key to cutting climate pollution. Plus, they’re cheaper to power long-term.
“That's the way of the future,” she said. “So we are preparing for that.”
What is EV infrastructure and who’s responsible for it?
Electric vehicles run on rechargeable batteries instead of gasoline. That means they need electricity as a power source, and chargers are the key connection point.
But not all chargers are created equal. There are three types available, said Megan Hale, Norfolk’s environmental sustainability manager.
Level 1 charging is “like a slow trickle charge,” she said. People can use a regular outlet at home, and it can take up to 24 hours to fully charge the car’s battery this way.
Level 2 chargers are what you’ll most commonly see at people’s homes and businesses. Fully charging a battery can take six to eight hours, with each hour of charging adding a range of about 20 to 30 miles.
Level 3 chargers are the fastest, allowing drivers to fully power their car in under an hour, or about 20 miles of range per minute. These are the closest to a gas station-style fillup.
Most local governments say they want to build more EV infrastructure. But they face a “chicken or the egg” problem: Do you invest in more infrastructure before most people buy EVs? Or do you wait to spend money after more electric cars are on the road?
It has to be the former in order for people to feel comfortable with the purchase, said Alleyn Harned, executive director of the nonprofit Virginia Clean Cities.
“There does need to be EV infrastructure two years in advance of the marketplace,” Harned said.
Unlike infrastructure for gas-powered cars, EV chargers don’t all have to be public. At this point, most EV infrastructure in Virginia Beach has been installed privately at people’s homes or businesses like hotels at the Oceanfront, said LJ Hansen, the city’s public works director.
“All of those things are important to the overall infrastructure,” he said. “But there's an element that probably needs to be addressed by government of some level. And so the city of Virginia Beach is really wanting to engage and figure out where our role is in that.”
Virginia Beach is perhaps the furthest along in EV planning in the region. Last year, the City Council approved a Community Charging Plan that includes directly installing more public chargers – and backup generators for when the electric grid fails – at sites like the Virginia Aquarium, city parking garages, libraries and the Virginia Beach Sports Center.
The city expects requests for public curbside charging to increase significantly due to the high number of rental properties and residents without driveways or garages. City officials said taking action now will help avoid headaches in the future.
The plan also recommends updating city zoning rules to make it easier for people and businesses to install their own chargers.
Last month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Virginia would no longer follow new “Clean Car” standards that kicked in earlier this year.Those standards were passed by state lawmakers in 2021 and meant to slowly phase out new gas vehicles entering the state.
Hansen said the governor’s move doesn’t change what the city needs to do or where the private market is headed.
“I think we just recognize that maybe we got a little bit extra time to get there,” he said.
He likens the current EV situation to the early days of cell phones.
“The infrastructure wasn't quite developed, the costs were still high,” he said. “But now, I can't imagine a world without cell phones.”
Boosting access around Hampton Roads
Norfolk is now following the Beach’s lead, working with a consultant to develop its own path forward. The city recently surveyed residents for their thoughts on the issue.
Hale said a major consideration is how to make sure EV access is equitable.
“We could say, ‘here are the zip codes that have the most electric vehicle ownership – we'll just put chargers there, because that makes the most sense,’’ she said. “But thinking about things on a grander scale, if we want to allow more access to electric vehicles, we need to have better access to the charging infrastructure.”
People who live in apartment buildings or homes without private parking may have a harder time charging at home. Hale said chargers could be targeted in those areas.
Local governments also have to make sure they’re installing chargers in areas with enough electricity to support them. Dominion Energy works with local officials to identify spots where the grid has capacity, said spokesperson Cherise Newsome.
The utility doesn’t install its own chargers but offers a residential program that allows customers to get one by paying either upfront or $40 per month for five years.
In Chesapeake, the city is largely letting the private market take the lead on EV infrastructure, said planning director Jimmy McNamara.
He said the city has not heard much demand from residents right now, “but we do know that it’s on the minds of folks in the future.”
While the city isn’t directly installing chargers, it still has to manage those that are.
“I think like most localities, it's something that's starting to make its way into the market,” McNamara said. “And we are dealing with that from a zoning perspective and a land use perspective and how and where these types of infrastructure facilities are appropriate.”
Related policies will likely be part of the city’s upcoming overhaul to its Comprehensive Plan, he said.
Many Hampton Roads localities, including Williamsburg, York and Gloucester, told WHRO they want to install more chargers, but need grant funding to do so.
Regionwide, the biggest opportunity may come through a federal grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to which the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission recently applied. (The state also applied separately.)
The group, which represents 17 cities and counties, proposed building a regional EV charging system.
“The purpose of it is to create a network so that you can go all the way from James City County down to North Carolina, and you would have a network of EV chargers where you could eliminate the fear of not being able to fuel your vehicle,” Privette said.
Without such federal help, it will take local governments longer to do this work, Privette said – and it will be less cohesive.
Fast-charging on state highways
There are also efforts underway to boost access to EV chargers statewide.
VDOT plans to distribute more than $100 million over the next four years for chargers placed strategically along state highways. It’s funded by a federal program established through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law a few years ago.
The goal is to develop what are called alternative fuel corridors – routes where EV drivers can rely on access to charging infrastructure, said Erin Belt, VDOT's decarbonization program manager.
The state hopes to close existing gaps on designated alternative fuel corridors in Virginia including interstates 64, 95, 295, 77, 81 and 85.
The chargers are required to be placed no more than a mile from these highways and a large portion must help rural and low-income communities.
VDOT has allocated $11 million for the first phase of the project, which will include 18 Level 3 fast-charging stations across the state, including one in the South Norfolk area of Chesapeake. Each station will have at least four ports.
“We’re trying to solve that chicken and egg scenario,” Belt said.
