EV Charging Prices Are Going to Go Way Up
It’s standard economics — a product’s price usually rises to the level of its closest rival
In his confirmation hearing yesterday, Pete Buttigieg, the nominee to be transportation secretary, reiterated a promise that President Joe Biden made again and again on the campaign trail: The administration will seek funding to build a half-million electric vehicle (EV) chargers by 2030.
But if forecasts for EV demand are borne out, the U.S. will need a lot more charging points. In a report earlier this month, McKinsey puts the required number at five to nine million by 2025 and double or triple those figures by 2030. To get there, private industry is probably going to have to build most of them, and to justify the capital expense, it is going to have to see a reasonably steep upside.
If you go by economic history, here is one probable scenario: In the middle-late part of the decade, as EVs are selling at much a higher clip because they have become much cheaper, fast-charging stations will begin to price their power at the equivalent of gasoline. That is, it will cost you roughly the same whether you are “filling up” your EV or your gasoline-driven vehicle. To put hard numbers to this thesis, if you have a 20-gallon tank, you are currently paying an average of $50 for a…
