DALLAS — At Friendly Chevrolet, a dealership off I-35E by Dallas Love Field, yellow tape and orange cones block off a section of the parking lot.
The space is being set aside for a first of its kind EV HQ Charging Hub that will provide eight high-speed chargers for all makes and models of electric vehicles. Friendly plans to install DC 120 kilowatt ultra-fast chargers that provide a full charge in 35 to 45 minutes compared with the standard eight- to 24-hour charge time of others on the market.
“What we are doing here at Friendly is we are going to try and become a real hub of not only electric vehicle sales but also of electric vehicle fueling, electric vehicle information and electric vehicle customer assistance,” said owner and operator Mark Eddins.
The hub will provide not only charging stations but also overhead canopies, a full-time attendant to answer electric vehicle questions, an off-leash dog park and a “Corvette Cafe.” Customers who bought EVs from Friendly will receive discounted charging, while others will pay based on Dallas-Fort Worth’s average electric rate, currently a little above 14 cents a kilowatt hour. With the ultra-fast chargers being installed, it would cost just over $3 to fully charge at the hub.
Friendly’s plan is an example of how businesses are preparing for a wave of new EV sales and an infusion of federal money to Texas and other states to build out charging networks.
“We feel like we are addressing a really vital need that consumers may have once they find out about what we [can provide],” Eddins said. “It’s going to be quite universal in the addressing of the EV culture.”
North Texas drivers are starting to embrace EVs.
Dallas County drivers have registered 14,066 electric vehicles as of June 21, the majority of which are car models 2020 or newer, and Dallas-Fort Worth accounts for just over 35% of all electric vehicles operating in the state.
Sales of EVs, both fully electric and plug-in hybrid models, have doubled nationally since 2021, according to the annual report from Global Electric Vehicle Outlook.
Friendly has seen those sales, particularly among Dallas young people, Eddins said. Friendly sells the 2022 Bolt EV, the 2022 Bolt EUV LT and the 2022 Bolt EUV Premier, and it’s taking reservations for the new Silverado EV pickup that will combine a 400-mile charging range with 10,000 cubic pounds of towing.
“I would say the majority of the interest we have is for someone that’s under 35. ... The people that are younger are more in tune with the green movement and the value of electric versus fossil fuels,” he said.
Eddins’ lived experience mirrors state trends.
Younger drivers
More than half of Texas voters younger than 45 say they have purchased or would consider buying an electric vehicle as their next car, according to a report from Texas 2036, a nonprofit public policy think tank founded by Dallas attorney Tom Luce.
“Our data shows that young Texas voters have a strong interest in electric vehicles and that up-and-coming drivers are more likely to buy them than their parents or grandparents,” said senior policy adviser Rob Orr in the report. “As electric vehicle adoption rates by consumers and industry grow through natural market forces, this is a rare opportunity where we can plan our infrastructure in a future-focused manner to address an issue before it becomes a problem.”
The Texas Department of Transportation closed public comments last week on an electric vehicle infrastructure plan that must be submitted to the federal government by Aug. 1. The TxDOT plan is part of a larger initiative by the Biden administration to develop an electric charging network across the country, making electric vehicles more accessible to a wider range of Americans.
The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program was announced as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in November 2021, and states have spent the past seven months writing plans for how they will use the money. The program will dole out $5 billion to states over the next five years.
Texas will receive more than $60 million in the 2022 fiscal year and a total of $407.8 million by 2026.
According to a draft plan, Texas will spend the money to make sure that interstate highways are “corridor ready,” a classification requiring charging stations to be no more than 50 miles apart on interstate roads. Charging stations also can’t be more than a mile from interstate exits or highway intersections along the corridor and must include four ports, 600 kilowatts of charging capacity and ports providing a max charge of 150 kilowatts.
TxDOT will focus its efforts on the 3,400 miles of interstate highways first. Another $2.5 billion will be available through competitive grants for communities and urban areas, with details to come from the Biden administration by the end of the year.
Establishing a charging network addresses the “range anxiety” fears that Eddins said tops potential electric car buyers’ concerns. That’s the stress EV drivers feel when they don’t know if there will be a charging station on their route or whether they’ll be stranded in an electric dead zone.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas estimates there will be 1 million electric vehicles on Texas roads by 2028, a huge increase over the 131,668 EVs in the state today.
Part of what’s driving up EV interest is the spike in gasoline prices.
In March 2022, the average electricity cost for residential use in Texas was 12.42 cents a kilowatt hour, meaning an EV owner could completely charge up for around $3.
Using a fuel economy calculator, it’s easy to compare the cost-per-mile of driving a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle with an electric model, both of which are being sold at Friendly.
A six-cylinder 2020 Chevy Impala, for example, costs an average of 23 cents a mile to drive at current gas prices. It would cost $5.70 to drive 25 miles and $3,416 to drive the average annual mileage of 15,000 miles.
A fully electric 2020 Chevy Bolt EV costs an average of 4 cents a mile, totaling only 92 cents to drive 25 miles and $559 to drive 15,000 miles in a year.
Just three years ago, these two cars were nearly identical in driving costs.
Lori Clark, coordinator of Dallas-Fort Worth Clean Cities, said North Texas is already electric vehicle-friendly and the new infrastructure will build on the existing culture.
“With all of the new investment coming out of the infrastructure law, there’s going to be a big push for a lot of additional infrastructure and that’s happening right at the same time as we see electric vehicles increase,” Clark said.
DFW Clean Cities was an initiative born from the North Central Texas Council of Governments in 1994 that still works to reduce carbon emissions and make the air cleaner in North Texas. Over the years, it has pursued alternative fuel vehicle options and promoted EV use.
“Promoting alternative fuel vehicles was one of the strategies that could help us work toward attaining our air quality goals,” Clark said.
The initiative’s efforts have had far-reaching effects.
The Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance reports that the “electric transportation sector specifically employed 7,000 workers in more than 1,200 companies across the state in 2019.”
That number is expected to rise to over 13,000 workers by 2024 across 5,000 companies. The alliance estimates that in the next two years, more than 400,000 Texans in multiple industries could directly benefit from growth in the electric transportation sector.
“I think the Texas independence fits really well with electric vehicles, and the electricity consumed in Texas is primarily made in the state of Texas,” Clark said. “If we think about the concept of buying local and apply it to this type of industry, there’s a lot to be said for Texas pride.”
The Chevy charging hub is just one example of how the private sector is getting involved in EV charging.
The Biden administration estimates there is “more than $700 million in private sector commitments to make electric vehicle charging more affordable and accessible.”
Adding providers
Showcasing that commitment is Volta, an ad-driven electric vehicle charging provider. It operates 208 charging stations in Dallas-Fort Worth and is the third-largest charging provider in Texas, behind ChargePoint and Blink.
The company is growing on two fronts. Its Volta Media Network allows companies to buy advertising space on charger screens placed in dense, urban areas like grocery stores or movie theaters. Ads allow the Volta chargers to be free for public use.
“In the Dallas area alone, we have big partnerships with Cinemark, Brookfield, Kohl’s and Albertsons,” said Kevin Samy, sustainability and climate policy lead at Volta. “These are all big anchor points of the community, from commerce to driving activity and traffic patterns in the neighborhoods and school (districts) and communities they exist in.”
Volta’s business model of combining advertising with charging means it can front the costs of putting charging stations in locations where there are fewer electric vehicles, particularly in low-income neighborhoods. Its large screens are prime real estate in front of grocery stores and retailers, letting advertisers reach all customers, not just the ones driving EVs.
Volta also offers free advertising to state departments of transportation to help educate the public about electric infrastructure and alternative fuel vehicles. The company places chargers based on its software PredictEV, a machine learning intelligence platform that allows cities, states and utilities to map where EVs are tapping into the electric grid the most so that charging stations can be located where there is scarcity.
“The best version of a policy is not one that picks winners but one that incentivizes innovation,” Samy said. “The goal is to ensure that there is accessible, equitable and effective charging infrastructure.”
