New Mexico Chooses Recipients And Areas For Infrastructure Invoice Charging Stations

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The infrastructure invoice that offered billions for EV charging stations wasn’t a easy factor. On the floor, spending large cash and getting stations each 50 miles alongside the interstate highways sounded simple, however nothing’s simple in authorities. Like federal freeway funding, the cash went from the federal authorities to state departments of transportation. Every state needed to provide you with its personal plan, and every state then wanted to place out a request for bids. Some states moved alongside rapidly, and the primary stations are already up and operating. Different states moved extra slowly, solely now getting cash into contractors’ arms.

New Mexico is without doubt one of the slower ones (however not the slowest). For the primary spherical of funding, NMDOT acquired 17 purposes, and ended up awarding $11.9 million to 6 firms to construct the primary 20 places. In whole, this may lead to 84 new EV chargers throughout the state. Precise addresses haven’t been launched, however the cities have been introduced.

“With the assistance of USDOT, the concepts supported by these awards represent a leap ahead in attaining a low-carbon future and help in constructing a complete charging infrastructure community that can open New Mexico’s electrical drivability,” mentioned Ricky Serna, NMDOT Cupboard Secretary.

Areas

The primary station on the checklist shall be in Las Cruces. That is necessary not solely as a result of I stay in Las Cruces, however as a result of Las Cruces is the place Interstates 10 and 25 meet. There are presently two charging stations at sellers and one Tesla Supercharger, however having an extra CCS station will add that rather more capability alongside a busy hall. That station shall be constructed by EV Gateway.

Francis Power received the bid for extra stations alongside I-25 in Reality or Penalties, Los Lunas, Socorro, and Raton. Like Las Cruces, Socorro and T or C have already got Tesla Superchargers and a few restricted CCS and CHAdeMO choices. However, getting a stable financial institution of 4 150 kW chargers at these two cities will relieve lots of stress on the hall. The one query is whether or not these new stations can have higher {hardware} than the corporate’s present stations, which haven’t been terribly dependable in New Mexico.

Pilot truck stops acquired one other two bids in Jamestown and Moriarty. Jamestown is a bit refinery city alongside I-40 between Gallup and Grants. There’s a Flying J truck cease there, and it seems to have already been a part of GM and Pilot’s plans to construct out Ultium stations. However, now the businesses are getting funding from NEVI, which most likely means extra stalls. This one may find yourself being constructed pretty rapidly. The story is just about the identical for one more truck cease in Moriarty.

Purple E Charging, LLC, an organization I’ve by no means heard of earlier than, received bids for stations in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Grants, Maxwell, and Bernalillo. This one was a bit complicated, as a result of Santa Fe and Albuquerque have already got NEVI-compliant stations in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, so there’s one thing totally different afoot with New Mexico’s plan now. Taking a look at the corporate’s web site, it already has charging stations in a lot of states, so it’s not some new fly-by-night operation.

Deming goes to get a brand new charging station constructed by SkyCharger, one other firm I haven’t written about earlier than. I’m undecided whether or not the corporate has accomplished different chargers, however I do see that it’s based mostly out of Nashville, Tennessee and is an element of a bigger renewable funding firm.

Lastly, however positively not least, was Tesla. As in a lot of different states, Tesla took an enormous chunk of the NEVI cash. It received bids for places in Lordsburg, Encino, Gallup, Wagon Mound, Las Vegas, Santa Rosa, and Tucumcari. Lordsburg has different charging (one Electrify America station and one below building Pilot/GM station), however no Superchargers but.

There are a few issues which are a bit bizarre about Tesla’s win right here. Encino isn’t on an interstate, so we’re already seeing non-interstate station in New Mexico’s preliminary award that was purported to primarily be for these. A number of of the opposite stations are on the checklist are in locations the place Electrify America already has NEVI-compliant stations, but in addition have already got Superchargers. So, we’re most likely going to see a number of of those simply placed on Magic Dock plugs (CCS and NACS through a captive adapter).

Both method, it is a large win for Tesla, as a result of the corporate goes to get that NEVI funding and received’t have to construct new stations for it. This implies Tesla can have extra money for different charging stations which are badly wanted. It’s additionally nice for EV drivers as a result of Electrify America’s stations have been fairly terrible.

NMDOT says further phases of funding shall be accessible within the Spring, which implies that the method might be shifting alongside extra rapidly now. As an alternative of getting years to attend for these subsequent phases, the state is shifting alongside at a quicker clip.

What This Will Do General For EV Drivers

At this level, there’s actually no new corridors being opened, for Tesla or for different EVs. This can be a little disappointing in some methods, as a result of there are nonetheless some fairly large useless zones within the state. However, we now have to needless to say the primary part of the NEVI program is meant to give attention to interstate highways.

However, a pleasing shock was to see that NMDOT is working with Tesla to develop capability even in locations the place there are already NEVI-compliant charging stations. Let’s face it: the EA stations have been fairly problematic for drivers, even when they aren’t as dangerous as they’re in additional busy locations like California. So, having open entry to different choices in these cities shall be nice. Plus, if both station is crowded, having extra stations will imply much less of a wait time.

The one actually unusual factor about the entire announcement was that the Tesla station in Encino goes to be alongside US-60 as a substitute of an interstate. This could possibly be a superb signal that New Mexico is shifting previous 12 months one, and Tesla’s Magic Dock financial savings most likely moved the state alongside.

Featured picture by Jennifer Sensiba.