Public EV charging, legislation & resources.
Lawmakers in Maryland and around the country are considering legislation that could affect electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. Bills under consideration include EV tax credits, anti-ICEing laws, “Right to Charge” and “EV Ready” ordinances. We are recording many of those bills as they are introduced and following their progress below.
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What a mess. I pulled into a spot near an EVgo charging station at my local Trader Joe’s this morning. Trash was strewn everywhere. Fast food wrappers, plastic sauce containers, a paper bag and napkins. Did someone have a late night party here?
I hopped out of the car for a closer inspection. That’s when I saw it. A big pile of crap laying naked on the pavement. Right next to ERDEM, the anthropomorphic name that EVgo has given to the CCS/CHAdeMO charger. I didn’t come today to charge, I came to pick up a few items at TJ’s that I didn’t get at the MOM’s Organic Market that I had just come from.
I turned away from the poop and hurried toward the store lest I catch a downwind whiff. As I circulated the store to find my groceries, thoughts gnawed at me. What if an unsuspecting EV driver, eager to get a quick charge, hops out of their car and plants a foot squarely into that squishy pile?
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A new Fast Charger site opened last week in Abingdon, Maryland at the Walmart at 401 Constant Friendship Blvd which is just off Exit 77 of I-95 five miles south of Maryland House Travel Plaza.
The Electrify America site is the second one in Maryland. The other is at a Walmart in Hagerstown. This site has eight stalls.
The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) released its Volkswagen Mitigation Plan yesterday (PDF). The plan details spending of $75.7 million that the state is eligible to receive under a settlement agreement with Volkswagen.
A draft plan for the VW settlement money was released by MDE on August 1, 2018. Public comments were solicited for the next 30 days and two listening sessions were held including one at MDE headquarters in Baltimore on August 20, 2018. Feedback received during the 30 day public comment period is said to be incorporated into this version.
The Plan will now be submitted to the Trustee overseeing the Volkswagen Mitigation Settlement funds.
The Settlement Agreement limits the amount of funds that can be used for Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure investment to 15% of the total funds allocated to the state. Maryland plans to use the allowed maximum, or about $11.3 million, to deploy EV charging infrastructure.
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Here is a list of bills in the Maryland legislature that we are watching as of 2/21/19.
SB 70 – Vehicle Laws – HOV Lanes – Plug-In Electric Drive and Hybrid Vehicles
SB 78 – Plug-In Electric Drive Vehicle Excise Tax Credit – Sunset – Repeal
SB 168 / HB 151 – Clean Cars Act of 2019
SB 316 – Vehicle Laws – Plug-In Electric Drive Vehicles – Reserved Parking Spaces
SB 822 – Real Property – Installation and Use of Electric Vehicle Recharging Equipment
SB 987 – Public Safety – Building Codes – Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure
SB 998 – Public Service Commission – Electric Vehicle Infrastructure – Prior Authorization
HB 72 – Extension of Electric Vehicle Incentives Act
HB 826 – Electric Vehicle Recharging Equipment for Multi–Family Units Act
HB 1180 – Maryland Energy Administration – Plug-In Electric Drive Vehicle Rebate Program
HB 1246 – Plug–In Electric Drive Vehicle Excise Tax Credit
HB 1255 – School Bus Purchasing – Zero-Emission Vehicle – Requirement
HB 1331 – Public Utilities – Electric Vehicle Charging Station Infrastructure – Task Force
Follow the latest developments at the PlugInSites Electric Vehicle Legislation Tracker.
Electrify America tonight announced that the company is voluntarily shutting down the majority of their fast chargers at the recommendation of a supplier of high-powered charging cables used in their equipment. The company said that the 150 kW – 350 kW chargers that are equipped with HUBER+SUHNER supplied liquid-cooled cables are being disabled while a potential safety issue is investigated.
Giovanni Palazzo, president and CEO of Electrify America said, “The safety of our customers is our highest priority. Out of an abundance of caution, Electrify America is shutting down all of our stations that use the HUBER+SUHNER high-powered cables until we can confirm that they can be operated safely. We are confident that HUBER+SUHNER will investigate and resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”
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Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has requested the Clean Cars Act of 2019 which proposes to increase the annual funding and expand the electric vehicle excise tax credit for electric vehicles to include the purchase of fuel cell electric vehicles. Funding would increase from $3,000,000 to $6,000,000 through fiscal year 2020.
As part of the proposal, Governor Hogan wants to alter the role and reconfigure the membership of the Maryland Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Council (EVIC) to additionally promote fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The EVIC, created by legislation in 2011, is tasked with helping to increase the number of plug-in electric vehicles registered in the state and to increase the size of the publicly available EV charging network in order to help the state reach its clean air and greenhouse gas reduction goals.
The Clean Cars Act of 2019 (SB168 & HB151) would rename the EVIC to the Maryland Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Council. Three new members would be appointed by the Governor including representatives of manufacturers of fuel cell electric vehicle infrastructure equipment, manufacturers of fuel cell electric vehicles and a representative of the business community in the state.
Two current members would be removed, the representative of the Baltimore Electric Vehicle Initiative (BEVI) and one of the two representatives of electric companies. Pepco and BGE are both currently on the Council.
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Relief may finally be coming for Maryland Electric Vehicle drivers who missed out on the State Tax Rebate program when funding ran out before the end of fiscal year 2017 which ended on 6/30/2017.
A bill sponsored by Maryland Delegate Marc Korman, who represents District 16 in Montgomery County, proposes to retroactively give rebates to individuals who purchased a plug in electric vehicle in fiscal year 2017 but did not receive a state rebate after the program ran out of funds.
Maryland HB 72, the Extension of Electric Vehicle Incentives Act, would also provide rebates to certain individuals who did not receive a qualified rebate under the Fiscal Year 2017 Electric Vehicle Recharging Equipment Rebate Program after that program also ran out of funds.
Delegate Korman’s bill would authorize an applicant to receive a refund of excise tax imposed for a qualified plug–in electric vehicle if the vehicle was purchased new and titled for the first time on or after July 1, 2016, but before July 1, 2017 if the applicant is the vehicle’s original owner and owns the vehicle when applying for the tax credit. Read More …
EV drivers have waited years for DC Fast Chargers to be installed farther west along the Interstate in Western Maryland. It looks like a pair of chargers are about to arrive in the town of Hancock, about 25 miles west of Hagerstown.
The Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) awarded grants to install DC Fast Chargers in the state under the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Program (AFIP) for fiscal year 2018. Included in that award is funding for a pair of Fast Chargers at the Western Maryland Rail Trail Parking Lot in Hancock, MD. On Sunday, January 6th, I was out that way and decided to have a look. I found two recently poured pads of concrete with conduit sticking up in the north-east corner of the lot. It looks like construction has begun.
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Tesla plans to build a Frederick Maryland Supercharger at Francis Scott Key Mall according to documents submitted to Frederick County and obtained by PlugInSites through a Maryland Public Information Act request. The planned location is south east of the town of Frederick which is roughly in the vicinity of where I-270 and I-70 merge. Map link.
Plans show ten charging stalls located on the north edge of the parking lot along Spectrum Drive near JC Penny. There’s a Red Robin restaurant and a BJ’s Brewhouse nearby in the same parking lot. In addition to the Mall’s food options, there’s a Panera, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Baja Fresh and several other eateries across Spectrum Dr.
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Early this morning, the Tesla Navigation map indicated that the National Harbor Supercharger was out of service. By 10 AM, the pin for National Harbor had disappeared completely and by this afternoon, National Harbor had been deleted from the Supercharger list on Tesla’s website.
There now stands a bank of 12 dark stalls where a day earlier had been active with Tesla cars coming and going. This Supercharger site went from Ribbon Cutting to decommissioning within 15 months.
In October, National Harbor announced that the Tesla parking lot would be closing. The lot was said to have been sold in order to build a hotel. We were assured that the Superchargers would be relocated somewhere else within National Harbor.
In December, we reported finding a permit and construction activity by the Fleet Garage just to the north of the original Supercharger location.
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