CEO and Founding Partner of Greenstone Equity Partners | Chief Revenue Officer and Managing Director of World Business Lenders

Will More Charging Stations Mean More EVs?

This morning, Bloomberg published a feature exploring the changing face of automobile fuel— or rather, charge. For a long time, the electric car market has been stuck in a cyclical problem. Consumers aren’t buying electric vehicles because of perceived range anxiety, and many electric charging stations haven’t been built because there hasn’t been enough demand for them. Even though that’s been the dominant narrative for a while, Kyle Stock and Dana Hull share new information from the DoE: charging stations have reached critical mass.

In the charging standoff, it looks like stations have made the first move. With the influx of available stations, consumers won’t be asking the “but where do I charge?” question. But even though there are more stations than ever, American electric car sales will still be slow on the uptick. Electric car sales are climbing, but they still pale in comparison to automobiles with a traditional internal combustion engine. The reason for this is a lingering range anxiety, cheap gas (as low as $2 in some parts of the country), and a healthy labor market. Together, these factors are encouraging Americans to drive more.

Even though traditional gas stations aren’t going anywhere soon, plenty of companies are sure that the surge of charging stations will be the fuel the electric car market needs to take hold of American consumer habit.