Eric Pollard feels great about the lesser impact on the environment – and his wallet – made possible by the 2019 Hyundai Ioniq he charges up every night in his garage.
“But the experience of driving an electric vehicle is probably what I talk about the most,” says Pollard, who is the Air Quality and Clean Cities Coordinator for the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG). “It has instant torque. There is no tailpipe, and no wasted fuel by idling. It’s very quiet.”
In fact, Pollard says, school districts such as Shawnee that have made the switch to electric buses report yet another benefit from those gently purring motors.
“The bus is quieter, so the students are better-behaved because they are not shouting at each other over a loud engine,” Pollard says. “And that makes for happier bus drivers.”
Fewer than 10% of the vehicles on the road in Oklahoma are electric, and of that number, about 90% are charged by the owners in their own homes.
But those percentages will change, and public and private partnerships across the state are working to have the infrastructure in place as the numbers climb.
Jared Schwennesen, Multi-Modal and Planning Engineer for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, says ODOT was provided with $66 million worth of federal funding to build a state charging station infrastructure.
“There’s a mandate to build out alternative fuel corridors by installing public charging stations about every 50 miles, starting with the interstates and other designated highways,” Schwennesen says, “to alleviate range anxiety for electric vehicle drivers.”
The charging stations, which must be within a mile of a highway exit, open round the clock and offer restrooms and at least four 150-kilowatt chargers, will cost about $1 million to build. Successful bidders will receive about $600,000 of the construction cost from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funding.
“ODOT’s role is to let people know electric vehicles can be a viable option when the charging stations are up, and to run the program to place more charging stations out there,” Schwennesen says. “We will not own or operate the stations.”
The bidding process is underway and construction has not started on the federally-funded charging stations.
ODOT is suggesting to bidders that the stations provide 24-hour staffing and be well-lit at night, Schwennesen says, as they could be subject to vandalism. Motorists will be charged 50 to 75 cents per kilowatt hour to charge their vehicles.
Apart from the NEVI funding, private businesses such as Tesla, OG&E, Love’s Travel Stops and Francis Energy in Tulsa are building charging stations across the country, Pollard says.
In 2018, city and county governments, electric utility companies, car dealerships and others formed a coalition that’s now known as EV Oklahoma, Pollard says.
“Part of our focus is on improving the air quality for the region, which in turn improves public health,” Pollard says. He says ACOG does “a lot of transportation planning with ODOT and cities and counties. We host the Central Oklahoma Clean Cities Coalition. We promote all the alternative fuels and hybrids.”
Part of ACOG’s role is to help cities, counties and school districts find ways to reduce transportation costs, Pollard says. In fact, he says, transportation is the second-largest budget item for the typical American household.
Electric companies offer lower rates to drivers who charge their vehicles at night when there is less demand on the grid, Pollard says. His car charges between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., which costs him 3 cents per kilowatt hour.
“It costs me 66 cents to fill up my battery,” Pollard says.
