By: Jennifer Dayton
Two forces of long-term change will remake the Greenwich streetscape. Consumer-driven demand for an electric vehicle (EV) has continued to rise, even during the pandemic. Consumers-in-waiting have watched 1.4 million EVs on US roads with expectations that in the next couple of years, EVs will be no more expensive than family sedans powered by gasoline. Secondly, business-driven demand for new technology, advancing electric battery design, will reduce production costs. The old saying: “What’s good for General Motors is good for America,” has been inverted. What’s good for America is good for GM, which has adopted a 2040 carbon neutral pledge.
A hurdle for consumers has been finding charging stations outside the home, given that high range vehicles like Tesla were initially tied to proprietary infrastructure. There are now numerous apps and websites to make it easy to fuel up such as PlugShare, Open Charge Map, and ChargeHub. Suburban roads could look very different as Hyundai, Tesla, Nissan and Chevy are quickly overtaken by affordable EVs made by entirely new start-up companies. Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance says in a year there will be 500 EV models giving consumers abundant choice.
Given the widening range and affordability of consumer choices, we need to have a longer-term perspective about our local economy. Greenwich lacks fast charger stations to support economic development. Fast charger stations are needed for all vehicle makes, open to public use without restriction. Most importantly, they need to be located in commercial centers to prepare for the new streetscape.
Public charging stations existing in Greenwich, that are not fast-charging, best serve a specific group of long-stay users such as town employees and hotel visitors. To grow the local economy, transactional customers of businesses in Greenwich need a fast charge while in town. Existing Level 2 chargers can take three hours to fully charge. Fast chargers take 20-30 minutes to fully charge.
For our economic development and the support of small businesses, Greenwich needs fast charging stations for customers of Greenwich Avenue, Sound Beach Avenue, Mill Street and Cos Cob’s East Putnam among other places with local businesses reachable conveniently by foot. Stamford, Darien, Norwalk, Hartsdale and Scarsdale are ahead of us in connecting the future of transportation to the future prosperity of businesses. In these towns, fast charging stations are located in shopping centers.
Many residents will soon enjoy savings from eliminating higher fuel costs and lifetime vehicle maintenance costs. These savings will offset the opportunity cost of time for charging. Even Level 2 charging stations, more time-consuming, can be found easily in neighboring towns. Fairfield has18, Stamford has 13, Norwalk has 9, Westport has 11. Greenwich has a handful and recently added one at Town Hall.
Many residents also care about the human costs of climate change from the largest source of emissions, transportation. To ensure public safety, we should have a holistic plan for electrified, non-profit transportation such as TAG and electrified school bus transportation, with a charging infrastructure. The future wide-spread adoption of electric vehicles by individuals and organizations, makes it important to plan for evacuation in natural disasters or other emergencies. Placement of emergency fast charging centers should have vending stations with adapters, until there is an industry standard.
While automaker and federal fleets are electrifying, we need to plan for a multi-use EV future. We cannot rely on complimentary public charging at a variety of auto dealerships, hotels and proprietary networks, which are not located in commercial centers. New charging stations should be fast, plentiful and well located to serve two public goods: first, economic development of the town and second, public safety. These considerations will help the town we love to prosper, as the Greenwich Energy Management Advisory Committee charts a path forward for the long-term.
