Biden announces plan for 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030

Yahoo Finance’s Pras Subramanian joins the Live show to break down President Biden’s plan for 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030.

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BRIAN CHEUNG: But something that we're also watching this morning is the electric vehicle space. The Biden administration proposing new standards to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, with additional funds to source the minerals needed for batteries and other components.

For more on this, let's bring in autos guru, Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian. Pras, you know, this announcement kind of going a little bit under the radar. We know that President Biden was on Jimmy Kimmel yesterday, was talking about a number of topics. But important to note, I mean, EVs such a priority for the administration. How important is the infrastructure for these charging networks with that announcement?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I mean, this is a big deal, right? Because we're talking about just this changing of our entire system from gas powered fossil fuels to electric. So this is basically about standardizing the network that they want to build, right? So we have the money in place, $5 billion for the highway system and $2.5 billion for rural places for grants to build out their EV charging infrastructure.

So what they want to do is they want to put something like one charging station every 50 miles on the highway, right, less than a mile off the actual highway itself. They want to add, like, at least four DC fast charging chargers per station. They want to have the actual connector be standardized, right? The J132 and then the AC charging and then the other-- CCS1 for DC. There's a lot of, like, technical stuff like that, yeah.

But that's kind of the key, right, is they want to make sure that this is, like, standardized across the country. You can drive your car from here to California and know you can stop and not feel worried about range anxiety. This is a big part of that. And it's kind of like, there's no surprise that the Biden administration is doing this because they want to tackle high gas prices, too.

I was talking to Rick Newman about this. He said there's no surprise that Secretary Granholm, Secretary Buttigieg were on this call last night. They want to show that they're really on top of this. And part of that is this, not only just the transformation of our economy, but also the high gas prices.

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, the 500,000 number, though, has been out there for some time, right? I mean, just a few months into the administration, that was kind of one of the grand goals that Biden put out. But especially now, I mean, it's not just about the infrastructure. It's also about the availability of these EVs. I mean, we keep hearing about some of these carmakers not being able to meet the demand.

We did get some news abroad today, though, with European lawmakers saying that they will move towards banning the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, which is a pretty aggressive timeline. In the US, it's 50% of new sales by 2035.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, and in the US, this is a target, right? Here, they're actually saying, no, this is what's going to be like. We're going to actually ban all-- 100% of gas-powered sales by 2035. I think they have a 55% goal in 2030. So they're very aggressive in that sense. They have been that way for a while now. And sort of, this is the EU kind of passing that legislation.

And it kind of gives some certainty, too, to the automakers to know what they have to do by that point. But I think they're also a little bit concerned about global uncertainty, things like that. Why are we locking in this? And why is it set in stone? Give us some flexibility to maybe address that if we have another Ukraine, for instance, things like that.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Do you ever see the United States doing something similar? Just saying, hey, no more gasoline. No new sales of gasoline cars.

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, they've said that by 2050.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Right.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: But I mean, to mandate it as necessary versus saying we're going to target or focus or propose this sort of thing. So that's the big difference here between us and the EU.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, I mean, I would just point out that in California, that's kind of been the goal they've set out, 2028. I think by the Olympics is what they've been aiming for. So those lofty goals are out there. It's just, to your earlier point, if the infrastructure doesn't follow, if the cars aren't affordable, can you get to those numbers?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I want to add one quick point about this, is that in the report that-- the draft rules, they're talking about how they did a study. Around 20% of charging ports and chargers across the country aren't even working. Like, they're there, but they're not working. So they have to address that. Like, they want to have 98% of these things working. And also give you the ability to see what's available when you go up, like to actually have real-time information as to what's coming up when you're driving.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Is that an experience that you've kind of come across often testing EV vehicles?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, anecdotally, I've seen ports that need actual software update. Like, they need to be updated. And like, I can't do that. How do I plug it in? So it can be a little bit nerve wracking and definitely stressful when you're driving between rural areas.

BRIAN CHEUNG: I mean, I get frustrated when I can't find a Citi bike.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, I know. It's more of the same.

BRIAN CHEUNG: It's like the same thing, essentially, though.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Or you can't--

BRIAN CHEUNG: You got to go drive-- you got to, like, wheel around, like, four more blocks.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Or the docks are all full.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, that's the worst.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I know.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Yeah. All right, EVs and Citi bikes, two things to take care of there.

AKIKO FUJITA: All right, Pras, thanks so much for that.