Alabama lags in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, but is about to spend $80M trying to fix that

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – You don’t have to know the difference between an AC or DC current to see how many more Electric Vehicles are sharing the road with you.

They are the fastest-growing part of the car market, but new data from our Investigate TV team found Alabama has miles more to go before we provide the kind of charging resources other states have for EV’s.

Montevallo Mayor Rusty Nix is “tickled to death” to have a new Level 2 EV charging station that just opened in his city, a development he thinks could bring more visitors and the money that comes with them.

“With this, you’ll catch people that are coming to an event, and a lot of folks don’t like driving on the interstate—-they like taking backroads,” Nix says. “We have Highway 119 and Highway 25 that actually go through our city—we do have a lot of traffic on it–we’ll get people coming to your town.”

As of the end of 2022, Alabama ranked 31st in the number of EVs of any state, but 38th when it comes to charging stations.

If you break it down to the number of EVs per charging station in the state, we rank 28th, and the demand is growing. The number of EVs in Alabama jumped 84% from 2021 to 2022, 12th-fastest growth in the country.

“If you go back 2 or 3 years, you can see that number is close to doubling every year,” says Hasin Gandhakwala of Alabama Power. “Through our research partners that we have, that number will continue to grow exponentially as more incentives are offered to customers, that really does stimulate the adoption rate.”

Not all chargers are equal: Level 2 chargers like the one in Montevallo can fully charge your EV in 3-6 hours, Level 3 chargers can get you from dead battery to 80% charged in 15 minutes.

Alabama now has almost 1,100 Level 2 or 3 chargers, with a goal of having one every 50 miles on the interstate within 1 mile of an exit.

“It’s one of those if you build it, they will come, concepts,” says Gandhakwala. “So as our numbers continue to rise year over year, the charge investments are taking place throughout our state.”

The state will spend more than $80 million in federal funds over the next 5 years to make that happen, and try to fill in what are currently charging deserts along the more rural routes so many of you love to drive…like Montevallo.

“I’m very excited,” Nix says. “It’s going to be an economic boost for us. When people are traveling, let’s say from Huntsville to Mobile and they need a spot to charge–they’ll look on their app and go ‘I’ve always wanted to go to Montevallo, and they have a charger, and I can go there and charge my vehicle and eat at their fine restaurants and shop at their stores.’”

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