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Washington, DC - The Obama Administration is taking responsible steps to combat climate change, increase access to clean energy technologies, and reduce our dependence on oil. That is why, today, on the heels of the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) first-ever Sustainable Transportation Summit, the Administration is announcing an unprecedented set of actions from the Federal government,  private sector, and states, as well as a new framework for collaboration for vehicle manufacturers, electric utilities, electric vehicle charging companies, and states, all geared towards accelerating the deployment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and putting more electric vehicles on the road.

The collaboration, forged by the White House in partnership with DOE and the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Airforce and the Army, and the Environmental Protection Agency, and is centered on a set of Guiding Principles to Promote Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure that nearly 50 organizations are signing on to today.

By working together across the Federal government and with the private sector, we can ensure that electric vehicle drivers have access to charging stations at home, at work, and on the road – creating a new way of thinking about transportation that will drive America forward. Today’s announcements include:

Today’s announcements build on a record of progress from multiple programs across the Administration that are working to scale up electric vehicles and fueling infrastructure, including at the Departments of Energy, Transportation, Defense, and at the Environmental Protection Agency. In fact, in the past eight years the number of plug-in electric vehicle models increased from one to more than 20, battery costs have decreased 70 percent, and we have increased the number of electric vehicle charging stations from less than 500 in 2008 to more than 16,000 today – a 40 fold increase.

UNPRECEDENTED ELECTRIC VEHICLE COALITION FORGED AMONG NEARLY 50 VEHICLE MANUFACTURERS, ELECTRIC UTILITIES, ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING COMPANIES, STATES, AND ORGANIZATIONS TO INCREASE ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE

Today, in collaboration with the Administration, nearly 50 industry members are signing on to the following Guiding Principles to Promote Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure. This commitment signifies the beginning of a collaboration between the government and industry to increase the deployment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Building on existing partnerships among federal government, states and communities, electric vehicle and charging infrastructure manufacturers and retailers, electric utilities, national laboratories, universities, and nongovernmental organizations, we endorse the following guiding principles to enhance electric vehicle use and create a national, household, workplace, and urban charging infrastructure that is available to all Americans:

Signatories to the Guiding Principles to Promote Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure include the following industry members, agencies, organizations, and states:

EXECUTIVE ACTIONS TO INCREASE CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE

Providing Financing to Scale Up Charging Infrastructure

Unlocking Up $4.5 billion in Loan Guarantees and Inviting Applications to Support Innovative Electric Vehicle Charging Facilities: Today, the DOE’s Loan Program Office (LPO) issued a supplement to its Title XVII Renewable Energy and Efficient Energy (REEE) Projects Solicitation, clarifying that certain electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities – including associated hardware and software – is now an eligible technology under the solicitation.  The solicitation can provide up to $4.5 billion in loan guarantees to support innovative renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in the United States. Loan guarantees can be an important tool to commercialize innovative technologies because these projects may be unable to obtain full commercial financing due to the perceived risks associated with technology that has never been deployed at commercial scale in the United States. The DOE’s LPO supports a large, diverse portfolio of more than $30 billion in loans, loan guarantees, and commitments to approximately 30 closed and committed projects nationwide, including leading edge renewable energy projects, advanced technology vehicle manufacturing facilities, and two of the first new nuclear reactors to begin construction in the United States in more than three decades.

Publishing a Guide to Federal Funding, Financing and Technical Assistance for EVs and Charging Stations: DOE and DOT are publishing a guide to outline specific examples of funding programs, financing incentives, and technical assistance to help advance the nation’s economic, environmental, and energy security, through the support of EVs and charging stations that reduce petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. It will also list current tax credits and incentives applicable to EV charging.  The DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center provides a comprehensive database of federal and state programs that support EVs and infrastructure.

Supporting the Development of Electric Vehicle Charging Corridors

Launching the Process to Designate Alternative Fuel Corridors as Part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act: Today, the DOT is soliciting nominations from State and local officials to assist in making designations for alternative fuel corridors. Section 1413 of the FAST Act requires that the Secretary of Transportation designates national EV charging, hydrogen, propane, and natural gas fueling corridors, and the nomination process will ensure that the corridors proposed for designation will create a national network of alternative fuel facilities. In designating corridors, the DOT will (1) consider the nominated facilities, (2) incorporate existing corridors designated by States, and (3) consider the demand for, and location of, existing fueling stations and infrastructure.  DOT will also evaluate applications based on their ability to reduce emissions and collaborate across the public and private sector. Details on this program can be found here or here.

Developing Criteria and Proposing a Plan for a National Network of Fast Charging Stations for EVs: DOE and DOT have agreed to partner on the development of a 2020 vision for a national network of fast charging stations for EVs in order to facilitate coast to coast, nationwide zero emissions travel.  Building upon DOT’s planned designation of alternative fuel corridors under the FAST Act, DOE and DOT, in cooperation with the DOE National Laboratories, DOT Volpe Center, and other government and industry stakeholders, will commence efforts in fiscal year 2017 to develop criteria that will help identify specific locations for siting fast charging infrastructure adjacent to the DOT-designated national and community corridors. The proposed effort will address four key areas important to evaluating the potential for a national network for fast charging including: (1) siting criteria for charging locations; (2) charging and utility infrastructure needs and cost assessment; (3) impacts of electric demand charges to consumers and utilities; and (4) potential longer-term innovations including evolution up to 350 kilowatt (kW) fast charging. The partnership will address these questions to provide the necessary information for the basis of a dialogue with stakeholders to help define public-private partnerships, funding, and financing models for implementing a national fast charging network. Along those lines, the DOE and DOT will be convening stakeholders this fall to identify critical needs for a national network of fast charging stations. 

Expanding the Electric Vehicle Fleet

Inviting State, County, and Municipal EV Fleets to Join Forces with the Federal Government in EV Procurement: The Office of Federal Sustainability is inviting State, county and municipal government fleets to join forces with Federal agencies to maximize their collective buying power, and aggregate their EV and charging infrastructure purchases. In doing so, governments at all levels can lower their procurement costs, expand technology availability, and increase automotive manufacturers' demand certainty. The Office of Federal Sustainability will partner with government and agency fleet purchasers to coordinate and aggregate the purchasing of EV fleets, with distinct acquisition procurement strategies to be determined. Alone, the federal government plans to purchase more than 500 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) or EVs in fiscal year 2017.

DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) will be Signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the American Public Power Association (APPA) to Collaborate on Municipal Fleet Electrification: Through this agreement, EERE and APPA will ensure collaborative efforts to enable electrification of personal and fleet transportation in municipalities throughout the United States. EERE and APPA will provide information to increase education and awareness of the benefit of EVs to public power utilities and local officials, and develop a community action plan focused on smaller communities with fewer than 200,000 electric customers. The partnership will also work to enhance workplace charging efforts at public power utilities, study the impacts of EVs in public power communities, and share insights regarding infrastructure installation and EV interaction with the modern grid.

Driving Technological Innovation and Increasing Access to Data

Leveraging the Power of Data through an ‘EV Hackathon’: Today, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is announcing that they will host an EV hackathon this fall. Hackathons are events that bring together coders, data scientists, topic experts, and interested members of the public to discover insights and develop new solutions. The event will take place in concord with the release of anonymized data on EV charging stations to the research and software development community. The ‘EV Hackathon’ represents a unique opportunity to bring together the EV and software communities to collaborate to enhance EV deployment.

Conducting a Technology Study to Explore the Feasibility for Fast Charging, up to 350 KW, for EVs: DOE will partner with industry, the National Laboratories, and other stakeholders to develop a study that will examine the vehicle, battery, infrastructure, and economic implications of direct current (DC) fast charging of up to 350 kW, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. A 350 kW charging system could charge a 200 mile range battery in less than 10 minutes.  The implementation of DC fast charging has the potential to impact many technology areas and tackle key technological barriers associated with high rate charging (50 kW and above), and fast charging increases the utility of EVs, aides in their adoption, and helps enable widespread use of EVs. 

Announcing  that the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will Lead Research to Achieve the Strategic Battery500 Goal: A multi-partner team, led by PNNL as part of the Battery500 research consortium, will receive an award of up to $10 million per year for five years to drive progress on  DOE’s goal of reducing the cost of vehicle battery technologies. Battery costs exceeded $500/kWh when President Obama launched his EV Everywhere Grand Challenge goal of making EVs that are as affordable and convenient for the American family as gasoline-powered vehicles, and low-cost, high performance batteries are a key component of the strategy to attain the President’s goal. The Battery500 Consortium aims to triple the specific energy (to 500 WH/kg) relative to today's battery technology while achieving 1,000 electric vehicles cycles. This will result in a significantly smaller, lighter weight, less expensive battery pack (below $100/kWh) and more affordable EVs.  The Battery500 consortium will include four DOE National Laboratories and five universities in an effort aimed at achieving revolutionary advances in battery performance.  Consortium partners include the following:

Increasing Charging Infrastructure in Our Homes and Workplaces

The Standard for High Performance Green Buildings Will Consider a Revision to Encourage EV-Ready Building Practices: By employing EV-Ready building practices, multi-unit dwelling and commercial building developers can prepare a facility with electrical infrastructure to accommodate a future charging station installation, resulting in significant cost savings for building owners and tenants. To encourage more EV-Ready development in cities and states across the country, an EV-Ready building code measure has been introduced to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 189.1, a standard for high performance green buildings that in 2018 will become the basis for the International Green Construction Code. Through the adoption of this EV-Ready building practice, cities and states can align with the EV building strategies identified by Federal agencies in the 2016 Guiding Principles for Sustainable Federal Buildings.

Expanding DOE’s Workplace Charging Challenge to Include 35 New Businesses, Non-profits, Universities, and Utilities: DOE’s Workplace Charging Challenge encourages America’s employers to commit to providing EV charging access for their workforce. Vehicles are parked at homes and workplaces most of the time, making the Workplace Charging Challenge a significant opportunity to expand our nation’s charging infrastructure. In fact, charging at work can potentially double an EV driver's all-electric daily commuting range.   Participating employers include organizations that are assessing their employees’ need for charging to those who have successfully launched workplace charging programs. DOE’s Workplace Charging Challenge has grown to more than 350 partners since its launch in January 2013, and is on track to meet its goal to partner with 500 United States employers by 2018. The 35 new partners announced today include: 

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMITMENTS TO INCREASE ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE

Twelve utilities and charging companies are announcing commitments to increase deployment of EVs and charging infrastructure, and to use the Guiding Principles to Promote Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure to work together to accelerate EV deployment.

Utilities

Charging Companies

BUILDING ON PROGRESS

The above-mentioned private sector commitments announced today build on a history of progress to increase EV adoption and promote EV charging infrastructure, which is illustrated by the following:

Automakers

Charging Companies

Utilities