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Jan. 28: Traversing the interior of New Mexico is an adventure into a rich past, where travelers notice rustic monuments and the same rugged landscape that pioneers encountered.
But motorists will now find new features in the outlying villages that will bring about the future: charging stations for electric vehicles.
Few, if any, of the chargers were in rural areas two years ago.
But in 2022, the state’s Department of Transportation began rolling out plans to build charging stations in New Mexico, from villages to remote locations, to accommodate electric cars that travel longer distances and, in turn, make other people feel safer buying cars in the first place.
The apparent lack of places to recharge remains one of the biggest considerations consumers have when buying an electric vehicle, as do considerations about the average value of cars being higher than that of a petrol model.
With a growing amount of state and federal money at their disposal, transportation officials will install a network of charging stations through 2026, when a new state rule will require automakers to deliver more cars to New Mexico.
“A big question is what comes first: the cars or the infrastructure,” said Jerry Valdez, special projects manager for the state Transportation Department. “And you really need to build out the infrastructure for the adoption of the vehicles. We want to make sure we increase the market penetration of zero-emissions vehicles.”
Although most owners will charge their vehicles at home for commuting and driving around town, the roadside stations will be essential in supplying power for people traveling longer distances, serving the same basic purpose as gas stations do for internal-combustion cars, EV advocates say.
The lack of charging infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, was a common objection raised at car dealer hearings last year on the Advanced Clean Cars and Trucks standard, which Albuquerque’s state and environmental forums voted to adopt.
The rule calls for 43 of the new cars and trucks delivered in New Mexico to be electric models through 2026 and 82 through 2032.
In addition, 15 to 20 percent of the heaviest new advertising trucks delivered to the state will have to be electric by 2026, and 40 to 70 percent will have to be zero-emission by 2034, depending on their class.
Install stations anywhere cars can go
State officials began preparing for this type of EV deployment long before the law was passed.
In 2022, the state made a plan to install 86 charging stations in 40 locations throughout New Mexico, using $10 million in American Rescue Plan money the Legislature had approved for that purpose.
Many stations have been installed and the rest have been turned over to contractors, Valdez said, adding that he expects almost all of them to be in position and operational by spring.
Some resorts are not from cities like Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and Española. But most are scattered in rural communities such as Pecos, Zuni, Tucumcari, Farmington and Elephant Butte.
Valdez said someone asked him why the state would install charging stations in towns like Tierra Amarilla, which are little more than dots on a map. Their answer: because they are small and set apart.
“We need to inspire electric car adoption in rural New Mexico, and at the same time make sure drivers can drive through our state and those areas,” Valdez said.
Two years ago, New Mexico earned $38 million in federal cash for charging station infrastructure, with bills spread over five years. The government provided $11. 9 million in counterpart funds.
The aim is to identify “alternative fuel corridors”, a term for stretches that can force electric vehicles to travel about 80 kilometres each.
The state intends to create such corridors on 3 arteries: Interstates 10, 25 and 40.
Twenty sites have been chosen to hold roughly 75 charging stations covering 1,000 miles, Valdez said, adding work will begin soon to install them.
The stations in the state and federal projects will be a combination of fast chargers, designed for faster stops on the road, and slower-charging Level 2 models intended for parking an electric vehicle for extended periods of time, at home, at work or in a hotel. .
This month, the Federal Highway Administration approved an additional $68 million for New Mexico to bolster its charging network. Most of it will go toward building two sites for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles on Interstate 10 near Lordsburg and Vado south of Las Cruces.
Santa Fe County will receive $3.3 million of the grant money to put in 33 fast chargers and Level 2 chargers at 13 sites, including housing complexes and county transportation hubs.
Fast, of course, is relative, at least for those used to filling up at a gas station in a few minutes. Fast chargers can do about 80% of capacity for most light passenger EVs in 20 to 30 minutes. Level 2 requires six to eight hours.
Taos will get $500,000 to install six publicly available fast-charging stations at 3 sites in the network, the Visitor Center.
In the meantime, they are asking the legislature for a total of $55 million for this consultation to further expand the network across the state.
The state’s efforts are met with criticism.
An EV advocacy group applauded New Mexico’s effort to shore up the infrastructure, saying it will be vital when the clean cars rule accelerates the transition to zero-emission vehicles.
“I think this is a vital time to make those investments,” said Travis Madsen, transportation program director for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, but the state is serious and it’s making an investment of genuine money. “”.
The state’s push for more infrastructure is being made in tandem with three Democratic lawmakers sponsoring EV tax credits.
Buyers would receive a $3,000 credit for the purchase of a new car and $1,500 for a used car through 2026. After that, the credit would be reduced a year before being capped at $960 for a new electric vehicle and $480 for a used model.
The idea the tax credits reduce is that electric cars will approach price parity with gas-powered cars during the 2030s, reducing the need for subsidies, Madsen said.
All state investments and policies to boost and facilitate the use of electric cars will yield long-term benefits, such as combating climate change and reducing pollutants, which in turn will reduce physical care costs, Madsen said. Electric cars will also save consumers money. on maintenance, upkeep and fuel costs, he added.
But the state’s quest for electrification has its detractors.
“It’s hard to think of this spending as anything other than a waste of taxpayer money that seeks to impose a product that New Mexicans don’t want,” said Larry Behrens, Western states director at the pro-oil and fuel organization Power the Future. The argument that ‘if charging stations are built, electric cars will come’ is false, given that many charging stations across the state remain empty. “
Right now, electric cars account for less than one of the cars New Mexicans own, Behrens said.
He contends a poll his group conducted this month found 59% said they don’t support the governor’s “forced transition” to EVs.
“No amount of wasted taxpayer money in Washington or Santa Fe will replace this reality,” Behrens said.
One conservation organization says the opposite: Demand for electric cars is outstripping supply, and the state is trying to cope with that.
New Mexico wants more electric cars on sales grounds, which will provide the blank-car rule, as well as a charging network, which the state is cultivating, said Camilla Feibelman, director of the Sierra Club’s Rio Grande chapter.
Feibelman disagrees with car dealers who claim they can’t haul more EVs because of a lack of charging stations. An online page for the state Department of Transportation shows new stations being put into service every day, he said.
“The transition is coming; the speed is the same,” Feibelman said.
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