D.C. Council member Charles Allen has introduced legislation that would increase the number of charging stations in the city for electric vehicles by a minimum of 7,500 by 2027.
Allen, the new chair of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, said the city government needs to work quickly to transition from gas-consuming cars to electric and the infrastructure to make that happen needs to be in place.
According to D.C. transportation officials, the city has between 5,200 and 6,000 electric vehicles operating on a given day but only 250 charging stations.
“To support a big increase in EVs, charging infrastructure needs to become as common and reliable as we think about gas stations today,” said Allen, Ward 6 Democrat. “But unlike gas stations, we can deploy EV charging to better fit into our city, including in and around our homes and neighborhoods.”
Specifics of the bill include:
- The D.C. Department of Transportation using federal dollars to permit installing EV stations in neighborhoods where none exist starting next year.
- The agency creating and publishing an Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment and Management Plan in 2024 and administering a grant program to incentivize the purchase, installation, and upgrade of EV stations.
Each member of the council has signed on as a co-introducer.