Electric Vehicle Transformation… Emerging Challenges and Best Practices for Assured Success

Road transportation is one of the biggest contributors of CO2 emissions in the U.S. Reducing vehicle emissions is the ultimate goal and with it is lower energy costs, improved environmental quality, and positive impacts to overall community health and well-being. 

The U.S. strategy for meeting net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will require half of all new light-duty cars sold in 2030 to be zero-emission vehicles. This means electrification of vehicles, increased use of clean electricity, and a shift towards low- or zero- carbon fuel alternatives for heavy transportation modes.

Thanks to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act (CHIPS), we have a boost to make us more competitive, innovative and nationally secure and a means to accelerate our efforts towards climate action planning and resilience. This is particularly important for the energy and transportation sectors, as they come together to build future electric vehicle (EV) transportation infrastructure. 

To achieve a transformation of this scale at an accelerated pace, we need a strategy focused on forecasting—anticipating EV demand, identifying charging locations and technology, future-proofing solutions, deciding procurement strategies, coordinating upgrades and extensions of power distribution and grid infrastructure to meet the demand. While some may see it as a challenge, it’s really an opportunity for the public and private sectors to organize capital, engage communities, develop plans, and manage delivery of strategic benefits in a predictable, transparent, and controlled manner.

Common Goals and Outcomes

To get the industry on a common path, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) established the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program (NEVI) to provide funding to states to strategically deploy EV charging infrastructure and establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability. This ushered in new transportation solutions, requiring collaboration between public and private entities to establish rules of engagement that put emphasis on rapid delivery, efficacy and capital efficiency.

Stakeholder engagement and interface management may be challenging for the public sector. We need input from multiple public and private entities such as utilities, transit authorities, non-profits, transportation organizations, community interest groups and others to build an EV infrastructure that meets public need. 

As a first step, the approval of NEVI earlier this year helped the states to establish the baseline plan for Alternate Fuel Corridors (AFC) that meets the minimum criteria. Now these plans need to be implemented along with needs assessments being conducted at the district, municipal, and city level to enable AFC connectivity. 

Another challenge is accurately predicting the EV adoption rate and demand over time which is still subjective. Utilities and grid operators need planning headroom—putting further emphasis on stakeholder management and coordination. 

For the private sector, manufacturers of vehicles, EV batteries, chargers, and ancillary parts will need to add capacity and increase production to meet the anticipated demand. With “Buy America” in mind, this must be done while creating workforce training solutions for the future green economy. 

The Practitioner’s View

We are engaged in several EV strategy and implementation programs, nationally and internationally, leveraging lessons learned, cross-fertilizing ideas, and embedding sustainability and resilience at the core of our program management, planning, and engineering practices. We bring best practice procurement strategy and value engineering and risk management expertise for effective program management and work delivery.  

On the demand side, we’re supporting federal agencies, state departments of transportation, transit authorities, and community improvement districts. On the supply side, we’re working with the automotive industry, power utilities, grid operators, EV battery and chip manufacturers, and e-waste recyclers. 

We provide true, EV industry end-to-end life cycle knowledge and expertise for stakeholder coordination, developing the EV vision and setting up an effective implementation and delivery framework at any scale.

To assure program success, we do a holistic needs assessment using advanced digital engineering practices that integrate several layers of disparate data—EV demand and adoption rates, mobility analytics, charger locations, power distribution networks, and community demographics. 

Our net zero goals are ambitious, but achievable through next-level industry collaboration, innovative solutions, and equal distribution of risks and incentives among program participants. We believe sustainability and resilience is a mindset. We bring people, data, and technology to engineer a better future for our planet and its people. 

A version of this article was published in the December 26, 2022 issue of Engineering News-Record's Transportation and Infrastructure Today special section.