Maryland has a goal that only electric vehicles will be sold in the state by 2035.
So now the race is on to put electric charging stations in enough places to make people believe they can buy one without the danger of running out of juice.
At a recent electric car expo run by the state, Sharon Norris was sizing up a Ford Mustang Mach-E, and had questions for Stephanie Leach from BGE who was demonstrating how to charge up the car.
“How much are they?” Norris asked. “What are they running?”
The answer: Around $55-60,000
Leach hastened to add that maintenance costs less for an electric car. It’s cheaper to charge up rather than gas up, and there are incentives that lower the sticker price.
Norris said she’s thinking about switching from her 2009 Chevy Malibu.
“They’re convincing me,” Norris said. “I’m really old school.”
Leach said perhaps the biggest hurdle in convincing someone to buy an electric car is “range anxiety.”
“I think mostly people are worried that there aren’t enough charging stations near them,” Leach said.
Leach said people need to be convinced to turn their homes into a charging station.
BGE estimates you’ll pay between $700 and $1600 to install a charger although there are rebates available.
“You don’t have to worry as much about range anxiety because when you come home after a work day you just plug in and you come out in the morning to a full charge,” Leach said.
What happens when they raise the price of electricity?
Maryland legislature is garbage. All of these state “rebate” and “grant” programs run out of money as soon as they are announced. Charger rebates – gone. Energy storage credits – gone. Your reporting as well as other outlets such as BGE are perpetuating this problem by promoting false confidence and hope among residents who expect these programs to be funded.
In all these articles about electric vehicles, they always mention the price of installing a charging station in your home. None of them mention the large and growing percentage of the population that can’t afford to buy a home and have to rent. Few apartment complexes have charging stations and the ones that do have only a handful, nothing near enough to handle the number of residents.