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Aside from a Tesla Supercharger facility at Casa de Fruta on Pacheco Pass, San Benito County is essentially a fast charger desert. But new federal infrastructure funds may change that.

Gilroy was one of the early adopters of Tesla’s Superchargers, as the Gilroy Premium Outlets was one of the first such stations in the country when it was built in 2012. Since then, superchargers have been built at the Gilroy Crossing shopping center, as well as at the Coyote Creek Golf Club and Target in Morgan Hill.

Tesla also opened a store at 500 Automall Drive earlier this year, and recently wrapped up a renovation of the building. Just down the road, Nissan of Gilroy installed charging stations at its new facility for its customers, as the brand prepares to add new electric vehicles to its lineup.

The PlugShare website, which tracks charging stations by city, estimates Gilroy has 56 stations, all of which are east of Monterey Street and most in shopping centers.

San Jose has just shy of 1,000 ports. Santa Clara has 330, Cupertino tallies 173 and Mountain View claims 156. This isn’t a fluke.

Partially thanks to a 2018 initiative from Gov. Jerry Brown, California is currently home to nearly 23,000 charging stations—one third of the nation’s supply, according to a Pew Trust study—and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District reports 9,481 public charging ports within its nine-county region.

Yet feelings of “range anxiety” still shadow residents of this EV heaven, primarily when traveling through more rural areas. Even trekking from Sacramento to San Diego is tricky without carefully planned stops, especially for non-Tesla vehicles.

Despite being enticed by the ways electric vehicles help curb emissions connected to climate change, Kira White said she probably wouldn’t take one to visit her family three hours north in Chico. Meredith Liu says she is planning on using her husband’s gas-powered vehicle if she ever needs to commute further than her daily journey from Gilroy to Mountain View; she primarily decided to join the nearly 1.2 million electric vehicle owners on U.S. roads to save on fuel and access the fast lane, after all.

The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act President Joe Biden signed into law Nov. 15—the largest long-term investment of its kind in nearly a century—may convince buyers who have been on the fence.

Alongside investments in projects like replacing lead water pipes, laying cables for broadband internet and expanding public transit like Amtrak trains and city buses, Biden announced a goal of increasing the nation’s roughly 50,000 public EV charging stations to half a million by 2030. California expects to receive $384 million over five years to expand its charging network.

Some argue the lofty goal of crafting a ubiquitous network may be more hopeful than realistic, but the effort would attempt to solve one of the biggest reasons 1 in 5 EV drivers switch back to gas. 

This investment in EVs may also have ripple effects locally, as more companies are jumping into the Bay Area’s electric mobility industry. Joining Tesla’s (now former) Palo Alto headquarters and Fremont factory operations, more than 200 EV companies are sprinkled around the peninsula, including Nio, QuantumScape, ChargePoint, Boson Motors, Amply Power and Tropos Technologies in Santa Clara County.

Mohamed Badawy, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at San Jose State University and founder of the school’s Center of Power Electronic Converters, sees Silicon Valley as the next Detroit, exporting electric vehicles and technologies until the industry becomes more accessible for all consumers. And while he says it was clear to him 10 years ago that electric mobility systems were the future, the country’s electronic grids, transit manufacturers and government programs are still far behind on supporting the growing need for EVs.

“It’s not going to change things a lot on the scale, but it is a step in the right direction overall for the whole nation,” Badawy said. “Even in California, which is the most advanced state in terms of EV charging, we’re still far away from where we should be. Companies are not going to build charging stations if they don’t see that there’s enough demand for them. And the demands cannot come only from one company, which is still on the high end and not for everyday Americans.”

Cost has majorly excluded people who can’t afford these vehicles from the industry, particularly college students and budding professionals like Amelia Hain—who is one of the young adults arguably with the most years left to drive. Her boyfriend, Kole Barr, has his money on hydrogen fuel cells to combat the “lesser than two evils” debate between gas and lithium ion batteries.

But cheaper solutions will likely have to be utilized to make widespread changes, since the $7.2 billion is nearly half Biden’s original hopes for a $15 billion budget.

Many of the new chargers are expected to have a “Level 2” capacity, meaning an hours-long charge will replenish around 25 miles of battery power. Many EVs can drive more than 300 miles on a fully charged battery, which takes around eight hours. That’s comparable to a standard 10-gallon gasoline tank in a mid-priced internal combustion car, which usually takes less than five minutes to fill.

These 240-volt contraptions—the same electricity needed to power washing machines—cost around $2,000, while their faster companions are 50 to 100 times more expensive, racking up anywhere from $40,000 to $400,000. PG&E reported their average cost for installing Level 2 ports through 2020 was $18,384.

No matter where drivers charge their electric cars, they’ll have to continue “sipping” power whenever they are at public destinations like multi-family residences, grocery stores, parks, hotels and even churches, as well as standard gas stations. Some EV advocates are even arguing that investments in 120-volt “Level 1” chargers will avoid even decades-old infrastructure to handle the power supply needed.

In the meantime, EV drivers like Maria Garfias will be satisfied with the cost savings and eco-friendly benefits of their personal transportation. That is, if she can reliably find working charging stations, unlike one pesky machine at Westfield Mall. 

“I do wish they were as frequent as gas stations,” Garfias said, before driving away in her Mustang Mach-E—60 miles left until its battery died.

The post Millions in federal funds for EV charging network may relieve ‘range anxiety’ appeared first on SanBenito.com | Hollister, San Juan Bautista, CA.

By Cynthia McClintock*

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has prevailed in two impeachment votes, but new impeachment threats are almost certain – and the President may continue to prevail but is unlikely to consolidate his administration. Castillo and the Congress have been at loggerheads since Castillo’s inauguration in July 2021. The reasons for the severe impeachment threat are manifold.

• From the start, many Peruvians hoped for a “do-over” of the 2021 elections. In a field of 18 presidential candidates, Castillo won only 19 percent of the first-round vote, and many observers speculated that he would have lost the runoff to any of the other candidates except the actual runner-up, Keiko Fujimori, whose organized base was much smaller than in previous years due to corruption revelations. In the Congressional vote, Castillo’s party tallied only a tad less than one-third of the seats, with the rest split evenly between hard-right parties and non-programmatic, “centrist” parties.
• While impeachment requires a two-thirds Congressional vote, the grounds for impeachment – in particular, “moral incapacity” – are vague. Since 2000, three Peruvian presidents have left office upon impeachment or imminent impeachment.

Castillo has steadily lost popular support; his approval rating has fallen to about 25 percent. Skyrocketing prices for food and fuel have taken a toll. Last week, a strike led by truckers paralyzed much of Peru’s highlands. This week’s massive protests are another sure indicator. Although the government continues to claim leftist credentials, it has not spearheaded significant new initiatives for social justice.

• A large number of Castillo’s cabinet ministers have been unqualified. For example, a recent health minister, Hernán Condori, promoted “micro-cluster” water as a remedy for COVID‑19 without scientific evidence; the Peruvian Medical Federation repeatedly asked for his resignation – and he was finally ousted. Castillo’s first set of hapless appointments was widely attributed to his inexperience, but when he appointed his fourth cabinet last month, it appeared that he prioritizes loyalty, not competence.
• Evidence of government corruption is considerable. Against Peru’s rules, Castillo holds irregular meetings with VIPs outside the Presidential Palace. As part of an expected plea bargain in late March, lobbyist and one-time friend Karelim López gave prosecutors information supporting charges against Castillo’s former chief aide (Bruno Pacheco) and two of Castillo’s nephews for illegal gains from state contracts in the Transport and Communications Ministry.

The President has survived through wily tactics and through legislators’ self-interest.

• A key figure in Castillo’s party is its founder, Vladimir Cerrón, who recruited him to be the party’s 2021 candidate. Cerrón has been dubbed “El Otro Vladi,” in reference to Vladimiro Montesinos, the spymaster behind the crimes of former President Alberto Fujimori. Through promises of projects in their home areas or government positions, the government has co-opted numerous legislators. The perceptions of government guile are such that, after Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal last month pardoned Fujimori’s corruption and human rights charges, a prevalent rumor was that the government had made a backroom deal with pro-Fujimori leaders for their Congressional votes.
• For the most part, the government has retained the votes of Peru’s “modern left” – legislators concerned not only about poverty but also gender rights, indigenous rights, and climate change, and committed to democracy – who hold about 5 percent of Congressional seats. At the start, dismayed by the hard-right’s hasty calls for Castillo’s impeachment and assuming that he would appoint a broad-based cabinet, the modern left supported the President. Now they are worried about the President – and also about whether or not their fate is linked to the government’s.
• Peru’s Congress is as unpopular as Castillo. In particular, the Speaker of the Congress (next in line for succession to the presidency after the Vice-President), María del Carmen Alva of Acción Popular, is unpopular; she is perceived as arrogant and rude. In opinion polls, 80 percent of Peruvians say that, if Castillo is impeached, they want new elections not only for President but also for Congress. However, Peruvian law does not allow re-election of legislators, meaning that all the current legislators would lose their jobs and would fight the move.

While Castillo seems likely to continue to stumble and face challenges, there is some chance that Peru’s political impasse can be broken and a semblance of stable, effective governance restored. One possibility is that, at the end of Alva’s term in July, she is succeeded by a more capable and palatable Congress Speaker, and Castillo could be replaced without a popular demand for new Congressional elections. In its second search for a successor to an impeached president in November 2020, the Congress identified Francisco Sagasti, who was excellent. A second possibility, proposed by Sagasti himself, is a citizens’ initiative for a Constitutional reform that would shorten the terms of the President and the Congress – an initiative that would require only a simple majority in a Congressional vote.

• Peru’s 2021 elections were held despite a devastating pandemic that obstructed campaigns and opinion polls. Last week’s ferocious protests in Huancayo – hometown of Presidential mentor Cerrón – and this week’s in Lima indicate that Peruvians are frustrated and angry as the war in Ukraine drives up fuel costs and Castillo’s agenda stalls. New elections may be the only way ahead.

April 7, 2022

* Cynthia McClintock is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.