The federal infrastructure bill would provide Wisconsin $79 million over 5 years for electric vehicle charging stations should it pass the House. It passed in the Senate in early August. This would be key to growing the EV market in Wisconsin, which already has grown 9 percent annually from 2016 to 2020 reported Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau in a paper to the Joint Finance Committee in June.
While 95 percent of vehicle trips are 30 miles or less, publicly accessible EV fast charging infrastructure (that takes 20-60 minutes per full charge, as compared to a level 2 charger that can take 6-9 hours) is crucial for longer trips within state and across the county. There are fewer than 4,000 fast charging stations in the US compared to more than 150,000 gas stations, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Currently, Wisconsin has 433 publicly accessible charging stations with 8 sections of alternative fuel corridors where charging stations are no more than 50 miles apart and 5 miles off the road. Governor Evers advanced initiatives to help fund EV charging infrastructure statewide though $5 million in bonding and with $10 million of VW settlement money that were struck down by Wisconsin lawmakers. WPR