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Phoenix Announces Plan to Prepare City For 280,000 Electric Vehicles

May 17, 2022

By Corinne Murdock |

On Sunday afternoon, the city of Phoenix rolled out its draft roadmap to ready the city for widespread electric vehicle use. The city projected that there would be up to 280,000 electric vehicles in the area by 2030, and noted that total adoption of electric vehicles would align with their climate action plan. In order to accommodate that quantity of electric vehicles, the roadmap cited U.S. Department of Energy projections that the city would require around 3,500 charging ports. 

The city presented a five-step plan. First, prioritize equity by maximizing restorative investments in underserved communities, achieving transformational change with bottom-up decision-making, and helping institutionalize equity and justice from the inside. Second, educate and outreach by engaging in qualitative and quantitative information gathering, designing and launching an education and awareness campaign, and monitoring and tracking consumer attitudes and behaviors. Third, leading by example by growing the city’s electric vehicle fleets and installing electric vehicle charging for the city fleet and employees. Fourth, growing public charging by identifying locations for electric vehicle charging networks and installing base amounts of electric vehicle charging annually. Fifth, standardizing electric vehicle charging access by streamlining permits and updating the zoning ordinance and building codes by 2025. 

One of the core principles for forming the roadmap was equity — affordability and accessibility for the underserved and disadvantaged communities. One of their first proposed actions for achieving equity was to either hire or assign a current staff member to focus on equity throughout the electric vehicle rollout. Then, the city would adopt an “Environmental Justice” screening tool. 

The plan projected that the cost of electric vehicles would reduce at some point in the future.

The city also asked Arizonans to take a survey on electric vehicles. The survey asked individuals about their knowledge, attitude towards, and current use of electric vehicles. It also asked individuals whether they supported new homes and buildings to be required to have electric vehicle charging stations. 

The roadmap is the latest effort of the Ad Hoc Committee on Electric Vehicles, formed by Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego last June. 

In September, the city hosted a webinar to educate citizens about electric vehicles.

Members of the committee are Councilwoman Yassamin Ansari; Autumn Johnson, Tierra Strategy Public Interest Policy Advocate; Caryn Potter, Southwest Energy Efficiency Project Utility Program Manager; Catherine O’Brien, Salt River Project Electric Vehicle Lead; Clark Miller, Arizona State University (ASU) professor; Court Rich, Rose Law Group Renewable Energy and Regulatory Law Department; Delbert Hawk, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 640 President; Jason Smith, Arizona Public Service (APS) Energy Innovation Program Consultant; Katherine Stainken, Electrification Coalition (EC) Senior Director of Electric Vehicle Policy; Kathy Knoop, General Motors Vehicle Grid Integration Solutions Manager; Lisa Perez, Public Affairs Consultant; Omar Gonzales, Nikola Corporation State and Local Government Affairs Manager; Tim Sprague, Habitat Metro Owner; and Vianey Olivarria, CHISPA Arizona State Co-Director. 

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.

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