Federal grant follows a 2023 visit by Biden to promote Milwaukee-made electric chargers. But city's EV buying is slow.
From the Article:
Backed by a federal grant, the City of Milwaukee intends to install publicly-accessible electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at 53 locations with 228 total ports.
Senator Tammy Baldwin announced the $14.9 million Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) grant Friday.
“This grant announcement is wonderful news for the people of Milwaukee. It is a big stride forward in achieving our city’s climate and equity goals,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson in an announcement distributed by Baldwin’s office. “I am extremely grateful to Senator Baldwin for her work and her guidance that led to this award. And I am similarly grateful to the Biden-Harris administration for prioritizing investments to reduce our reliance on fuels with the greatest climate impacts.”
City officials, during the 2023 adoption of the Climate and Equity Plan, said they were pursuing a grant to fund charging stations. The city, in early 2023, also adopted an electric vehicle purchasing plan for its own fleet.
In August 2023, President Joe Biden visited Milwaukee to tour Ingeteam, which is assembling EV chargers in its Menomonee Valley facility. The company added the line to the facility due to expected business originating from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is investing in Wisconsin’s future, creating countless good-paying jobs upgrading the infrastructure that families rely on to get to work and school. I am proud to have secured strong Buy America standards to ensure that we are using American workers and American products while we build out the infrastructure to give people more ways to travel around our state,” said Baldwin. “I worked hard to deliver this funding which invests in emission-free vehicle infrastructure, helping to improve the air our children breathe and creating more opportunities for Wisconsin workers to break into a family-supporting career that will only grow in the coming years.”
At 280 thousand dollars a location and 65 thousand per plug this mix of L2 and fast chargers better be nearly all fast chargers and not just glorified drier outlets, which is nevertheless a shame because the city almost certainly doesn’t need more than two or three large fast chargers, and instead needs a lot of L2 chargers near businesses so people can carge while at work/ shopping.