The Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance and NAFA Fleet Management Association sent a letter to state governors and the Federal Highway Administration outlining a set of recommendations designed to direct the development of affordable, equitable, and reliable electric vehicle charging infrastructure, particularly as states look to spend money from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, established by the federal Infrastructure and Transportation Investment Act.
“As we confront increasing economic and public health risks due to the climate crisis — as well as volatile petroleum prices — we must ensure rapid electrification of the transportation sector,” said Sara Forni, director of clean vehicles at the sustainability nonprofit Ceres and director of the Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance, a group of major companies committed to growing the electric vehicle market in the U.S. “In addition to supporting individual users, ensuring that infrastructure put into place today supports the successful electrification of fleet and networked vehicles, is particularly important, as high-mileage fleet vehicles represent an outsized contribution to emissions.”
“New chargers must be reliable, equitable, accessible, and provide the power levels that fleets and individual users need to accomplish their business.,” Forni added. “If states choose to act on these recommendations, they will be helping to significantly reduce the local impacts of respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, improve air quality, bolster domestic energy security, and strengthen the economy.”
Nearly 2.5 million on-road vehicles are owned, leased, or operated by the 31 firms that make up the Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance, which is administered by Ceres and includes businesses including Amazon, Best Buy, DHL, Hertz, and Otis. These businesses are dedicated to cooperating to create a market where electric vehicle models are accessible to all businesses, suitable for both commercial and vocational needs, and competitively priced with internal combustion engine cars.
At the national, regional, and local levels, the NAFA Fleet Management Association has more than 2,000 individual fleet manager members from businesses, utilities, public safety, education, and governmental organizations. According to the two parties, excursions that require fleet operators to travel far distances from their fleet depots or homes would necessitate the use of strategically positioned, economically viable, and interoperable public electric car charging infrastructure.
