Electric Vehicles

The West Virginia DOT wants to choose one vendor to build and maintain the first phase of the state’s charging stations, funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Biden.

The money, delivered Wednesday by a Congressional representative, comes amid struggles at an electric school bus factory, from complications with a federal subsidy rollout. It will go toward five zero-emission buses in Calumet City.

Lower EV values — combined with higher government incentives — could open the opportunity to a wider demographic of buyers to try EVs as manufacturers work to meet government sales mandates.

A poll of 600 likely voters in the November general election found more than half felt it important for the state to become the center of electric vehicle manufacturing — but only about one-quarter would consider buying an EV.

A new report on micromobility ridership in 2023 from the National Association of City Transportation Officials examines trends in the use of shared bikes and scooters, in the U.S. and Canada.

Acadia National Park had no electric bicycles on its carriage roads as recently as five years ago. Today, that’s a different story. Fully half of the bicycles rolling along its scenic roads today are e-bikes, officials said.

East Lansing-based ADASTEC will bring the vehicle to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore within the week, then program and test it with a safety driver. Lakeshore tours on the bus will be available starting in mid-August.

Across the state, voters in five districts nixed buying electric school buses and instead approved buying traditional ones. Even voters in progressive-leaning Ithaca agreed to buy just two.

The South Pasadena Police Department is now comprised of 20 Tesla vehicles, a transition that is nearly complete. As electrifying fleets rises in popularity, the force is among the first in the nation to go all electric.

GreenWealth Energy and Voltpost will expand low-speed, dwell charging at multifamily housing locations and curbside, to make electric vehicles a more workable solution for renters and people with lower incomes.

On an empty site where a motor home factory previously stood, Georgia bus maker Blue Bird is now building a 600,000-square-foot, 400-worker factory to produce electric school buses.

In the year’s second quarter, 704 EV charging stations came online nationwide — bringing the total number of public fast-charging sites to nearly 9,000. At this rate, they will outnumber U.S. gas stations inside a decade.

Traveling across the West in an electric car turned out to have unexpected thrills, and occasional frustrations. Our reporter found that the chargers were out there — but connecting with them sometimes meant taking the long way around.

The bus maker will receive the money under the Domestic Auto Manufacturing Conversion Grants program plan, which aims to spur U.S. production of electric, hydrogen or hybrid vehicles. It will convert a factory to produce the buses.

The first electric vehicle charging station funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act opened for business last December in London, Ohio. More are set to open in Maine, Colorado and Vermont this year.

Nine Connecticut municipalities, including Danbury and New Milford, will receive conditional awards from the state Department of Transportation to build out electrical vehicle charging stations. The awards top $5 million.

The money from the U.S. Department of Transportation will enable a fleet of more than 20 buses at Acadia National Park to move off propane and get electrified. Replacement is estimated to take three to four years.

Two grant proposals from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District each received $4.5 million from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. One would replace dirty-burning agricultural tractors; the other, heavy-duty diesel trucks.