Charging Forward Together
The automotive and electricity industries travelled parallel paths throughout the 20th century, both beginning the century in our infancy and growing to vast scale by its end. Our relationship was simple and transactive: utilities sold us power for our offices and factories, and automakers sold electric utilities cars and trucks. To the extent that we concerned ourselves with public utility regulation at all, we focused on the cost and reliability of electricity for our manufacturing plants.
Today our paths are rapidly converging. In the 21st century, electricity doesn’t just power our factories; it increasingly fuels our cars and trucks. Our EV customers depend on electric utilities for reliable and affordable mobility. For utilities, EVs are more than the latest new load they’re obliged to serve; the inherent flexibility of EV charging makes the country’s growing fleet of EVs a valuable asset to the grid—batteries on wheels. As solar and wind power replace conventional power plants, utilities will need more and more of the flexibility services that EVs can provide. Our relationship is much more complicated these days!
The Alliance of Auto Innovation (Auto Innovators) is committed to making this relationship work. Our members include manufacturers that produce nearly 99% of new cars and light trucks sold in the U.S., as well as original equipment suppliers, technology and other automotive related companies. The auto industry is at a pivotal and transformative point in history, and Auto Innovators recognizes that the future of personal mobility is increasingly electrified. The auto industry will invest over $330 billion in vehicle electrification by 2025 and more than double the available number of EV models within roughly the same timespan (over 60 EVs today growing to 130 models by 2026). These new EV models will include battery electric, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell electric technologies, with longer range, more capability, in different market segments, and at a variety of price points. Auto Innovators Get Connected Quarterly Report shows that EV sales in the third quarter of 2021 were the highest percentage of new vehicle sales of any quarter to date, highlighting the fact that the transition to broad electrification has begun.
Auto Innovators and our members are also investing in strengthening our relationships with utilities and their regulators. We are navigating the landscape of public utility regulation through commissions and municipal utilities’ governing boards and gaining insight into the decisions that will shape our customers’ experience as EV drivers. In 2021, we participated in regulatory proceedings in over two dozen states, bringing our perspective on the EV evolution and what our customers want and need. We also developed our EV Infrastructure Guiding Principles and Recommended Attributes for EV Charging Stations. We also initiated outreach to thought leaders within the community of utility regulators. We plan to ramp up those efforts in 2022 and beyond.
We’re pleased to be part of the National EV Charging Initiative and appreciate that its Guiding Principles recognize electric utilities’ crucial role. We agree that a new level of collaboration among all stakeholders—public and private—is needed to meet our goals for EV adoption. At the National EV Charging Summit, I will discuss these important topics in a conversation with Illinois Commerce Commissioner Maria Bocanegra. In addition to her role at the ICC, where she oversees a proceeding on EV policy, Commissioner Bocanegra chairs the EV Working Group of the National Association of Utility Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC). Through NARUC, she works to educate commissioners and staff across the country on the challenges and opportunities of transportation electrification. Our dialog will focus on how the auto industry can support and inform the development of policies governing our relationship with electric utilities.
Auto Innovators also commends the Initiative’s Guiding Principles for recognizing electric utilities’ crucial role and the fact that we need to rapidly scale up EV charging infrastructure in a way that ensures that EV drivers can access convenient, accessible, affordable, and reliable charging for their vehicles wherever they live, work, and play. The $7.5 billion in federal funding for EV charging infrastructure as directed in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to jumpstart building a nationwide charging and refueling infrastructure for plug-in and fuel cell electric vehicles.
And finally, to get the most bang for these bucks, we all need to row together. Auto Innovators is committed to partnering with public and private-sector stakeholders to advocate for policies that create viable business models, attract new capital sources, and stimulate competition and innovation to successfully accomplish this shift.
John Bozzella is the president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents 99 percent of the automotive industry.
