With help from a federally funded initiative, the state Department of Transportation recently announced plans to install 11 electric vehicle fast-charging stations — each capable of charging four cars simultaneously within 20 minutes — on Hawaii island, Maui, Kauai, Oahu, Lanai and Molokai.
It’s a good start. And of course, it won’t be enough. The increasingly rapid adoption of EVs here and nationwide foreshadows a future when many, or most, or all of the vehicles on Hawaii’s roads will be electric — a revolution in quiet, clean transportation.
The state expects to get $6.1 million in federal funds for the first two years of its five-year rollout through the National EV Infrastructure (NEVI) program. Hawaiian Electric is adding more fast chargers (current plans will bring the total to 32), and condominiums are gradually doing the same for their residents. EV owners who live in single-family homes, of course, can install their own cheaper, slower chargers — or even just plug into a standard outlet — and juice up their cars overnight.
These efforts may seem far-fetched now. There are more than 1 million passenger vehicles registered in Hawaii; only about 20,000 of them are electric. There are about 800 public charging ports of various charging speeds in the islands; to sustain expected growth, that number will need to more than quadruple over the next few years.
Current charger technology — Level 1, Level 2 and DC Fast (from slowest to fastest) — can take anywhere from 40 hours to 40 minutes to fully charge a battery. That’s still no match for the corner gas station, at least for now.
Nonetheless, the future appears to be electric. In fact, many automakers are betting their companies on it. They are greatly expanding their electric-car fleets at all price points; some, like General Motors, intend to go fully electric.
In Hawaii, where EV adoption is higher than most places, the Ford F-150 Lightning, the company’s first electric pickup truck, was sold out for a year — even before the first one was delivered. Proof of concept is no longer an issue.
The question is whether the technology and infrastructure can keep up with the demand. That will take a renewed, all-in investment commitment from both the public and private sectors. But if history is any guide, progress can happen faster than we think. In 1903, the Wright brothers made their first airplane flight. Less than 66 years later — well within the course of a single lifetime — men landed on the moon.
