BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Starting in 2035, all new cars sold in New York State must be fully electric. That means the number of EVs on the road will quickly climb - but even now current EV drivers say the state doesn't have enough working public chargers in many areas.
Joe Mendola lives in North Buffalo and bought his Tesla after renting one and finding out how much he enjoyed driving an EV.
"I never thought I'd like it as much as I do - but it ruined me for gas cars," Mendola said. "It handles good - I'd compare it to a BMW 3 series, I've had a couple of those. As far as it handles on the road -it's AWD for the winters. It's like 60 cents to charge it at your house."
The problem, Mendola says, comes when he looks for public charging.
"You'll never really know which ones are actually working - until you get there. The app might tell you, but a lot of the time you get there and they're broken," he explained.
In Erie County right now, there are more than 7,000 EVs on the road. Many drivers say they enjoy the benefits of electric cars, but that public charging infrastructure in our area needs to catch up, especially with the state's ambitious plans.
As of December 6th, PlugShare shows 701 public EV chargersin the Buffalo/Cheektowaga/Niagara Falls area. The number grows practically every day, but it only shows the number of chargers in each place, not whether or not the chargers are offline. If you look through the map of chargers and click on different locations, you can find comments from users saying many of them aren't working.
Charge Point operates many of the public chargers in Western New York. The company's website asks users to report chargers that aren't working through the app or by calling a support line - but also says the station owner is responsible for maintenance.
"We estimate 20-25 percent of the chargers one way or another are not in a position of full-functionality," said Paul Stasiak, the President of the Niagara Frontier Auto Dealers Association.
"Someone might go to a charging station - they've got three or four chargers, and only one of them is working," explained Joe Hurley with Northtown Automotive. "So the infrastructure is probably not where we need it now."
Another issue, some drivers say, is that most of the chargers in the Western New York area are Level 2 chargers, which take hours to fully charge a car. They're ideal for plugging into overnight or while you're at work, but some drivers prefer "fast chargers," which can charge most cars in about 45 minutes. Right now, however, there are no public fast chargers in the City of Buffalo.
"There's nothing around here. It's like a barren wasteland of fast chargers. Truly it is!" Mendola laughed.
That's why the state is working with utility companies to install more chargers around the area. Through the "EV Make Ready Program" National Grid is working to install 16,000 charging ports across the state. Businesses that install chargers through the program can get up to 100% of the cost covered, based on what kind of charger is installed, and where it is.
"We have about 2800 that are fully installed. So we have a long way to go, a lot of opportunity. Our biggest challenge is finding the customers to say yes and move forward with us," explained Whitney Skeans with National Grid. "We're looking for business customers to take us up on that opportunity to enable the future of clean transportation."
New York State's Public Service Commission recently increased the EV Make-Ready Program's budget to more than $1 billion. Skeans says now is the time for businesses like restaurants, hotels, and offices to look into installing chargers.
"If they don't have EV charging, and they're behind these incentives, they may miss out. They may miss out on the dollars," she explained. "That customer who is coming and parking there - might shop longer, might stay longer."
Mendola says he plans to continue driving his EV, but says public charging needs to improve if the plan is for more of them to be on the road.
"If they really want to push this electric car thing - they have to do something about it. For sure," he said.
