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Iowa electric vehicle registrations up nearly 30%, but charging stations lag
New user fee for public chargers to pay for road maintenance starts Saturday
Erin Jordan
Jul. 1, 2023 6:00 am, Updated: Jul. 7, 2023 9:26 am
Electric vehicle registrations in Iowa went up 28 percent in 2022, but there are only 16 percent more charging stations from a year ago as the state faces delays in implementing a federally-funded charging expansion.
Iowa’s EV charging landscape still is uneven, with metro areas generally having enough charging stations — although not always the in-demand fast chargers — but with some rural communities lacking even one public charging station.
“You can get gasoline anywhere, but you can’t get a charge everywhere,” said Mike Carberry, a former Johnson County Board of Supervisors member from Iowa City. He recently bought a 2023 Chevy Bolt, an electric vehicle. “I drive up to Independence a lot for work on their wind and solar ordinance. I don’t think there’s an electric charger in the whole county.”
At the end of 2022, Iowa had 10,712 registered electric vehicles, up 28 percent from 8,370 at the end of 2021, the Iowa Department of Transportation reported.
Electric vehicle sales are expected to grow even more this year because of a $7,500 tax credit for new, qualified EVs and a $4,000 credit for used vehicles. While EVs are the fastest-growing sector of vehicle registrations in Iowa, they still make up only a sliver of about 4 million registered vehicles in the state.
“An important point to keep in mind is these are big percentage increases of pretty small numbers,” said Stu Anderson, Iowa DOT director of the transportation development division.
More demand for fast charging
While most electric vehicle drivers do most of their charging at home, they also are looking for fast-charging sites in the community and on the highway.
Iowa has 320 public charging locations with a total 698 charging ports, according to a U.S. Department of Energy database. This is up about 16 percent from 276 public charging stations this time last year.
About two-thirds of Iowa’s charging sites are Level 2, which use between 208 to 240 volts and add 12 to 80 miles per hour of charging. The rest are Level 3, or fast chargers, which use between 400 to 800 volts to charge at a rate of 2 to 30 miles per minute of charging.
Level 2 charging often is offered free at convenience stores, grocery stores and other businesses, which likely expect customers will spend money inside while waiting for their EV to charge. Level 3 often comes with a fee.
“It’s clear there is more demand for charging infrastructure — DC fast charging — along corridors,” Anderson said.
Charging build-out delayed
Iowa is approved to spend more than $51 million in federal money over five years to expand EV charging capacity along interstates, including I-80, I-380, I-35 and I-29.
The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program will provide $5 billion nationally through 2026 for new charging stations at least every 50 miles and within 1 mile of interstates.
Iowa has access to the first two years of funding, but hasn’t yet finalized its plan for allocating the money to private companies that will add the new charging stations.
The Iowa DOT wants to make sure it can verify grantees are following federal requirements, such as having the charging stations operational 97 percent of the time, Anderson said. Some states have raised other concerns, such as whether their electric grids can support the additional charging and if the “Buy America” requirement for the infrastructure will cause supply chain delays, Smart Cities Dive reported.
“We feel like we’re getting closer,” Anderson said about Iowa’s rollout. “We’re still hoping to put out our notice of funding availability for applications later this summer. We hope to announce the first round of projects by the end of the calendar year.”
New EV user fee starts
Starting Saturday, the owners of non-residential EV charging stations will have to pay a 2.6-cent per kilowatt-hour fee for all electricity charged at their terminals. To charge a 2023 Bolt to its full capacity, the user fee would be $1.69.
The new fee, passed by the Iowa Legislature in 2019, is intended to replace gas taxes EV owners no longer are paying. Fuel tax makes up 40 percent of the State Road Use Tax Fund, which pays for maintaining and improving roads and bridges at the state, county and city levels.
“The recommendations developed and adopted were done to establish fees to only replace what is not being collected in fuel tax,” Anderson said. “There’s no effort to generate more road use taxes than is already being collected.”
The new user fee is on top of an EV registration fee of $130 a year for battery EVs and $65 for plug-in hybrid EVs — which itself is on top of the usual vehicle registration fee.
Carberry said it feels like too many extra charges for people who buy electric vehicles, already more expensive than gas-powered cars.
“We should be incentivizing people to have electric cars,” he said. “We want people to go there if we believe in climate change.”
Owners of charging stations are split about whether to pass the new user fee on to EV drivers.
Kum & Go, which offers Level 2 and Level 3 EV charging at 21 locations, including in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Coralville, will raise the price of charging by 2.6 cents per kilowatt-hour to cover the new state fee, said Jacob Maass, senior fuels pricing manager.
Hy-Vee, with charging stations at 30 grocery stores, including those in Coralville, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, will not pass on the charge right away.
“As we continue to evaluate the impact of this, customers will not see any immediate change from our typical usage requirements at charging stations at this time,” spokeswoman Tina Potthoff said in an email.
Park CR offers Level 2 EV charging in the Convention Center Ramp and the Fourth Avenue Ramp in Cedar Rapids. Electric vehicle owners who want to charge there pay the hourly rate for parking and will not see that price increase with the new user fee, said General Manager Ryan Baack.
Coralville, which provides free charging ports in parking ramps at 906 Quarry Rd. and near University of Iowa Health Care in Iowa River Landing, will continue to offer the electricity free for now, Parking and Transportation Director Vicky Robrock said.
Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com