Recent statements by the White House indicate the US government’s intention to make “the most transformative investment in electric vehicle charging in U.S. history that will put us on the path to a convenient and equitable network of 500,000 chargers and make EVs accessible to all Americans for both local and long-distance trips”. To make this epic achievement possible, the program proposes to offer $7.5 billion in grants supporting innovative approaches to meet the EV charger deployment needs (see Table 1 at the bottom of the article).

The jump from 45,000 EV chargers currently available in the US to 500,000 units cannot be made without the active participation of business entities, creative third-party financing, and innovation from utilities.

As Jigar Shah, director of the Loan Programs Office at the U.S. Department of Energy, stated recently that new EV infrastructure should be linked to "business model innovation that actually makes sure private sector dollars can make a lot of money." In other words, the government grant money, rather than being the sole source of funding, becomes just a "catalyst" that proves the business model to support robust private and utility investment.

Just as the government does not want to see its grant money wasted, the private business interests would want to see a healthy return on their investment. By thoroughly researching the EV charger network expansion, an EV charger company can raise its chances of (a) winning a bid for a government grant, and (b) demonstrating to private investors that their money will be not only utilized for the common good but also provide a substantial ROI.

The research of this level of complexity involves a multifactor analysis with processing a vast amount of complex data – exactly the kind of challenge that Ticon is especially adept at solving for c-store, retail, and real estate industry customers. Our data analytics platform conducts comprehensive data mining, followed by an AI-processed solution that indicates the optimum location(s) based on pre-assigned criteria, such as utilization rate, air quality, equity goals, economic impact, among many others.

As a recognized leader in data analytics services, with impetus on traffic flow and demographics-based analysis, we developed a specialized product, ChargEV™ - a report that provides focused statistical analysis for EV density, EV charger density, and demographics in the area surrounding the site of interest, in addition to the AADT traffic data.

By partnering with Tricon and utilizing our customizable ChargEV™ report as a part of the charger network expansion plan, an EV charger manufacturer will greatly increase the chances of winning the grant bids and securing private investment. We value the importance of doing it together to make sure that all households are able to benefit from the infrastructure and the benefits the EV chargers bring, environmental as well as economical.