S.18.4-28: Electric Car Chargers on Parking Lots Act - Vetoed

[Former President tack50]

Thank you. As you may know, electric cars have several problems with their implementation, one of the largest being autonomy and the fact that you can't fill them up with gas in a matter of minutes like with a gasoline or diesel car, but instead have to wait for hours to get them to fully charge. This limits their uses to only a very small niche.

This bill tries to change this by having all parking lots have at least a few electric car chargers. That way people can charge their car at work, or if they are running out of electricity, simply go to a rest spot (which you should do in long trips anyways), take a meal and a walk and by the time they are back their car will be mostly charged.

Also, I designed the bill to not affect current parking lots unless they are already doing major reforms (so at that point they might as well install them) and to not make them fully mandatory until 15 years from now (by which point I hope electric cars are a lot more common)

Inspired by seeing a few electric car chargers at a shopping centre where I live, which I think is a good idea.

One of the biggest causes of polution comes from traffic. Hopefully this kind of measure can increase the percentage of vehicles that are electric or plug-in hybrid by minimizing some of their disadvantages

[Former President tack50]

I haven't been able to find data on mainteinance costs, but the installation cost seems to be (for 2014) ranging between 50 000 and 100 000$ per charger, albeit going down as technology progresses.

https://www.fleetcarma.com/dc-fast-charging-guide/

[Former President tack50]

No objection

[Former President tack50]

The most common estimate I've found seems to be that around 15% marketshare by 2030, but with new sales being around 50% or so.

I also tried to adress it in a way where at first it would only affect larger businesses, with large parking lots, where the extra cost will be smaller as a % of the total construction or reform project.

If necessary Section III.2 and III.3 could in theory be ammended as well to also give them limits, or maybe defining what a "major reform" is (if it's not defined elsewhere)

[Former President tack50]

Aye

[Former President tack50]

I undeerstand the concerns, and indeed electric cars are a minority of cars, though I tried to make the bill as small of a concern as possible to not put too big of a burden to businsesses.

Still, to try to get the bill going (as opposed to tabling it), I present the following ammendment, to try and fix those concerns:

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I also welcome any other ideas and further ammendments people may have to improve the bill.

[Former President tack50]

The amendment is an improvement, I'm still not sure requiring a mandate on a product that is unproven is the best way to go. My preference would be just having this as a tax credit. If the legislature supports the mandate route, I'd ask that at least be pushed out to 5 years+. If you perform construction on a parking lot in 6 months that require this, odds are that by the time electric cars get to the point of relevancy, you'll have to do another construction project!

You mean having the law not apply until 5 years from now? That seems fine I guess (if a bit on the long side). I do think the mandate is better than just a tax credit, especially since the cost will be (partly) subsidized and I don't view a 3% mandate for something with a 1% market share (and growing, hopefully) as too large of a burden. Plus as a mandate it ensures future drivers that there will be a charger wherever they go (as opposed to that being just getting lucky)

You could also hypothetically limit the requirement to certain types of venues, such as hospitals and abortion clinics.

Ironically, if I was looking towards limiting the requirement to certain types of venues, hospitals and abortion clinics would be among the last I'd include

[Former President tack50]

Aye

[Former President tack50]

Fair enough, disappointed but far from unexpected.

I imagine if there's interest a rewrite would just include the tax credit ammendment and get rid of the rest of the bill? (of course it could be made larger, even without a mandate).

I will not bring a rewrite for the remainder of the session, maybe for next one, but if someone else wants to bring one they have my full support.