Summary

This legislation directs the Public Service Commission to conduct a comprehensive assessment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure availability and develop minimum industry standards to improve reliability.

Explanation

New York State has established a goal of reaching 850,000 zero emission vehicles by 2025, and a goal for all new passenger vehicles to be zero emission by 2035. While the demand for electric vehicles has increased overall, access to charging infrastructure has created an obstacle for some drivers considering purchasing an electric vehicle. This legislation will address this issue by conducting a comprehensive assessment of the reliability of publicly funded charging stations and directing the Public Service Commission to establish minimum industry standards to improve reliability.

There are currently 140,000 electric vehicles on the road in New York State, and annual registration of new electric and plug in hybrid vehicles has climbed from 2,000 to nearly 45,000 over the last decade. Chargers are being installed statewide to meet increased demand, but they are not subject to any minimum acceptable operating standards and management is decentralized. This leads to drivers locating a charging station and arriving to find it inoperable, contributing to range anxiety, which is the feeling of worry that the vehicle battery will be completely drained before a working station is found.

To increase consumer confidence and promote electric vehicle ownership, this bill directs the Public Service Commission to determine overall reliability of charging infrastructure by measuring the amount of time chargers are operable versus inoperable. The commission will then create a service level agreement for charging station owners to reach consistent reliability. This will provide peace of mind to electric vehicle drivers and remove the barrier of range anxiety for prospective electric vehicle drivers, bringing New York closer to our goals.

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