3 ways to help EV charging bloom in ​‘charging deserts’

For EV chargers to take off in disadvantaged communities, we’ll need public-sector support — and private-sector innovation to make the economics work.

It’s hard to get EV chargers to bloom in ​“charging deserts.”

More than seven in 10 EV chargers in the U.S. are in the country’s wealthiest counties, according to recent research, while many rural, low-income and disadvantaged communities have few if any places for EV drivers to plug in.

There’s a reason that EV chargers are concentrated in the richest, and whitest, parts of the country: That’s where most EV owners live today. Without enough EV drivers to pull up and plug in, charging companies can’t make enough money to justify the cost of installing and maintaining EV infrastructure.

State and federal EV charging programs have set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to install chargers in disadvantaged communities, but those programs haven’t necessarily tackled the biggest challenge for charging deserts: finding ways for charging sites to thrive in locations that currently have low EV ownership.