Prospective owners of Wyoming’s EV charging stations say investing there is too unstable.

Roger Varley doesn’t see many Teslas parked at the Point of Rocks Travel Center, near the same exit as the coal-burning Jim Bridger Power Plant along Interstate 80 in southwestern Wyoming. do not have.

In fact, Burley said the only time he’s careful is when the Tesla arrives on the back of a tow truck and is dropped off at an adjacent RV park where it gets juiced.

The RV park doesn’t have the fast-charging superchargers the state is proposing to build, but the RV connections work with a few hours of connection time. He said customers sometimes hang out at Ned’s Bar or Ned’s Café inside the travel center to kill time.

Burley said EV owners who sometimes face “range anxiety” due to strong winds that slow westbound travelers as they crawl between Laramie and along-the-way travel centers, “have a bench or park area. We are considering leaving it there and waiting.” I-80.

Everyone seems satisfied with Mr. Burley’s secret bill. For customers who leave thinking they’ve been charged more than a fair fare, Mr. Burley charges them about $30, with an occasional $20 tip if he helps them out.

“We have no idea how much it costs to power a car,” he says. “At the end of the day, we’re both happy.”

No return guarantee

Burley joins others in Wyoming who are throwing their hands behind a federally funded program to build an electric vehicle (EV) charging network across Wyoming’s interstate highway system.

Burley, like other business owners, said there are still too many questions to answer before investing his money. He said more efforts are needed to materialize a viable EV plan that is viable in the long term.

That recurring program was halted last year while the state reconsidered what it wanted. The program is moving forward again, examining what needs to happen at fueling stations and elsewhere to make that happen.

Varley represents some EV interests with an interest in fast-charging EV stations.

“We don’t see a lot of EVs, especially in the winter, but we’re seeing more of them now than we used to,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s not economical to invest in a station where you only make one or two stops each month. If we see lines forming, we’ll reconsider.”

wait a minute

Last May, Wyoming’s EV plan was put on hold over concerns that the state could face higher bills if unprofitable stations were eliminated. There were also concerns that the $24 million offered to Wyoming was not enough.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation has given new investors until the end of this month the opportunity to come up with new ideas and gauge potential station owners’ interest in participating in the federally supported National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. .

NEVI will provide approximately $24 million over five years to Wyoming to build 17 charging stations along Interstate 80, Interstate 25, and Interstate 90. Did.

The program requires a 20% match from the private company that will build and operate the station.

The federal government plans to provide funding to support broadcasting stations for up to five years. The program did not require state funding.

After five years, each company can operate its charging stations independently.

needs a plan

Garrick Johnson regularly drives 525 miles from his home in Aurora, Colorado, to his uncle’s travel center.

“We don’t have as many destination charging stations in Wyoming as I would like,” Johnson said. “Wyoming is a very unforgiving place.”

There were several close calls, especially when the wind howled eastward and the Tesla’s range was shortened as it headed to the travel center in Burley. He drives Interstate 25 from Fort Collins to US 287 and finally to Laramie to connect to Interstate 80 (his stretch home to the travel center) .

However, winter weather and strong wind gusts have led to less use of Tesla’s driving range.

“Going west is even more difficult because once you cross the Continental Divide, there’s always a headwind,” he says.

Depending on how hard I’m battling the wind, I’ll probably stop at the Fairfield Inn & Suites on Centennial Drive in Laramie, which has a Tesla fast-charging station.

He arrives at Burley’s travel center with a half-tank of juice and plugs his Tesla into a small amp charger at his family’s RV campsite. In that case, charging will take a considerable amount of time.

“You always have to keep advance planning in mind,” he said.

Do you jump with excitement?

The state’s new car dealers aren’t too happy to jump on WYDOT and the NEVI program, either.

This is because car dealers who sell new cars are implementing their own initiatives. Fast charging stations are in various stages of installation, with some open to the public and others off-limits.

“They’re installing them whether they qualify for funding or not,” said Marcia Allen, executive vice president of the Wyoming Automobile Dealers Association.

The trade group represents 49 new car dealerships in the state, from Cheyenne and Casper to Cody and Jackson. The advocacy group says its members are investing in chargers at dealerships for the EVs they sell.

“They want to support their customers and maintain their partnership with manufacturers,” Allen said. “The cost is coming out of their pocket.”

Kelly Little, director of government affairs for the Associated General Contractors of Wyoming, said the state’s EV industry is a budding industry made up primarily of out-of-state drivers looking to travel from one end of the state to the other. I see it as.

“This has the potential to revitalize our state’s EV industry,” said Little, whose general contractor group is responsible for much of the highway construction in the state. “The current thinking is that this station is for people visiting EVs from out of state, because so few Wyoming residents own EVs. But that number continues to grow. .”

jury fraud

Burley, whose family has owned Point of Rocks Travel Center since 1945, said he is ready and willing to invest in charging station infrastructure as soon as the state is in turmoil.

“Right now, it makes no sense to spend our money when the country appears to be dragging its feet,” he said.

Burley said that when a Tesla vehicle comes to his business that needs charging, it’s often at the end of a tow truck. There are several places to charge his RV at his park, but they are regular power outlets and are not specifically designed for charging EVs.

For travelers heading west from Laramie, Tesla’s last Supercharger on Interstate 80, Burley said, “If you get to Point of Rocks to refuel, you’ve either miscalculated or the wind has lost your range.” It’s either gotten shorter,” he said.

“If you use a camper trailer plug-in, you can also accommodate EVs parked here, but you can’t do fast charging,” he says. “Not all kilowatts are equal.”

Varley calculates the cost of an EV while plugged into a camper trailer due to a complex formula that includes peak and non-peak power rates, and the slow flow of 50 amps of electricity coming out of the power cord. said it is difficult. At the camper park.

According to the state’s plan, each station will have at least four fast-charging ports that can simultaneously produce 150 kilowatts of juice, enough for a 20-minute fill-up. This is more than Varley would like to add to the travel center, primarily due to the cost of building it.

Burley also sees problems with WYDOT’s plan to build a station every 50 miles and within a mile of an interstate exit. While WYDOT would support the possibility of a waiver, Varley said he mutually believed that placing stations twice his distance of 50 miles could be a better starting point. ing.

“If the state can’t make it a profitable business, then there’s a problem,” Burley said. “I just want the state to make sure the infrastructure is in place because there are a lot of unknowns.”

Pat Maio It can be accessed at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.