Skip to main content

Western US governors collaborate on EV corridor

The Governors of Colorado, Utah and Nevada are to work together over the next year to develop complementary plans for building an electric vehicle charging network across key highway corridors in their states. The corridors will include Interstates 70, 76 and 25 across Colorado; Interstates 70, 80 and 15 across Utah; and Interstates 80 and 15 across Nevada. In total, the charging network will connect more than 2,000 miles of highway. This regional electric charging station network aims to address rang
December 22, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The Governors of Colorado, Utah and Nevada are to work together over the next year to develop complementary plans for building an electric vehicle charging network across key highway corridors in their states.

The corridors will include Interstates 70, 76 and 25 across Colorado; Interstates 70, 80 and 15 across Utah; and Interstates 80 and 15 across Nevada. In total, the charging network will connect more than 2,000 miles of highway.

This regional electric charging station network aims to address range anxiety, the concern that recharging may not be available for long-distance travel or trips outside of major cities. The electrification of major regional corridors is expected to facilitate the vehicle market transformation and allow smaller communities to connect to the regional system.

All three states have electric vehicle market potential. Colorado offers a US$5,000 tax credit on electric vehicle purchases and has nearly 8,000 electric vehicles on the road in Colorado today, compared to less than 100 in 2011. It has also already begun building charging stations through the Charge Ahead Colorado program.

Utah currently ranks seventh in the US for electric vehicle adoption and recently unveiled its Mighty Five Corridor initiative, while Nevada is ranked 13th in the nation for electric vehicles, with 2,104 electric vehicles and 31,937 hybrid vehicles registered in the state. It has a goal to complete an electric highway system serving the entire state by 2020.

Related Content

  • Reconnecting communities with infrastructure improvements
    January 7, 2025
    Hundreds of projects to reconnect US communities separated by roadways will launch in 2025. Mary Scott Nabers takes a look at a few of them and outlines what’s involved
  • IBTTA road usage charging conference opens
    April 28, 2015
    The US toll road industry is gathering in Portland this week to discuss road usage charging (RUC), the mechanism that allows drivers to pay by the mile for their use of roads. Opening the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association’s (IBTTA) Transportation Financing and Road Usage Charging Conference, Patrick Jones, executive director, said a ‘sea change in thinking’ was needed to help find stable sources of funding for surface transportation. Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer told conferen
  • Missouri’s Road to Tomorrow provides ITS answers
    December 22, 2015
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at Missouri’s plans to become America’s ITS testbed The state of Missouri launched its Road to Tomorrow initiative earlier this summer at the ITS America Annual Meeting and Expo in Pittsburgh, rolling out the welcome mat for transportation officials to try out new, innovative ITS technologies in the field.
  • Electric vehicles in construction are the future, say researchers
    December 20, 2016
    The industrial and commercial sector is the largest part of the electric vehicle value market and that will continue to be the case according to analysis in the IDTechEx report, Industrial and Commercial Electric Vehicles 2017-2027. Buses are the largest part of that and they are mainly made in China for China, where typical orders are ten times the size of orders elsewhere. Less dramatically, construction, mining and agriculture do not see 70 per cent grants for EV versions yet they are steadily becomin