DETROIT (WXYZ) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was in Detroit to unveil a Binational EV Corridor that will run through Southeastern Michigan and part of Ontario, Canada.
Officials say this will be the first-of-its-kind corridor to cross national boundaries. It will stretch from Kalamazoo to Quebec City. It will feature DC fast chargers about every 50 miles.
Electric vehicle drivers like Ray Rahal of Dearborn Heights say charging stations are easy to use, but he wishes there were more. He's owned a Tesla for six years.
"I love it. It’s great,” Rahal said. “I've been seeing more charging stations come up.”
While more are being built, Rahal feels that lack of public fast chargers is why many people are hesitant to buy electric vehicles. He says it can be a challenge for long road trips.
“It’s not like gas stations. There’s not one every few miles down the road,” Rahal said. "Anytime I want to go to Chicago or leave the state, I just have to account for it. And sometimes if you miss a charging station, you’re afraid 'oh God, I have to turn back.'”
The lack of prevalent chargers is a problem the U.S. and Canadian governments say they want to address. Standing along the Detroit River, Buttigieg was joined by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Canadian Minister of Transport Omar Algbhabra to announce a new international EV corridor nearly 900 miles long.
“This transition is not happening overnight, but it’s happening quickly,” Buttigieg said. "I think it’s fitting that this first U.S. and Canada EV corridor runs through Detroit and Windsor, two of the world's great auto manufacturing centers.”
The corridor will stretch from Kalamazoo to Quebec City, with fast DC chargers no more than 50 miles apart.
“As we move between our countries either in the tunnel, the Ambassador Bridge or the new Gordie Howe Bridge, we want the experience for those driving electric vehicles to be seamless,” Duggan said.
It’s part of an overall plan to build 500,000 EV chargers in the U.S., with $110 million being invested in Michigan. It’s unclear when all the chargers along the corridor will be installed, but EV drivers hope it’s soon, making those long trips much easier.
“I do believe that electric vehicles are going to be the future, so it’s about time they make it more accessible for people,” Rahal said.
The corridor is part of the U.S. and Canada’s partnership on electric vehicle charging standards and the development of cross-border alternative fuel corridors.
The goal of investing in the Binational EV Corridor is to boost domestic manufacturing, strengthen supply chains and create good paying jobs, while also supporting the U.S. goal of having 50% of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030 and the Canadian goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
