Electric vehicle drivers can soon get a Shorti and a charge-up at some Wawas

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation recently awarded $34 million in federal grants for businesses to build fast-charging stations for electric vehicles in 35 counties across the state, part of a Federal Highway Administration program to spur the development of EV infrastructure.

Outlets are planned at the massive Breezewood gas-and-go junction of Interstate 70 and the turnpike, a number of motels, existing charging hubs built by Tesla and other suppliers — and around here, Wawas in Bristol, Horsham, Lansdale, Philadelphia, and Woodlyn.

The 2021 bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $7.5 billion over five years to help make EV charging more accessible nationally. Pennsylvania expects to get about $172 million.

“The electric-vehicle fleet is growing in Pennsylvania — there will be more tomorrow than today and more the day after that,” Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll said at an announcement event outside Scranton on Aug. 15.

“It’s imperative we give people the ability to get where they’re going without wondering where they’ll be able to charge their vehicle next,” Carroll said.

Pennsylvania had 47,400 fully electric vehicles registered at the end of 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. New Jersey had 87,030.

Lack of charging infrastructure has been a barrier to sales of EVs, along with high sticker prices relative to vehicles that run on fossil fuels. In turn, that complicates the ambitious federal goal that 50% of the nation’s new cars and trucks be electric by 2030, in order to reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming.

Automakers are rapidly expanding production capacity, which will bring economies of scale that could help lower sticker prices.

A major goal of the EV charging program is to use federal dollars to stimulate private investment in the technology, as well as in batteries and vehicles, said Andrew Rogers, deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

“The ecosystem of charging that’s already underway is really impressive,” Rogers said in an interview. “The private sector has just stepped up in ways that have demonstrated the catalyzing effect of the law.”

Wawa, one of the largest sellers of gasoline on the East Coast, already has charging stations at a number of stores, and transitioning to alternative fuels is part of the company’s strategic plan, CEO Chris Gheysens said in January at a Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce event.

The company is Tesla’s top retail partner in North America and also has some chargers by providers such as EVgo that work with a variety of connectors and vehicles.

“So we can pivot more quickly when things change,” Gheysens said. “We think there’s a very long tail to gasoline. … It’s going to take awhile [but] we want to be an energy marketer” and adapt to customer demand.

Wawa had 675 Tesla Superchargers distributed across 82 stores, a spokesperson confirmed to The Inquirer last April. It also had about 30 outposts with universal chargers, she said.

Each new Pennsylvania project must undergo an environmental review, so it’s unclear when the charging stations might open. But officials said some work may begin later this year.

A McDonald’s in Bucks County and a Royal Farms in Delaware County also were selected for the new charging stations.

Since the Biden administration took office in 2021, the number of publicly available charging stations has increased 40%, with the private sector investing $130 billion in that effort, and developing longer-lasting EV batteries and production lines for the vehicles, Rogers said.

Last month, seven automakers from Detroit, Asia, and Europe joined in an effort to build 30,000 fast-charging ports in the United States and Canada that will work with any brand of electric vehicle. The companies said one of their main goals was to qualify for federal subsidies for charging infrastructure. Fast chargers can replenish a drained battery in 10 to 30 minutes.

Now, consumers must deal with a variety of charging technologies that differ among brands and are not interchangeable. Tesla, for instance, has built thousands of stations that work only with Tesla electric vehicles.

The federal Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure program establishes universal standards for the stations. They must work with every type of equipment and vehicle model, consistently deliver enough current to charge vehicles quickly, and accept all forms of payment, from credit and debit cards to digital wallets, Rogers said.

Tesla, for example, is receiving money for a number of the 54 projects in Pennsylvania, and it will build universal charging stations at those locations.

“A public charging network isn’t good if it can’t work with the vehicles it’s intended to serve,” Rogers said. “We’ve harmonized the standards” for receiving federal funds.

Inquirer staff writers Katie Krzaczek and Lizzy McClellan Ravitch contributed to this article.