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Irving has announced a partnership with Volta Charging to use its PredictEV technology to best determine where additional public charging should be located.
PredictEV scans electric vehicle registrations in an area to get a sense of where the cars call home, whether or not those homes have access to a home charger, existing charging infrastructure, the driving range of EVs, as well as more nuanced data like income, discretionary spending and identifying disadvantaged communities.
Identifying the most ideal places to locate charging is becoming a priority among cities as they seek local, state and federal funding assistance. Those funding streams are often tied to some analysis to ensure the charges are being equitably distributed for drivers of all income and housing levels.
As EV adoption increases in cities across the country and the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation prepares to distribute $1.25 billion for community charging through the Discretionary Grant Program for Charging and Fueling Infrastructure, cities, utilities and other organizations will be looking for thoughtful, data-driven infrastructure strategies.
“With state and federal funding for electric vehicle charging stations available, it’s prudent to look at how Irving can use those dollars to provide an additional service to the community by enhancing transportation infrastructure in Irving,” said April Reiling, director of communications for the city of Irving, adding, “[The city] is looking to the future and excited to grow EV charging stations for not just the community, but also drivers coming to Irving for work, leisure and play.”
Irving, a city of about 254,000 residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, has 10 Level 2 chargers located at city facilities such as City Hall, the library and the city’s convention center.
“The city is looking to expand electric vehicle charging stations at several different locations throughout Irving to support the energy needs of electric vehicle drivers,” Reiling said.
There are about 80,000 EVs registered in Texas.
*This story originally ran in Government Technology, sister publication to Industry Insider — Texas.
