GM and Bechtel plan EV fast-charging network
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General Motors and Bechtel, the country's largest construction company, are forming a new venture that will build thousands of electric vehicle charging stations around the country.
Why it matters: EVs account for just 1% of vehicle sales in the U.S., partly because consumers are concerned about whether there will be enough places to charge them.
- Adding more fast-charging stations could boost EV sales, notes CNN, which was first to report the deal.
- As seen in the chart above, the International Energy Agency's annual global look shows the numbers of EVs on the road are steadily growing.
Details: Many of the new fast chargers will be in densely populated urban areas, serving apartment dwellers, rather than along highways where most fast chargers are clustered today.
- "The way we think about it, we want to put chargers where they're going to have the greatest influence on EV adoption wherever that may be," Mike Ableson, GM's VP of EV infrastructure and charging, told CNN. "I believe a lot of those are actually going to be in urban areas."
What to watch: Neither company plans to put money into the project, however, and it's not clear who's going to pay for the network, per CNN.
Go deeper: Billion-dollar bets on electric vehicles await payoff
