Sen. Harding: CT Families Can’t Afford Rent or Mortgage Payments Because of Electric Bills

Electric vehicles are popular in just a few Connecticut towns. Here’s why.

Infrastructure limitations and up-front costs are keeping EV ownership concentrated in the wealthiest areas of the state. Fixing those issues isn’t easy — or cheap.

Hearst CT
Oct 2, 2024

More people own electric vehicles in Fairfield County than in any other county in the state.

Just 11 towns in the state boasted an EV ownership rate of more than 5% as of July.

Of those towns, seven are in Fairfield County.

Home to towns like Greenwich, New Canaan, Weston and Westport, Fairfield is the wealthiest county in the state.

In August, the average price of an EV was more than $56,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. That’s about $10,000 more than a gas-powered vehicle.

But about half of Connecticut’s 169 towns have an EV ownership rate of less than 2%. Waterbury in New Haven County, New Britain in Hartford County and Bridgeport in Fairfield County have some of the lowest ownership rates in the state.

The concentration of EVs in Fairfield County, and the scarcity of them most everywhere else in the state, shows why state legislators scrapped plans in March to phase out the sale of new, gas-powered cars by 2035.

To reach those zero-emissions goals, they’ll need support from more than just one county.

Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, co-chairman of the legislative Environment Committee, said the large number of commuters in Fairfield County makes it an ideal electric or hybrid vehicle environment. He’s found people in Fairfield County to be more likely to take advantage of the state’s EV rebate program, CHEAPR, which offers financial incentives for the purchase of a new electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

“If I’m going to be in stop-and-start traffic, even on the highway, the EV is a better choice,” Gresko said, “because I don’t have to even deal with any potential range anxiety. I know I’m just going from point A to point B in Fairfield County.”

Gresko also said a concentration of EV infrastructure in and around Fairfield County remedies drivers’ fears that they’ll run out of charge.

The same can’t always be said for people in other parts of the state who may be trekking longer distances and through towns without a single charging station.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced funding for nine more charging stations across the state in June, and towns like West Hartford are building up infrastructure to support a growing interest in zero-emissions vehicles.

Still, more than 30 towns in the state have no EV charging stations.

Some towns have just one.

A bulk of the state’s charging stations are concentrated on the southern edge of the state and in Hartford, while EV infrastructure in the rest of the state is patchy.

“When someone loses power to their vehicle and they’re driving on the highway, how do we make sure that they’re going to be safe?” asked Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, “There’s so many different things that we still need to look at.”

While improved infrastructure would make driving an EV more feasible for the average person, Sen. Steve Harding, R-Brookfield, said it’s impractical to ask electrical companies to spend money to update infrastructure that would increase the average residents’ already high electrical rates.

This spring, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority passed a bill allowing Eversource and UI to recoup the cost of building out electric vehicle charging infrastructure by increasing the charges on the public benefits portion of residents’ electric bills.

“When you have families that can’t afford to make their rent payments or their mortgage payments because of the latest electric bills, I think it’s ungodly to consider implementing a program in which you would raise their electric rates,” Harding said.

And if the infrastructure and cost aren’t turning people away, Osten said the sheer effort it takes to buy and own an EV — from finding one that suits your needs to applying for rebates and finding both the places and time to charge it — dissuades many.

She said if the state wants to make EVs attractive to rural communities, better resources are needed to offset the inconveniences.

“Nobody’s saying that it’s not the right thing or it is the right thing,” Osten said. “We need to do more work, and we need to be prepared. We need to ask questions and get answers on how we’re going to make this work.”

https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/article/ev-ct-charging-stations-19788894.php