Ames, Iowa — The Iowa Transportation Commission has approved moving ahead with plans to use federal money to install more electric car chargers along the interstate highway system.
The DOT’s Stuart Anderson says the next step is to get documents ready.
He says they will get input on the applications and then hope send them out by mid-November, and get applications back by early next year.
Anderson says. He says they expect to get a lot of interest.
Iowa’s allocation of the federal funding is a little more than 50 million dollars.
He says the cost of putting in the charges is expected to vary significantly from site to site, as there are very specific power requirements for proper power levels to charge vehicles in a timely manner. And he says there’s also requirements that these be operational and reliable chargers. Anderson says the idea of the program is to get a start on building the infrastructure so those with electric cars can feel confident in traveling away from home.
It’s not known how many chargers may be installed in the first round as the price can vary quite a bit depending on what is needed to get them up and running at each site.
