Under an amendment added last week to a state request for proposals for new electrical vehicle charging stations receiving federal funds, companies must include a Tesla-compatible plug. According to Reuters News Service, Kentucky is reportedly the first state to make that a requirement. Transportation Secretary Jim Gray said he’s an EV driver who has experienced range anxiety – and he looks forward to more charging stations being built.
“And I’m looking forward to the, every 50 miles, having a station, a fast-charging station, you know, we’re going to have about 38 fast charging stations on all 11 interstates and eight parkways that’s what the plan is.”
With new electric vehicle battery plants planned across Kentucky — including the $1 billion Ascend Elements plant that broke ground last year in Hopkinsville — the Beshear Administration is touting Kentucky as the EV battery production capitol of the nation. Gray said the governor’s been pushing new EV charging stations, too.
“The governor was relentless in calling me and saying Jim, where are we on these fast charging stations. And he was glad to hear that were top 10 in the country.”
Gray said the first new rapid-charging EV stations participating in the federal grant program should be installed by the end of the year.
This story is republished with permission from WEKU. Read the original.
John McGary is a Lexington native and Navy veteran with three decades of radio, television and newspaper experience. He comes to WEKU from The Woodford Sun, where he was editor while covering government meetings, reporting on community events and taking photographs. At the Sun, he won multiple awards for news and feature stories and columns. At WLEX-TV, John won a Midwest Regional Emmy for an investigative story about illegal dumping and in 2003, was named Best Television Reporter by the Kentucky Associated Press. In the Navy, he was named Print Journalist of the Year once and Navy Broadcaster of the Year twice. John’s radio experience includes news and starting a radio magazine show at NTC Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and co-hosting a morning news/talk show in Owensboro, Ky. while working for The Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer.
