'Good pandemonium' as Indiana races toward plans for a new era of electric vehicles

After 35 miles of fields and farmland outside the southern tip of Indianapolis, the small town of Hope appears suddenly with a sign that proclaims “A surprising little town.”

Town manager Jason Eckart recently introduced one of the newest surprises in the community known for hot-rod parades, barbecue cookoffs, bluegrass music on the bandstand and classic car cruise-ins: two electric vehicle charging ports on the town square.

“Hope is pretty rich in tradition,” he told a smattering of councilors and laypeople gathered for the unveiling. “We’re proud of our rural heritage. But yet, we’re able to adapt to the future.”

The new charging stations are a "big wink," Eckart said, not just the future of Hope, but the state as a whole. 

Indiana, historically a crossroads of transformational transportation innovation, is racing toward an electrified automotive future.

“Maybe not today, but very quickly, every community will need EV [electric vehicle] infrastructure,” said Rep. Carey Hamilton, D-Indianapolis, who has worked closely on electric vehicle efforts in the state. 

Indiana already trails its Midwest neighbors in the adoption of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, and lingers in the middle of the pack across the country.

The prep work, for the most part, has been happening behind the scenes in research silos for decades.

But now, market forces — including hundreds of millions in federal dollars and rapidly approaching deadlines — are coming to bear all at once, driving an accelerated push toward transformation. 

In a matter of months, the state must come up with a deployment plan for $100 million for electric vehicle infrastructure.

"We have to look forward and invest these dollars now,” said Hamilton. “If we don’t, it will be an incredible lost opportunity and a real travesty for Hoosiers.”

And it's not just state officials under the gun.

Stakeholders like utility companies, manufacturers and advocacy groups are forging new and unfamiliar partnerships.

On the product side, a consortium of industry leaders have given themselves a similar deadline to report the current state of production and labor capability.

And from the energy perspective, Indiana’s utilities are deliberating how to ensure the grid will be ready to meet the growing fuel needs. 

But one critical aspect of the transition — public engagement — is struggling to keep pace. Surveys have been circulated and public webinars scheduled, but some communities and advocacy groups say it’s all moving so fast and worry they will be left behind.

To truly make a difference, they say, the transformation must touch every corner of the state: urban, rural, low-income and communities of color. 

State officials acknowledge there is a lot to do in a short amount of time, but it’s confident it will get there. 

“Right now it’s pandemonium,” said Carl Lisek, executive director of Drive Clean Indiana, a nonprofit focused on alternative fuels. “But it’s good pandemonium.” 

The state of Indiana's EV infrastructure

At some point in the next decade or two, it’s possible — if not likely — that electric vehicle charging ports will rival or outnumber traditional gasoline pumps. Beyond the wires, these pit stops will require new behaviors and infrastructure of a different kind: restaurants, shops, and the unhurried mindset that refueling will take more than five minutes.  

Like parking spots, charging ports will become part of the building code for new apartments, homes and office buildings.

But virtually none of that exists now. 

In a state of more than 5 million adults, there were 7,000 registered electric vehicle owners as of 2020, the latest data available, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. They have access to only 900 public charging ports — think, single gasoline pumps — spread among 320 stations throughout the state.

The federal government’s goal, as outlined in the new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program created by President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law, is to have 500,000 public charging stations placed along the country’s interstates by 2030. In theory, there will be charging stations every 50 miles, at least, which must be less than one mile off the highway. Each of these stations must have at least four ports supporting the kind of power that charges in about 30 minutes, known as DC Fast.

In Indiana, only five existing public stations meet that criteria.

“We’re really kind of going from 0 to 1,” said Adam Berry, vice president of economic development and technology at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, referencing investor Peter Thiel’s book. “We’re starting with nothing and we have to go to full accommodation.”

One of those five stations is in Indianapolis, at the Walmart off South Emerson Avenue.

It's never difficult to get a spot, said 22-year-old Emma Pate, filling up her 2017 Chevy Bolt on a recent sunny morning. But she still has to plan her week around this particular station, aligning her grocery trips with fuel-ups, since she doesn't have a plug in her apartment complex located a 15-minute drive away.

"There really needs to be more chargers," she said. "It needs to be more popular, I guess."

Even California, the state leading the nation with hundreds of thousands of EV owners and tens of thousands of ports, has fewer than 200 stations that fit the bill for the ambitious federal plan released in February.

The Indiana Department of Transportation — accustomed to timelines on major projects that usually span years — now has just weeks to lay out Indiana’s EV future and how it plans to catch up. By August, the agency must submit a plan detailing where and how it would spend $100 million over the next five years to build a network that meets the federal requirements — and doesn’t leave behind Indiana’s swaths of disenfranchised communities. 

“It’s an aggressive timeline,” said Scott Manning, INDOT deputy chief of staff, “but manageable.”

Manageable, he said, because INDOT started researching the issue in partnership with Purdue University about five years ago. 

Purdue researchers are soon publishing a strategic needs assessment of Indiana’s electric vehicle infrastructure landscape. It is mainly focusing on long-distance trips and what’s known as “range anxiety” — the worry that there won't be enough charging stations available to get from point A to point B.

Right now, Indiana’s infrastructure — or lack of — has electric vehicle drivers quite anxious. 

Marion County residents would have no issue traveling within the county or just outside. 

“You want to go to Columbus, Ohio? That’s where you got to think about it a little bit,” said Darcy Bullock, director of Purdue’s Joint Transportation Research Program.

Based on Indiana’s current setup, long-distance trips across the state tend to have high failure rates in Marion and Hendricks counties, based on these counties’ central location and their population demands. Charging deserts persist almost everywhere outside Marion County and the South Bend area.

Having more stations can encourage more people to consider and buy electric vehicles, the researchers said, but only to an extent. 

The team is also working on research to determine where drivers already tend to stop and fuel up, so that the incoming EV infrastructure can line up with some degree of existing demand.

“Wherever those investments are made, we want them to be fully utilized,” said Nadia Gkritza, principal investigator on the Purdue project.

Matching infrastructure to demand

The questions around EV adoption are endless.

• How will cold weather impact battery performance?
• Will manufacturers find and train enough workers to make the products for vehicles and chargers?
• What’s the EV-equivalent of running out of gas on the side of the road and calling AAA?
• How will dense residential buildings be retrofitted?
• Who will set the pricing and what will it be?
• How can Indiana incentivize more EV adoption?

The first meeting of the Electric Vehicle Product Commission last fall consisted of a string of these questions and thoughts, none followed to completion. The commission is a group of industry leaders and lawmakers convened by legislation in early 2021. Berry was there taking notes for the chamber. 

“I was truly nervous,” he said. “After that first meeting, I walked out frustrated and confused and just bewildered that they weren’t focused on the statutory obligations they had.”

Their task is to evaluate the existing inventory of electric vehicle product manufacturing capabilities, including the skills and size of the workforce and opportunities for growth. The goal is to complete a report by September, in time for lawmakers to digest the state of things before the 2023 legislative session, a budget year.

After that first meeting, however, momentum is now rolling.

The commission has met seven times this year, and has divvied up research and writing responsibilities among the members. It represents another group project of unlikely partners — competitors like Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, and General Motors — racing to meet a deadline.

“I feel more confident," Berry said, "than I did before.”

Nearly every major automaker is supportive of the forward momentum, as evidenced by their announcements that they’ll produce fully electric fleets in the next five to eight years, said Andrianna Hji-Avgoustis, director of governmental affairs for the Indiana Manufacturers Association.

The potential in Indiana is immense, and pivotal, for the legacy auto industry.

The state is a manufacturing powerhouse and one of the nation’s leading automotive producers with five assembly plants. Stellantis also just announced it was partnering on a multi-billion dollar battery manufacturing plant in the state. 

While none of Indiana’s auto plants are currently producing a purely electric vehicle, their parent companies are taking big strides in that direction. Right now, however, Rep. Hamilton worries that many of the parts and cars produced in Indiana would head outside the state. 

“Many auto manufacturers are moving quickly to mostly electrification, and we need to be ready to support that if we hope to have transportation continue to flow through our state,” she said. “There is an urgency to build out what is absolutely coming and to not drag our feet as we so often have in these areas.” 

One question that the state legislature hasn't yet tackled is the implications of an EV transition for the state's roads and infrastructure, which are heavily funded by gasoline taxes. 

If nothing changes in the state’s funding mechanism for roads, the projected loss of fuel tax revenue, based on predictions of EV adoption rates, could amount to $2.1 billion by 2035, the Purdue researchers found. 

Who can sell the electricity?

Beneath the fray of Critical Race Theory and permitless carry, a key piece of electric-vehicle-related legislation did make it to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s desk this year. It’s one that stakeholders see as integral to a very practical hurdle in the EV transition: Who can actually sell and pay for electricity for vehicles?

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, said in a January committee hearing on his House Bill 1221. “And any bill we do on EV is going to have to be iterative.”

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission asked lawmakers to start tackling some basic questions, he said — which the bill, now law, starts answering.

It allows private companies, such as gas stations and convenience stores, to buy and sell electricity from the utilities that service their area for the purpose of electric vehicle charging. Under the law, doing so would not reclassify that gas station or convenience store into a public utility, thus opening the door for countless new sites to host charging stations.

Not only does this clear mom-and-pop convenience stores from having to be regulated by the IURC, but it creates a path for them to pursue a new source of revenue, said Greg Ellis, the chamber’s vice president of energy and environmental policy. If President Biden’s vision comes to fruition, electric fuel may increasingly outpace traditional gas sales. 

“It was simple,” Ellis said of the legislation, “but it was a big deal.”

The law also allows electric utilities to create pilot programs deploying charging infrastructure for “public use” electric vehicles — such as public transit, school buses and emergency vehicles — and recover the cost of those programs by charging higher public rates.

If approved by the IURC, the extra ratepayer dollars would go only toward those public vehicles within their utility's service area. 

“Nowhere are we going to have grandma subsidizing fancy cars up where I live,” Soliday said.

That’s what the federal funding is for: to help fund charging stations for EV drivers across the state. Still, the owners and operators of the stations will work to set the “price at the pump,” or the cost of electricity when charging. 

Can the grid handle it?

Having more charging stations won’t mean anything, however, without the electricity to power them. That is another looming question — and concern: Will there be enough fuel, in the form of electrons moving through wires? 

“The power availability," said Manning with INDOT, "is probably the biggest consideration for Indiana.”

As such, utilities are a key part of the infrastructure and transition process. The state is working closely with Indiana’s power providers, as well as Purdue researchers, to map out the corridors in need of EV charging stations and how that overlaps with where the necessary level of power is available. They are also looking at what it would take to provide adequate electricity where it is not available. 

It will be different for every utility based on charging stations being considered in their service territory, according to Danielle McGrath, president of the Indiana Energy Association. 

Finding the right spot could be something as simple as moving the charger across the street or down a block, where it would require significantly less upgrades or work to the wires, said Cory Gordon, Duke Energy’s director of transportation electrification. That’s why the utility wants to coordinate early with the private businesses that plan to sell the electricity. 

The utilities have some practice as they are in the process of building dozens of chargers across Indiana that they will own and operate. Just last year, a group of eight utilities was awarded roughly $5.5 million from the Volkswagen Settlement Fund, which resulted from the company installing defective emissions-control devices in hundreds of thousands of diesel-powered vehicles. 

With that money, the utilities are building 61 of the DC Fast chargers — those that charge within about a half hour — along Indiana’s major roadways. They hope many of them will be operational next year. 

“That’s pretty exponential growth,” said Shawn Seals, a senior environmental manager with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management that oversees the VW fund. “Then factor in what is likely to follow from the federal program and the scale of that, and the state should be seeing some really significant coverage for EV charging.” 

It’s unclear at this time just how many chargers will come from the $100 million in federal funding, but Seals said “It’s safe to presume we would expect a lot” — potentially in the range of a couple hundred DC fast chargers. 

This comes at the same time businesses and towns, like Hope, are adding slower charging stations and homeowners are installing chargers in their garages.

So can the grid handle the impending “exponential" growth? Experts say it comes down to how it’s managed. 

Zac Elliot with AES Indiana said they don’t expect any near-term adverse impacts to grid reliability. He points to the 1950s during a time of widespread adoption of central air and heating, which created massive new demand. 

“We’ve been accommodating load growth for more than 100 years now, so it’s not new,” said Elliot, the electrification portfolio lead. “There will definitely be a learning process over time, but simplistically the impact will be new load in areas where DC Fast charging is installed.” 

To manage that load, both Gordon and Elliot said the utilities are exploring new paradigms — including different rate structures — that would incentivize EV drivers to charge during off-peak times when it is the most efficient for the grid and maintains its reliability. 

AES Indiana said it is forecasting around 175,000 electric vehicles in its service territory, or roughly 35% of its 500,000 customers in the Indianapolis area, by 2030. 

“The future is electric,” Elliott said. “We feel with public policy trends, public and private infrastructure investment, and manufacturer goals — these are all tailwinds.” 

Transformation for all

The Rev. David Greene said his predominantly Black neighborhood could really use an EV charger. He thinks his church, Purpose of Life Ministries, could be the perfect spot. It has about 10 acres, it’s right off an I-65 exit on 38th Street, and it’s a place that feels safe in the community. 

But he has no clue where to start. Greene said he is raising his hand to show interest, but he’s not sure if anyone is listening. 

“I’m not even sure how to plug in right now,” he said. “We can’t address disparity issues without putting forward the energy and effort.” 

Part of the federal plan requires states to think about rural and low-income areas. A separate, $2.5 billion grant program will be available specifically to help deploy chargers in disadvantaged communities.

Equitable public engagement is "a major component" of this process, Manning told attendees of a recent webinar on the EV infrastructure plan. INDOT's public engagement plan is a "living document," he said, and will continue throughout the five years of the federal infrastructure deployment process.

But Denise Abdul-Rahman, the Indiana state chair of environmental and climate justice for the NAACP, said the engagement process thus far raises some serious concerns for her. 

“Has it been equitable? I think I have to say it’s still unfolding, and I think it will depend,” she said. 

In April, INDOT put out a request for information, or an RFI, from all interested stakeholders, hoping to gain insight into the market, funding opportunities, and the needs of underserved communities. It has hosted online webinars and three in-person public meetings, one each in Indianapolis, Plymouth and Seymour — the latter two are both in rural areas where more than 80% of the population is white, according to the latest census data. The meetings were limited to 50 attendees. 

Abdul-Rahman said she didn’t learn about the state’s efforts until just a couple weeks ago. From her own outreach, she said many constituents and communities “weren’t even aware” the public engagement process was taking place or that they could submit comments as part of the RFI. 

That shows the state needs to do more to actually identify and reach Black and brown communities so they can fairly participate, Abdul-Rahman said. These communities also stand to benefit substantially from the build out of EV infrastructure, she added. 

Station hosts could see additional revenue from drivers using their chargers, and neighboring businesses could see more foot traffic as those drivers look for something to do while fueling up. Those communities also could see the creation of skilled jobs to help operate and maintain the chargers, Abdul-Rahman said. 

Beyond the economic opportunities, the environmental gains could also be considerable. 

“Most Black and brown folks live close to highways and roads that are frequently driven, so we know if we can electrify vehicles then our air quality and breathing will be better,” she said. “But if the charging stations aren’t in ethnically diverse communities, then that means no EVs are coming through and there will continue to be that pollution in the community.”

Greene said he sees the environmental benefits and the additional funds it could bring for the church’s outreach initiatives. He also sees the importance of showing his parishioners and the surrounding community that EVs are for everyone, including them. 

Having a charging station at the church would not only help passersby on the highway, Greene said, but also the many apartment renters in the area who don’t have the ability or option to access chargers at home. Creating infrastructure in low-income and minority communities is a way to promote and encourage using EVs — an easier argument to make as EV prices come down and gas prices rise. 

“This could be transformational, for everyone,” Greene said. “But we can’t speak to it if it isn’t in our neighborhoods, otherwise, people will say ‘this isn’t in our communities, this isn’t for us.’”

No town left behind

Hope, population 2,100, decided not to wait for the feds.

The town council voted earlier this year to invest $6,000 to buy the two charging ports, which output enough energy to charge a car in a couple hours. It’s not the level charger the federal plan desires, but Eckart, the town manager, believes it’s sufficient for Hope, where he can only think of a handful of people in town who might have an electric vehicle. One of them is the town marshal.

But this is as much for them as it is for outside electric vehicle drivers in a future where they need a quaint place to stop, charge up and grab a bite.

“If we could just get them to stop in our tiny little town," Eckart said, "they might come back.”

In this small town, the politics are such that a self-described “motor-head” like councilor Ohmer Miller also voted for the proposal. He cited a concept called “the greater good,” despite his personal misgivings about electric vehicles.

“I don’t think you’re going to see an electric vehicle at a cruise-in,” he said.

Even INDOT and Purdue are only using a 5% adoption rate figure by 2030, among personal automobiles, in their modeling. 

Major changes are often difficult to imagine before they really start to come to fruition.

The weekend of Hope's charging station unveiling, former resident Bonnie Miller Smith happened to be in town for a 50-year class reunion. Her eyes welled up as she took in the old and the new.

Some things are the same: the funeral parlor on the corner, the playground where she played as a kid and her own children after her. Others are new and improved, like the winding sidewalks and upgraded facilities through the square. And the two new parking spots with the bright green EV insignia.

Of all the changes, that last part was not what she expected for her little hometown of 62 years.

“I never thought it would happen — I never even thought about it,” she said.

Contact IndyStar transportation reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter @kayla_dwyer17. 

Call IndyStar reporter Sarah Bowman at 317-444-6129 or email at sarah.bowman@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @IndyStarSarah. Connect with IndyStar’s environmental reporters: Join The Scrub on Facebook.