Clean highway corridors

Overview of the status and impact of the innovation

Innovation 2

What

Clean highway corridors are routes that provide charging to electric trucks and passenger cars for long-distance travel. Creating such corridors will require partnerships among utilities, vehicle manufacturers, charging equipment providers and states to assure interoperability and address grid impact challenges.

Why

Clean highway corridors can address one of the biggest challenges to widespread EV adoption – the ability to travel long distances without lengthy waits for charging. Corridors could use charging points or overhead charging; their implementation will have to consider traffic flows, power grid strength and the availability of locally produced renewable electricity.

BOX 3.20 Clean transportation corridors in the United States and Uruguay

The West Coast Clean Transit Corridor Initiative in the United States includes nine energy retailers and two agencies representing more than 24 municipal electric utilities. The goal is to have 27 charging locations with at least 3.5 MW charging capacity situated about 50 miles apart along interstate freeway I-5 from the Mexican border to the Canadian border (Griffo, 2022).

Uruguay has installed charging stations along its entire coast and at several points in the interior, creating the region’s first electric vehicle corridor. The goal is to install charging stations no more than 60 km apart throughout the country (UNEP, 2020).

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