The goal of adding the public car chargers is to make it possible to drive electric cars across the state without worry of getting stranded.
“[The plan is for] fast electric vehicle chargers every 50-ish miles along all of the interstates in America,” said Lyle McMillan, director of strategic investments for the Utah Department of Transportation. “For us, it's the interstates in Utah, and U.S. 6 and 191, through Moab to the Arizona border.”
The state will use over $35 million from a federal grant called the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021.
McMillan said there are already 14 150-kilowatt chargers, where people can pay to recharge their cars in 10 to 40 minutes.
The new ones are scheduled to open at gas stations by the end of 2024.
“Right now, there are only about 14 sites in Utah that have this powerful of an electric vehicle charger, which is 150 kilowatts or more,” McMillan said. “And we will be effectively doubling that with these 15 new sites, such that we'll have twice as many fast EV charging sites across the state.”
Nearest to the Salt Lake Valley, where most of the state’s charging stations are now, they’ll be in Coalville, Layton and Tremonton.
This phase will also build them near state lines and especially in the central/eastern region, like Moab, Nephi and Price.
Gas stations, power companies and Tesla competed to buy into the charging stations. They matched the federal grant.
McMillan said state government contributed no money but will still have leftover funds from this first phase to contribute to another round of stations.
“Once we build out the interstate,” he said, “we plan to go to our next phase, which is to help travelers get to and from our state parks, our mighty five national parks, our scenic byways, and our lakes that are typically found off of the interstate system. The Legislature has been very helpful and has asked for us to plan for the future of electrification.”
Here’s a list of the 15 new charging stations and the companies that will operate them:
- Snowville - Pilot Flying J Travel Center
- Tremonton - Maverik
- Layton/Ogden - Rocky Mountain Power
- Delle (I-80) - Utah.Energy
- Coalville - Rocky Mountain Power
- Nephi - Tesla
- Tie Fork - Rocky Mountain Power
- Price/Wellington - Maverik
- Fillmore - Maverik
- Ivie Creek - Rocky Mountain Power
- Moab - Rocky Mountain Power
- Thompson Springs - Utah.Energy
- Cove Fort - Rocky Mountain Power
- Monticello - Maverik
- Bluff - Rocky Mountain Power
