Alternatives to fossil fuel consuming vehicles are much easier to come by these days. The launch of Factory Zero at the old GM Poletown plant is indication enough that electric vehicles (EV) are here to stay. If you wanted you could roadtrip around all the Great Lakes in your EV with the now standard 200 mile range in most models.

However, our infrastructure has a long way to go to make EVs a viable option for everyone. That is low-income and communities of color are extremely underserved by EV charging stations. In Detroit you have to live in the 7.2 square miles of “Greater Downtown” to have any luck. Charging stations are just one part of the equation. The other is our outdated electric grid. In these same areas of Detroit where there are no EV charging stations, the electrical infrastructure is a decade past its life expectancy and has 16% the hosting capacity compared to areas that have been modernized like Greater Downtown. Beyond EV charging, this unreliable infrastructure limits low-income communities from taking advantage of home solar to reduce costs of heating and cooling as well.

And, don’t try to charge your EV in Windsor.