VE, charging stations coming to South Texas

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – A small fleet of EVs was in Brownsville as part of a five-city tour to promote the clean energy machines and the charging stations set to open all over South Texas.

Representatives of Texas Electric Transportation Resources Alliance (TETRA) and the Texas Electric Bus Project (TEBP) were here on Monday, April 22, to talk about the industry’s latest campaign that calls for installing hundreds of stations all over the Lone Star State, including the Rio Grande Valley.

“There are more than 270,000 electric vehicles in Texas right now,” said Buss Smith, TETRA executive director, during a stop at the Brownsville Convention & Visitors complex. “And that is expected to increase by 50 percent within a year.”

He said EVs are the solution for the transportation needs of the future though it’s going to take some time before the vehicles powered by fossil fuels are a thing of the past.

Michael Chamberlain, a planning director with the Texas Department of Transportation, said the charging stations project will be implemented in three phases.

The first one calls for installing a station every 50 miles in rural areas along an Interstate Highway.

Under the second phase, a station will be placed every 70 miles along a state highway.

Phase three calls for installing a station at every county.

Each station will have multiple outlets for charging a vehicle.

According to the information provided, it takes anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes to charge a vehicle and a full charge is good enough to travel 300 to 400 miles, depending on the size of a vehicle and its battery.

Better yet, VE owners can install their own plugs at their homes using 15- to 59-amp breakers and regular or the three prong outlets used to run a clothes dryer.

But what would happen whenever a man-made or natural disaster strikes an area like a hurricane or a hard freeze as happened in November 2021?

Mario Bravo, another TETSA representative, said VE owners should be prepared by charging their VE overnight.

In other words, do not procrastinate by waiting and waiting until it’s too late.

Jessica Keithan, director/co-founder of TEBP, said the future looks promising for bus transportation at the school levels.

The life spam of a diesel propelled school bus is about 12 years, whereas an electricity- driven bus is much longer than that.

She said Texas has about 50,000 school buses today, compared to half million nationwide.

Some of the advantages electric buses are they generally travel shorter distances, can be charged overnight and require less maintenance.

VEs have electric motors rather than the internal combustion engine that require spark plugs, belts and oil changes, among other things such exhaust pipes and catalytic converters.

Prices are a different issue, though.

The average price of a VE is about $48,000, compared to about $34,000 for a gas-powered vehicle, but it requires less than a half the money to run the first vehicle over the other one, according to reports.

Brownsville was one of five stops the representatives, who drove Tesla vehicles, are making. Other cities are Corpus Christi, Laredo, Kerrville and San Antonio.

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