A bill put forth by North Carolina lawmakers could discourage the installation of electric vehicle chargers.
According to CleanTechnica.com, the proposed bill would require business owners who offer free charging for electric vehicles to disclose the average amount spent for it on every receipt, regardless of whether or not the customer used the charger or not.
The bill reads as follows: “Any person who is engaged in a business where electric vehicle charging stations are provided for use by the public at no charge shall ensure that each customer of the business, without regard to whether the customer uses the charging stations, is informed of, on the receipt for purchases, the percentage of the amount of the customer’s total purchase price that is a result of the business providing electric vehicle charging stations at no charge.”
This, CleanTechnica notes, could make non-EV owning customers angry about the extra costs associated with a service they don’t use and possibly force the business to either start charging for the service or get rid of the chargers altogether.
Read More: Washington, D.C. Wants To Punish Heavy Vehicles, Including EVs, With Increased Fees
Moreover, any business that offers free charging will also have to offer free gasoline, which will severely discourage any owner from installing a charger at their station.
“Except as provided in G.S. 136-18.02, the Department of Transportation shall not use public funds to provide electric vehicle charging stations on property owned or leased by the State or to fund or install electric vehicle charging stations on property owned or leased by a person or entity unless the Department or the person or entity provides gasoline and diesel fuel for motor vehicles through a pump to the public at no charge.”
It’s pretty hard to pass this bill off as anything other than a targeted attack against electric vehicles. The bill also proposes the prohibition of public funds from local governments to be used on the installation of electric vehicle chargers, as well as a $50,000 appropriation of state money to remove any charging stations from businesses that don’t offer free gasoline and diesel.
The system would be pretty easy to defeat, however; all a business would have to do is charge one penny for charging, as that would make it technically not free. For now, the bill is not law, so we’ll have to wait and see what becomes of it.