Alternative Infrastructure Has a Long Way to Go
By John Eichberger
I recently secured an apartment in Huntington Beach, California. It’s a part-time residence where I can stay when visiting my family in Southern California. In setting up this home away from home, I have been looking for a vehicle. Given my role at the Transportation Energy Institute, I thought it might be educational to try an alternative vehicle. Well, that is easier said than done, even in Southern California. Here is what I have discovered as I explored my options.
Electric Vehicle
California is far and away the leader in the EV transition, with more registered vehicles and charging stations than any other state. The government has also adopted a policy to eliminate the sale of combustion engine vehicles by 2035. Given those facts, I figured it should be easy to transition to an EV here—but not so fast.
First of all, the apartment I rented does not have charging stations for EVs. When I asked if level 2 charging for renters was in their future plans, I was met with a blank, oblivious look. I am fortunate to have a first-floor unit with a gate that leads to the parking area, but the parking space assigned to my unit is not accessible by an extension cord and does not have a power outlet to support even a level 1 charger. I have no way to charge a vehicle at home, which means I need access to a public charger.
Unfortunately, the number of DC fast chargers in the Huntington Beach area is limited. In fact, according to the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuel Database Center (AFDC), there are only a handful of DC fast chargers within a few miles of my apartment. PlugShare shows the same number of fast chargers in the area, so I am pretty confident the population of options is limited. And if you are familiar with Southern California traffic, a few miles can take 20 minutes or more to travel. I know more public chargers are coming sometime in the future, but I need to make a vehicle decision now.
Hydrogen
I have long been a fan of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and discovered I could acquire a pre-owned FCEV for under $10,000. But again, as I looked at the market, refueling became a concern. California is the only state that has truly supported hydrogen infrastructure to date. There are two retail hydrogen stations within about five miles of my apartment, but beyond that the landscape is pretty sparse.
There also is some sticker shock when I think about the price of hydrogen—$30 per kilogram or more. According to some sources, I could get about 60 miles per kilogram, so that comes out to $0.50/mile. By comparison, if I were to drive my old Jeep Wrangler, which averaged about 18 miles per gallon, and paid $4.50 per gallon, I would be spending about $0.25/mile. That is a bit tough to swallow.
Flex Fuel Vehicle
Another option I could consider is a flex fuel vehicle (FFV) that can operate on straight gasoline or ethanol blends up to E85. In this scenario, I could refuel anywhere with gasoline and, when available, purchase E85 and save quite a bit of money at the pump. (Currently, E85 is selling for less than $4.00/gallon in Southern California.) And while production of FFVs has waned dramatically in recent years, there remain millions on the road and in the used vehicle market.
In terms of infrastructure for E85, AFDC shows there are a couple options in my area, but nothing really close. That said, I did notice when visiting my sister in Fullerton that there is an E85 station just down the street from her house, so the option to fuel with E85 would exist occasionally, and I wouldn’t have to use E85 unless it was convenient for me to do so.
But there is another challenge—finding an FFV on the used car market. I spent a lot of time perusing the AutoTrader app, but when I tried to search for available FFVs, there was no such filter. So, finding one would require determining which vehicles in which years were available in FFV and then scrubbing used vehicle listings and calling dealerships to discover if their available vehicle is an FFV.
Renewable Diesel
I love my Wrangler (I would love to drop the top, remove the doors and head to the beach!) and did a search at nearby dealers to see what deals might be available. One dealership has two 2022 Wranglers equipped with a diesel engine available for a massive discount. These Wranglers boast a fuel economy of about 25 miles per gallon, which is only slightly better than the 22 mpg rating for a typical gasoline version. But then I looked and found that diesel is selling for about $5.00 per gallon, a 50-cent jump over unleaded.
What about renewable and biodiesel? I looked to see what my options were to purchase a lower-emitting, lower-price biodiesel or renewable diesel. The vast majority of renewable diesel in the U.S. is being sold in California due to the policy incentives, so I was hopeful. But it seems where I have decided to reside is the Death Valley for alternative energy—there is only one renewable diesel station listed in AFDC and no biodiesel in the area around Huntington Beach. If I can stomach the price per gallon increase, I still need to weigh the inconvenience factor of driving extra miles to fill-up.
We Must Collaborate to Build Infrastructure
My research demonstrates we have a lot of work to do if we want any alternative vehicle and energy option to be a market success. I really expected that Southern California would present me with more options than it has.
While I am disappointed, I don’t consider the results a negative reflection on any vehicle or energy option—it is simply today’s reality. If we want to transition to lower-energy-intense and lower-emissions transportation options, we have to make sure the infrastructure exists to support it—and we have a long way to go.
John Eichberger is the executive director of the Transportation Energy Institute.
