Pennsylvania driving toward EV charging stations every 50 miles on key corridors

HARRISBURG (CBS) - Ask the majority of Americans who haven't yet purchased an electric car why they haven't, and two key reasons emerge: cost and range anxiety because of the distance between charging stations on some key highways. 

Prices are coming down. But not running out of battery power on long trips still takes some planning and patience, said Edgars Sturmanis, stopping in Harrisburg to charge his Tesla while moving his family from Washington state to New York – planning because charging stations can be more than 100 miles apart in some places, and patience because a full charge can take 40 minutes. 

Those issues don't matter most days – when Sturmanis isn't making a multiday, cross-country move – and he said the system works rather well for him. He bought a cup of coffee and rested while charging his car Tuesday. In nearby Hershey, people at the Tanger Outlets charge their cars while they shop. (The center, like others in the chain, is upgrading from earlier-generation chargers to newer Volta chargers.) 

But to help more people feel as at ease as Sturmanis does, PennDOT is asking for bids for hundreds of electric charging stations to reduce the gap between stations on key "alternative fuel corridors" – generally, interstate highways – to no more than 50 miles. 

News of the bidding announcement was first reported by the Pittsburgh Union Progress. 

Erin Waters-Trasatt, a PennDOT spokesperson, told CBS News timing for achieving the no-more-than-50-mile-gap goal isn't yet known and will "be more defined as we see project costs moving forward." 

The project will be funded largely by the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, which, in turn, is part of the 2021 infrastructure funding law. 

A map of current charging stations in Pennsylvania is available at 511pa.com; in the legend on the left, click "EV Charging Stations."