Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming intend to increase electric vehicle adoption by creating an electric vehicle corridor that spans their reach.
The states entered into a collaboration agreement to expand transportation options and increase the availability of regional electric vehicle infrastructure along its major highways. The plan will be called the Regional Electric Vehicle Plan for the West (REV West).
Central to REV West is development of the Intermountain West Electric Vehicle (EV) Corridor, which the states believe will promote tourism and recreation in rural communities as well as grow their economies.
Such an electric vehicle corridor would make it possible to drive electric cars across the seven states. The highways noted in the collaboration agreement include, but are not limited to:
- Interstates 25, 70 and 76 in Colorado
- Interstates 15, 84, 86, and 90 in Idaho
- Interstates 15, 90 and 94 in Montana
- Interstates 15 and 80 in Nevada
- Interstates 10, 25 and 40 in New Mexico
- Interstates 15, 70, 80 and 84 in Utah
- Interstates 25, 80 and 90 in Wyoming
The states have already formed a leadership committee that will meet quarterly and will engage in mapping and reporting efforts for the following REV West activities:
- Creating best practices and procedures that will enhance EV adoption to
- address range anxiety
- coordinate on EV charging station locations to avoid redundancy, optimize utilization and minimize inconsistencies between charging infrastructure in each state
- Establishing voluntary minimum standards for EV charging stations, including standards for administration, interoperability, operations and management
- Identifying and developing opportunities to incorporate EV charging station infrastructure into planning and development processes, such as building codes, metering policies and renewable energy generation projects
- Encouraging EV manufacturers to stock and market a wide variety of EVs within the seven states
- Identify, respond to and collaborate on funding opportunities to support REV West development
The collaboration agreement also specifically highlights establishing public private partnerships,
such as with automobile manufacturers, electricity providers, EV charging infrastructure
industry, corporate fleet owners and financial institutions, in order to nurture EV market growth.
Review the collaboration agreement on the state of Colorado’s website.