Last week, the Maryland Electric Vehicle (EV) Working Group submitted its implementation plan to the Maryland Public Services Commission in response to the state’s goal of having 300,000 EVs on the road by 2025.  To meet that objective, the utilities want to charge customers up to 42 cents extra per month to build the nation’s second largest network of EV charging stations after California’s network.

NACS, along with SIGMA and NATSO, filed comments to the Maryland Public Service Commission’s as part of the public comment period to the Petition for Implementation of a Statewide Electric Vehicle Portfolio.  In the letter, this group of fuel retail associations shared concerns that this proposal would lead to an unfair competitive advantage for utilities over the private sector and urged Maryland to reject the EV Working Group’s proposal and instead work with the fuel retailing industry to find better ways to deploy electric charging infrastructure.  To view the letter, please click here.

Electric utilities are able to treat their capital investments in vehicle recharging business as part of the utilities’ rate base, which makes their market entry costs essentially zero.  Fuel retailers in the private sector do not have that ability and are thus unable to compete.  This system creates a virtual monopoly for utilities on the service of EV refueling, which undercuts competition in the marketplace.