Tech vendors may have some ripe California business opportunities as state regulators begin figuring out how to spend $800 million in assessments flowing from Volkswagen's violations of emission regulations. That spending will start in Sacramento and will ultimately include projects in Fresno, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego and eventually nationwide.
The goal is to equip the cities with community charging networks for zero-emissions vehicles, as well as a statewide high-speed charging network. Sites are being chosen in low-income communities and along highways for more than 100 fast-charging sites and 400 sites over the life of the investment plan. A provider for car shares and charging stations will be selected by December.
The funds will be invested by Electrify America, a subsidiary of VW created for that purpose, in four installments of $200 million each over the next 10 years in projects identified in four separate 30-month Investment Plans approved by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) through a public process.
The first phase of spending will be in Sacramento, as approved last week by CARB.
The program calls for a custom-built management tool that will monitor impact rates and performance. It will include a CRM, a network service solution to manage charging stations, and site selection processes. An RFP is underway for the network services solution.
“We are pleased that Volkswagen can now move forward with its ambitious plan to help bring electric vehicle technology to corners of California ignored in earlier efforts,” said CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols, quoted in an agency press release.
Electrify America's Cycle 1 plan for California includes $44 million to be spent in Sacramento as part of the green-city projects. Overall, California will receive $800 million in similar initiatives. This is the result of an agreement among the California Air Resources Board, the U.S. EPA, the California Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Sacramento was selected because it was the right scale and had the correct commuter profiles and demographics across a traditional grid that would allow VW to make a measurable impact, according to Jennifer Venema, sustainability manager for the city of Sacramento.
The car-share programs and ZEV charging stations will be focused on “disadvantaged, low-income, underserved, and disproportionately impacted communities” that lack access to ZEVs, the company’s investment plan supplement reads.
The programs will expand on some car-sharing that already exists in Sacramento. Charging sites will include multi-family dwellings, community locations, parking lots and municipal garages, commercial locations and workplaces.
“Sites will be located within targeted areas determined by supply-and-demand gap analysis down to the census tract level as outlined in the ZEV Investment Plan for California,” a press release from VW reads.
The goal is to broaden access to charging stations and cut the negative impact of greenhouse gases.
Funds will be spent “on action that mitigates the impacts of NOx [nitrogen oxide] emissions on communities that have historically borne a disproportionate share of the adverse impacts of such emissions,” the investment plan says.
