The Biden administration recently announced a multi-billion dollar plan to beef up the nation’s electric vehicle charging system. The White House has pledged $7.5 billion from a bipartisan infrastructure law to go toward improving and increasing the national charging network. The plan would create new public chargers both for local commuting and longer-distance traveling. The announcement comes on the heels of commitments from some of the nation’s most popular automobile brands, including General Motors, Volvo and Lexus, to expand their electric vehicle offerings.

A data analysis by Kelley Blue Book shows that the average cost of an electric vehicle dropped 10.8% from 2020 to 2021, while the average cost of a traditionally powered vehicle rose 2.2% in the same period.

While building the infrastructure will not happen overnight, Timothy Johnson, a professor and chair of the Energy and Environment program at Duke University, pointed to the speed at which the U.S. was able to adapt to the growing need for gas stations between the 1920s and 1930s, building a brand new sector from a threadbare starting point.

“We went from pretty much nothing in 1920 to a couple hundred thousand pumps in the 1930s,” he said. “We have electricity infrastructure, so adding chargers isn’t as big of a deal. We’ve done it before, we can do it again, and I think under easier conditions this time.”

Source: The White House wants a robust electric vehicle charging network. Here’s the plan.