Jeff Clifford remembers well his first trip from Lenox to Fenway Park in his Tesla Model X.
Behind the wheel, he blasted the air conditioning to cool down his buddies in his $144,000 investment, complete with gullwing doors. He didn’t plan to stop on the way during that road trip in 2017, but had to — coming and going — in order to recharge.
That was his first experience of what’s commonly called range anxiety, and it’s real.
John Bissell uses his phone to pay at the electric vehicle charging station at Big Y in Pittsfield.
As Massachusetts races to meet its clean energy goals and electric cars catch on, more electric vehicles are arriving in the Berkshires, which means more drivers looking for public, easy access to EV charging stations. While there are plans in the works and on the books for more public EV chargers in Berkshire County, as of now, 19 towns don’t have public charging stations.
Experts and EV drivers agree that the Berkshires will need more publicly accessible EV charging stations to help fight that range anxiety, or the fear that an electric vehicle will not have enough battery charge to reach its destination, leaving its occupants stranded.
Experts and electric vehicle drivers agree that the Berkshires needs more publicly accessible EV charging stations to help fight range anxiety, or the fear that an electric vehicle will not have enough battery charge to reach its destination, leaving its occupants stranded.
The cost of installing an EV charging station can range from close to zero to hundreds of thousands of dollars with upgrades to transformers and ultimately the grid.
Electric car charging station at Big Y in Pittsfield. In Berkshire County, these types of charging stations are located at Big Y and Bard College in Great Barrington, Simon Lee Premium Outlets, Big Y in Lee, and Lee service plazas on the Massachusetts Turnpike in both directions, at Lenox Commons, and at Berkshire Mountain Lodge in Lenox.
Level 1 chargers, which are often installed in homes and require longer charging times, are the most basic and least expensive.
Level 2 chargers need a 240-volt outlet, so they often require a visit from an electrician. These are the most common public chargers in Berkshire County.
If Massachusetts residents buy 970,000 vehicles, as much as 1,400 megawatts of electricity will be needed to meet peak demand: enough electricity to power a large city with hundreds of thousands of homes.
Level 3, direct current fast charging stations, are typically seen at highway rest stops. They provide at least 150 kilowatts and are used to charge fully electric vehicles.
There are also concerns about the ability of the state’s power grid to support the infrastructure needed to provide power to all these stations as it meets its clean energy goals.
This screenshot shows electric vehicle charging stations in Massachusetts and southern New England.
THE BIG PICTURE
As of Thursday, there were 8,435 public electric vehicle charging ports in Massachusetts and 550 private ones.
To support an estimated 970,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030, the state Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Coordinating Council has predicted the state would need a total of 45,000 public EV stations as well as 700,000 residential and workplace charging stations.
Josh Ryor, assistant secretary of energy at the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said the state is working hard to balance the need for additional electric vehicle chargers “in a way that isn’t going to run into significant barriers with grid upgrades, and also then doesn’t incur those additional grid upgrade costs.”
Direct current fast charging stations will have a “significant draw on the grid,” Ryor said, adding that the state is “making sure we’re being smart with where we’re incentivizing fast chargers.”
To add a bit of context, “The average highway rest stop could require as much [electrical] load as a major sports stadium or a small town,” his council’s August 2023 report says, citing a study National Grid did with the Rocky Mountain Institute, CALSTART and others.
Put another way, if Massachusetts residents buy 970,000 vehicles, as much as 1,400 megawatts of electricity will be needed to meet peak demand: enough electricity to power a large city with hundreds of thousands of homes.
Ryor said his council is now drilling down on where the gaps are, particularly on the Massachusetts Turnpike near Charlton, near multiunit apartment buildings, in rural communities and destination locations, such as those in the Berkshires. That will be part of its next report, due in August.
“A lot of single-family homes have Level 2s, but a lot of times you can get what you need overnight with a Level 1, and that, of course, would have very little impact on the grid,” he said of the type of charging stations.
The council’s 2023 report noted a paradox for rural drivers: “While rural residents drive the most and have the greatest potential to save money and reduce emissions by making the switch to an electric vehicle, the challenge of providing sufficient public charging infrastructure is particularly acute in dispersed low-density communities.”
This screenshot shows the publicly available electric vehicle chargers in Berkshire County.
TOURISTS AND COMMUTERS
In the Berkshires, charging stations are more plentiful near hotels, or places where tourists might stay, according to Clete Kus, transportation planner for Berkshire Regional Planning Commission.
“So when tourists that have electric vehicles come to the area, they have the ability to charge there overnight,” Kus said. “Now, obviously, if you get more patrons that have electric vehicles than what a particular motel can accommodate, then you have a problem.”
But that doesn’t necessarily help the average county resident looking to charge their vehicle.
Kus said the average commute among Berkshire residents is 20 minutes, well within the range of the 35-mile overnight charge that people can get from even the slowest Level 1, 120-volt garage chargers.
“But the caveat there is, that it’s predicated on you charging that vehicle at home on a daily basis,” he said.
That’s not how John Bissell does it all the time.
John Bissell uses the electric vehicle charging station at Big Y in Pittsfield to charge his Toyota hybrid SUV. As of now, in Berkshire County 18 towns don’t have public charging stations.
Bissell drives a 2023 Toyota RAV4 plug-in hybrid. While he can charge at home overnight, he generally prefers to charge elsewhere. He said he actually enjoys planning his time and errands around charging — in a game he plays to see how long he can go without filling the tank.
“It may sound goofy, but I find it to be entertaining,” he said. “I did the math. It’s roughly 40 percent cheaper for me per mile if I’m running on the battery versus running on gas.”
With up to 90 miles per gallon on a full charge, he’s been able to go as long as two months between stops at gas stations. One of his favorite spots to charge is the Big Y in Pittsfield because it’s near his workplace.
“Fortunately for me, if I can’t find a charger, it’s no big deal,” John Bissell said. “I can run 500 miles just on gas, no problem. But I’ve had people come to visit, and they have to go hunt around and figure out where the good chargers are in Berkshire County. It’s not always easy.”
“Fortunately for me, if I can’t find a charger, it’s no big deal,” Bissell said. “I can run 500 miles just on gas, no problem. But I’ve had people come to visit, and they have to go hunt around and figure out where the good chargers are in Berkshire County. It’s not always easy.”
Bissell said Route 7 needs more chargers as do the east-west routes.
“It’s not so much an issue for me as for people traveling through the county or trying to use these for their regular commute,” he said.
‘SEE WHERE IT ALL GOES’
Ryan Eley is planning to install four direct current fast charging ports at the Becket Country Store. He sees more electric vehicles in the summer than in the winter.
Ryan Eley, the owner of Becket Country Store, has approval from Eversource to run the necessary three-phase power from Route 8 in order to power a direct current fast-charging station at his business. Direct current fast charging stations are typically used by full electric vehicles.
His plan is to install two terminals with a total of four ports.
“If it weren’t for the grant that pays for pretty much the entire project, I wouldn’t do this,” he said. “It wouldn’t make economic sense.”
However, money has dried up to subsidize the project at a level of 75 percent to 90 percent, so he’ll wait for another round of government funding to pursue installation.
“I think by the end of the decade, these will start to have kind of a more critical mass,” he said.
In the meantime, he does see electric vehicles pull into his store.
“Summertime, there’s way more electric cars out here,” he said. “But winter time, I would probably never see anybody, or not very many people.”
Kathe Warden plugs in her hybrid into a Level 2 charger at Becket Town Hall.
That may be partly because batteries in electric vehicles are prone to slow down in the cold, but it probably has more to do with Becket’s place as a summertime destination in the Berkshires.
Syed Quaseem is planning to put in five terminals with 10 direct current fast charging ports, using 180 kilowatts, at his business, Uniq Vape, on Route 7 in Lanesborough.
Quaseem first became aware of range anxiety when his sister visited with a Tesla and needed a place to charge. She ended up going to the Big Y in Lee. He next noticed it when a cousin visited with a different brand car and had to hunt around. Then he went to Florida and rented an electric vehicle himself.
“That’s the time I actually felt the pain of the charging,” Quaseem said. “I was looking around for chargers, and I’m like, I have to drive like 15 miles to go charge this. And I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’”
When he returned, he contacted an energy consulting company to look into installing direct current fast charging stations in Lanesborough.
In a plan that’s been in the works for two years, Quaseem said he won’t pay a cent for installation through Eversource rebates that flow from the state, but he knows there will be costs once the stations are up and running. The actual electricity cost will vary depending on whether customers plug into the same terminal or use separate ones.
Quaseem doesn’t believe that he will make money on charging and said he’ll be happy if he breaks even.
“I already have a store, I have a space,” Quaseem said. “This is something intriguing. I want to test it. I want to see where it all goes.”
