We are proud to share that the Round Five designations for Alternative Fuels Corridors have been announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation! As of April 2021, I-81 between the Virginia-West Virginia border and the Virginia-Tennessee border and I-95 between the Virginia- Maryland border and Virginia-North Carolina border have been designated as EV Signage Ready.
To be considered EV Charging Signage Ready, a transportation corridor must meet several requirements. Along the route, there can be no more than 50 miles between stations. Additionally, these stations must be open to the public and within five miles of a highway exit. Only non-Tesla, DC fast-charging stations are considered in these charger counts as the corridors are meant to provide quick and easy refueling, similar to the role gas stations play for internal combustion engines.
These new designations join Virginia’s previous designations from Rounds One through Four. This includes I-64 from Chesapeake to the Virginia-West Virginia border; I-66 from Washington DC to the Middletown intersection with I-81; and extends the previous designations along I-95 and I-81.
With this recent update, Virginia greatly expands its EV charging signage-ready corridors. This has been a collaborative effort, and we would like to give a special thanks to Electrify America, EVgo, Sheetz, Wawa and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for their work in connecting these border-to-border corridors. We would also like to acknowledge the vital role that utilities such as Dominion Energy and APCO have played in the permitting and installation of these charging stations.
For more information about this announcement and other EV-related resources, you can check out this recent White House fact sheet.