In 2022, the legislature established the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Coordinating Council (EVICC) to implement an electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment plan.

The EVICC was authorized by section 81 of “An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind” (Climate Law). The Climate Law requires that the EVICC assess and report on strategies and plans necessary to deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure to establish an equitable, interconnected, accessible and reliable electric vehicle charging network. These plans and strategies shall include:

• Assessment of the present condition of, and future needs for, road and highway electrification;
• Estimates of the number and type of electric vehicle charging stations in public and private locations;
• Suggestions for optimal locations for electric vehicle charging stations in urban, suburban and rural locations and low and moderate income communities;
• Discussion of present and projected future costs and methods of financing those costs;
• Discussion of technological advances in charging stations and related infrastructure, equipment and technology including, including data collection, mobile charging, assisting in grid management and assisting in the integration of renewable energy resources;
• Discussion of strategies to maintain electric vehicle charging stations in full and continuous working order; 
• Recommendations to assist governmental and private sector officials in installing charging stations and related infrastructure, equipment and technology, including within proximity of on-street parking; and
• Identification and discussion of current policies and recommendations for policies, laws and regulatory actions that may facilitate the provision of charging stations and related infrastructure.

On August 11, 2023, the EVICC provided its Initial Assessment and recommendations to the legislature as required by law. The report recognizes at the outset that building a network of electric vehicle charging stations is a core challenge to achieving Massachusetts’ transition to a clean energy economy. The Commonwealth will need to have more than 200,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2025 and 900,000 light-duty electric vehicles on the road by 2030 to achieve the transportation sector sublimits.

Achieving this level of electric vehicle penetration will require new infrastructure for vehicle charging. This EVICC Initial Assessment finds that approximately 10,000 publicly accessible fast charging ports will be necessary to support the light-duty vehicle fleet by 2030, in addition to 35,000 publicly accessible Level 2 stations, as well as more than 700,000 residential and workplace charging stations. This represents a build-out of between six and 15 times our current electric vehicle charging infrastructure and could add as much as 1,400 megawatts (MW) of additional peak demand on the electric grid.

As of August 2023, there are 2,623 publicly accessible charging station locations operating in Massachusetts, supporting 6,082 total ports.1 This includes 646 ports at 154 fast-charging locations.2 Of these, 545 fast-charging ports are run by Tesla, which are currently only available to Tesla owners; however, Tesla is in the process of integrating other leading manufacturers to use their network beginning in 2024 and beyond. There are also 5,436 publicly accessible Level 2 charging ports.

In August 2022, $50 million was allocated to EV charging in the the economic development bill which created the Charging Infrastructure Deployment Fund. In December 2022, the state authorized nearly $400 million in electric vehicle infrastructure investments by the three investor-owned utilities: National Grid, Eversource, and Unitil. Utility customers, both residential and nonresidential, may qualify for significant rebates for the installation of make-ready infrastructure, and in some cases for electric vehicle charging equipment. These upgrades include:

• Rebates of up to $1,400 for residents of single family and multifamily homes;
• Up to 100% of costs for charging stations in multi-unit dwellings;
• Make-ready incentives for fleet depots; and
• Make-ready infrastructure for publicly accessible Level 2 and fast charging stations.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is slated to spend $63 million on fast charging stations over the next five years along highway corridors as part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program established in the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). These obligated funds will ensure that every major highway will have a NEVI-compliant fast charging station every 50 miles, including at least four ports of 150kW charging each.

In addition, MassDOT is applying for federal funding to support deployment of on-site storage to reduce the transmission and distribution infrastructure impacts from these stations.

The EVICC’s next recommended legislative actions include the following:

• New legislation requiring publicly accessible electric vehicle chargers to register with the Division of Standards so that they can be regularly inspected. Whereas DOS currently has the statutory authority to inspect such charging stations, it lacks the ability to require their registration, which impedes DOS’s ability to know where they are located. In addition, because inspections will require sophisticated equipment and training, legislation should ensure that such inspections are centralized within DOS and not shared with municipalities. Finally, DOS will investigate new regulations, via the authority of both existing statutes and new legislation, to ensure adequate consumer protections are in place that fall within its purview.
• The legislature should pass “right to charge” legislation that will help tenants and people living in condominiums install charging infrastructure.
• The legislature should update appliance standards for EVSEs to the latest ENERGY STAR standards.
• EEA, DOER, and DOS will coordinate with the legislature to ensure that there are no overlapping or contradictory provisions between existing language in G.L. c. 25A and any new legislation that is enacted to provide DOS with the requisite authority to carry out inspections of publicly available EVSEs.

You can read the rest of the agency and EVICC recommendations on page 13 of the initial assessment.