NORFOLK, Va. — Soon, you could see a lot more electric vehicles and chargers in the city of Norfolk.
According to a statement from U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, 1.4 million electric vehicles were sold in 2023. That’s a 50% increase from 2022.
Last Tuesday, Norfolk representatives released a survey asking residents and business owners a few questions on electric vehicles.
“[The survey asks] whether or not they use EVs now, if they’re going to in the future, where they feel we could use some grant funding to implement some chargers in our community,” said Megan Hale, the city's environmental sustainability manager.
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This is all part of the city’s climate action plan. They’ve built an electric vehicle hub on their website, hoping to gain some insight on what is needed.
“We live in a community where not everybody has off-street parking or a garage. So we’re looking at helping to fill that gap with some federal grant dollars that we’ll be seeking in the near future,” Hale said.
Norfolk Councilwoman Andria McClellan has been driving electric vehicles for years. She says they’re not going away any time soon, so it’s time for Norfolk to adapt for the future.
“EVs are here to stay. We’ve got to ensure the city of Norfolk, and quite honestly the region as a whole, has electric vehicle charging infrastructure so that everybody can have an EV,” McClellan told News 3.
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For McClellan, it’s not just about increasing the number of chargers and making sure streets can handle them, but it’s also about upgrading the power grid.
“It’s not just my personal car, [I'm] talking about [having EV charging infrastructure that can support] the fleet for the city... HRT buses... the future of Norfolk and our region,” she said.
City leaders are in what they call their information-gathering phase, so if you want a say in the future of transportation in Norfolk, click here. The survey is available until July 1.
You can get access to the entire electric vehicle hub here.
