Local resident Cheryl Conrad was quick on the draw and knew this month's "Where Am I?" was taken at the electric vehicle charging stations outside the Middletown Public Library, 700 West Main Road. Thanks to Cheryl and everyone else who participated.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Matt Sheley at (401) 842-6543 or msheley@middletownri.com
“WHERE AM I?” ANSWER
MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (FEBRUARY 3, 2022) – Figures from the Pew Research Center indicate that 7 percent of adults in the United States say they own an electric and hybrid car.
And of those surveyed, close to 40 percent said they were “very” or “somewhat likely” to seriously consider going electric (EV) the next time they’re looking for a new vehicle.
The piece “Today’s electric vehicle market: Slow growth in U.S., faster in China, Europe” said as of 2020, there were close to 1.8 million EV registered in America. That’s up more than three times from four years earlier.
The trend has certainly hit Middletown in a very noticeable way with the installation of EV charging stations in the parking lots at Town Hall and the Middletown Public Library.
Local resident Cheryl Conrad was the first to answer the “Where Am I?” question via email, taking away this month’s honors for correctly identifying the chargers at the library.
Town staff said the four stations provided a total of eight charging ports to power up EVs. The way the system works, drivers can charge their EVs free for up to four hours per session.
Statistics show the stations get moderate use and serve about 20 unique drivers a month.
The Pew Research piece said although the EV numbers were on the rise, the United States represented about 17 percent of the total 10.2 million EVs in the world.
China represents the largest, with more than 4.5 million EVs on the roads, or 44 percent of those vehicles worldwide.
The piece went onto say that Europe represents the fastest growth of EV sales around the globe. Pew Research numbers indicated the compound annual growth rate of EV sales was about 60 percent from 2016 to 2020. For comparison, it was 36 percent in China and 17 percent in the United States.
In addition to the obvious environmental benefits, EVs are touted as the wave of the future because no gasoline is required, they have lower maintenance costs and offer better performance.
Interestingly, there’s a very, very Middletown connection to the EV movement. Although not all EV cars are self driving — or autonomous — a fair number on the market are.
Of the autonomous vehicles on the road in the United States today, Middletown’s own KVH Industries, Inc. is in nearly all of them, whether it’s shuttles, trucks and cars.
Headquartered on Enterprise Drive behind Town Hall, the international technology company builds the gyroscopes that act as the brains of self-driving cars. Estimates from KVH indicate that their gyroscopes — or inertial measurement units — are in more than 85 percent of the AV out there today.
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