Earlier this month IKEA U.S. and Electrify America announced a collaboration
that will install more than 200 ultra-fast public and fleet charging
stations at IKEA retail locations in 18 states.
Photo courtesy of IKEA and Electrify America
Forbes
Advisor has examined U.S. Department of Energy data to arrive at a
ranking of most accessible states by ratio of registered electric
vehicles to public charging stations. North Dakota is No. 1 with 3.18
EVs per charging station, because there were only 69 total charging
stations (now up to 74 stations since Forbes Advisor’s analysis) and 220
registered electric vehicles in the state. The similarly spacious state
of Wyoming is No. 2, followed by its polar opposite: Rhode Island, with
a ratio of 6.24 EVs per charging station.
Graph courtesy of U.S. DOE
The DOE says there are 57,280 charging stations in the country as of
this week. The graph above shows how fast they’ve grown in number since
2011. In 2021 alone, their number rose by more than 55%. Below are the
top 10 states by total charging locations and number of electric vehicle
supply equipment (EVSE) charging ports. -Adam Bruns
State
No. of Stations | EVSE Ports
California
14,583 | 37,611
New York
3,121 | 8,348
Florida
2,682 | 6,708
Texas
2,380 | 5,753
Massachusetts
2,293 | 5,084
Washington
1,666 | 4,096
Colorado
1,657 | 3,866
Georgia
1,545 | 3,941
Maryland
1,261 | 3,448
Pennsylvania
1,223 | 2,952
Source: U.S. DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center, August 25, 2022
Centene will still complete construction of the Charlotte
campus (rendering above) and then sell or lease it.
Archive rendering courtesy of EDPNC
Last week news broke that St. Louis-based
Centene has pulled out of the major hub it
planned to establish in Charlotte, citing the
impact of remote work on its day-to-day
operations. Michael Niedorff, the late CEO of
Centene, had cited crime and public safety
challenges in St. Louis vs. Charlotte when the investment was
announced in 2020, though some news
analysis showed the difference to be
minimal.
According to reporting in the Charlotte
Observer, the company plans to finish
its massive building in University Research Park
and sell or lease it, much as REI did when it
decided at the pandemic’s outset to sell its
brand new HQ campus to Microsoft. And it still
plans to increase Charlotte employees from 700
to 900. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told the
Charlotte Business Journal this week that he
tried to talk Centene executives out of it,
citing all that’s still unknown about how office
use will shake out. “They told us that they
would be reducing their real estate footprint
about 70% across the country,” he told the CBJ. “When
you do that, it’s obvious that you don’t need a
new $550 million campus that you’ve just built
in Charlotte.”
Meanwhile, reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
in June, the company also is killing plans for a
1,000-seat civic auditorium in its St.
Louis-area home of Clayton, forfeiting a $75
million local property tax break over 20 years.
The auditorium was part of a $770 million campus
expansion announced in 2016 that has proceeded
in fits and starts. But one thing proceeding
ahead of pace is Centene’s employment, which
“grew from 1,288 workers in 2016 to 2,879 last
year — well more than the 1,000 Centene told
Clayton the expansion would bring,” the
Post-Dispatch reported.
PROJECT
WATCH
Indiana
Andretti Global, the parent company of Andretti Autosport,
this week announced it has chosen Fishers, Indiana, to be
the future home of its universal motorsports headquarters.
The team intends to build a $200 million, 575,000-sq.-ft.
facility that will occupy approximately 90 acres alongside
the Nickel Plate Trail, the Ritchey Woods Nature Preserve
and near the Indianapolis Metropolitan Airport. The new
global headquarters would add up to 500 jobs to the local
community by early 2026, including advanced R&D by Andretti
Technologies. “Indiana holds an important place in the
history of racing, and in my career as a driver and an
owner,” said Andretti Global Chairman and CEO Michael
Andretti. I’m happy to confirm that the Racing Capital of
the World will continue to be the home of our global racing
efforts for a long time to come … For us, it’s about more
than just having somewhere to work on the cars; it’s about
having a global motorsport home and sharing that with our
people, our fans and our sponsors to advance the sport and
leave a lasting legacy.” Pending approvals, construction
will begin this fall with operations projected to begin in
2025. “Pending approval of the Indiana Economic Development
Corporation (IEDC) board of directors,” the company stated,
“the IEDC will commit an investment in Andretti Autosport of
up to $19 million in the form of conditional tax credits and
up to $125,000 in training grants based on the company’s
plans to invest in its Indiana operations. The city of
Fishers has approved additional incentives.”
In July, the New York Power Authority board approved 94 MW
of low-cost St. Lawrence hydropower to Air Products for this
project in Massena, a village located in far upstate New
York along the St. Lawrence Seaway, not far from Montréal,
that is known as home to the world’s oldest operating
aluminum smelter, operated by Alcoa, which began production
120 years ago. “Allocations from the St. Lawrence Power
Project attract large-scale community investment and deliver
good-paying jobs to the North Country,” said New York Power
Authority Vice Chairman and Massena resident Eugene L.
Nicandri. “In supporting Air Products’ expansion, NYPA is
furthering New York’s aggressive climate goals and helping
to advance the state’s vision of becoming a regional
hydrogen hub.” A news release explained that Preservation
Power is composed of 490 megawatts of hydropower generated
at the St. Lawrence Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project that
may be allocated to eligible businesses located in the
Franklin, Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties of New York
State. In addition, the NYPA board approved 16 MW of High
Load Factor power that NYPA will procure for Air Products on
the energy market. “Air Products’ application has been
considered under the Power Authority’s green jobs evaluation
criteria,” said the release, “which was approved by the
trustees in December 2020, to allow NYPA to consider green
job impacts in New York State when evaluating economic
development power applications.”
Photo courtesy of Adolfson &
Peterson Construction
Earlier this week the new $33.5 million PGA of America
headquarters opened on 6.2 acres of the new 660-acre PGA
Frisco campus in Frisco, Texas, which includes two new
18-hole championship courses, a 510-room Omni Resort and a
30-acre practice facility and more. Located just a few miles
away from Dallas Cowboys world headquarters, the campus is
expected to drive more than $2 billion in economic impact to
the stakeholders and community over the next 20 years. Three
years ago Site Selection’s Ron Starner documented how Frisco beat out more than
200 other cities to land the project. The PGA of
America — a 106-year-old organization comprising nearly
29,000 PGA teaching professionals that is separate and
distinct from the PGA Tour — currently shows 22 job openings
at its new campus.
