Blog: City Blog

Sustainability Queries Public on EV Chargers

On Sept. 1, 2022, the Office of Sustainability launched a survey to gather community feedback on electric vehicle (EV) charging gaps, and better understand the concerns of Knoxville’s residents on available charging. The city manages publicly available charging at 11 locations throughout the city (with more coming this year). The survey insights will be worked into our evaluation of future expansion locations for charging.

With greenhouse emissions from vehicles making up approximately 60 percent of our community’s emissions, and most prospective EV owners concerned about “range anxiety” (the fear they can’t get to/from their favorite places), this is one way we work to support the transition to lower emissions technology. It’s especially important for us to identify community needs as many of our disadvantaged communities don’t see near the same investment from private EV charging installs, and face many more barriers like a lack of personal off-street parking to install their own EV charger like many homeowners do.

In the first month of releasing the survey, we’ve gotten 211 responses to the survey. We’ve heard from many folks across Knoxville, but a very large proportion of folks in downtown. We’ve gotten good insights from those who have participated about why they feel those locations are the best. Those range from nearby parks to shopping to being near major employers.

We want to hear from you, your families, and your friends. If you can, take the survey yourself or share with someone you think would be interested. This survey is NOT just for EV owners. If you’re thinking about potentially buying an EV, and you have concerns about where you’d charge, let us know where you think would be the best place to put chargers. To share the survey, please use one of the following links:

Survey in English: https://tinyurl.com/mr3nhy72
Survey in Spanish: https://tinyurl.com/5n6b95vx

If you’d like to learn more about the city’s public EV chargers, you can check out our website: www.knoxvilletn.gov/EVchargers.

Posted by ptravis On 05 October, 2022 at 11:36 AM