Electric Vehicles (EVs) are fast becoming the future of the American road — and for a good cause. The desire to reduce pollution, oil dependence, and money spent on gas are potent motivators for drivers and businesses alike. President Joe Biden this month signed an ambitious executive order aimed at making half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric vehicles and proposed new vehicle-emission rules to cut pollution through 2026, the White House said.
General Motors Co (GM.N), Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Chrysler-parent Stellantis NV (STLA.MI), in a joint statement, pledged that 40 to 50 percent of their new car sales would be electric by the end of the decade.
Jeremy Urfer, the Senior Manager of Vehicle Electrification at Miller Electric Company, said this significant increase in sales is a good sign that the nation is on the right track and is beginning to embrace sustainable energy as a way of life. We caught up with Urfer to talk with him about the EV market, his experience in the industry, and how he thinks the market will shape up in the future.
Your new role at Miller Electric is a brand-new position created last year. Could you give us a quick rundown on what it entails?
“My primary role is to drive and develop our EV charging business. So, I work with strategic customers, partners, distributors, manufacturers, to streamline our EV business unit. At Miller Electric, we can not only help design on the front end what your project is going to look like, but we can follow through for years to come. We can take care of all the maintenance, issues, any preventative maintenance, any repair work. So, it’s really coming in the front and helping design the installation, complete the installation– which sometimes can even include all the civil and site work as well– all the way through to preventative maintenance programs going forward.”
What excites you the most about your particular corner of the industry?
“The EV technology market is moving very quickly. It’s moving faster than anything that we’ve seen before technology-wise. Some of the vehicles in the past took decades to develop and really fine-tune, and now the EV technology market is moving very quickly. We have our ability to follow our customers around wherever it is in the country that they need support. We can take advantage of our offices and support them. It’s not just passenger cars anymore, I mean, the future is going to fleet; it’s going to heavy equipment; it’s going to be semis; it’s going to be the rest of the transportation industry; boats are going the way of EV; they’re even talking about planes going the way of EV. So, it’s not just the Teslas that we are all used to, it’s really going to define how transportation moves forward.”
This transformation is not without its challenges. Can you talk about some of those?
“What I’m learning is that EV adoption is more behavioral than just physical infrastructure installation. It’s changing people’s behavior, getting rid of what everybody used to know as “range anxiety,” now it’s “charge anxiety.” And getting workplaces and commercial buildings to adopt EV infrastructure to help make mass adoption of EV a reality.”
Miller Electric offers a wide range of Electric Vehicle solutions. From commercial and public charging infrastructure to scaleable, enterprise fleet solutions, we’re helping pave the way to a sustainable future. Since 2017, our clients have relied on us to install charging stations in their facilities throughout the United States. From cleaning and routine service to preventative maintenance and complete system upgrades, we have the skills, experience, and national footprint to ensure that your EV infrastructure is always functioning at maximum capacity.