New Mexico’s Rural and Tribal Areas Struggle with EV Charging Access
New Mexico faces a significant lack of EV charging stations in rural and tribal regions, hindering electric vehicle adoption and sustainability efforts
New Mexico, EV Charging Stations, Tribal Lands, Electric Vehicles, Infrastructure
Santa Fe: You’d be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of electric vehicle charging stations on tribal land in New Mexico. It’s a real issue.
The state has a big gap in its EV infrastructure. Almost three-quarters of the charging stations are in urban areas. This could really hold back New Mexico from hitting its zero-emission vehicle sales targets.
According to a recent report, New Mexico has 326 EV charging stations. That sounds okay, but they’re not spread out evenly. Less than 4% of these stations are on tribal lands, even though those lands make up 13% of the state.
Rural areas have their own set of challenges when it comes to setting up EV infrastructure. High operational costs and tricky permitting processes make it tough to get things rolling.
The Legislative Finance Committee has some suggestions for the New Mexico Department of Transportation to tackle this issue. They recommend giving more help to tribal governments, looking at successful strategies from other states, and keeping an eye on what utilities like El Paso Electric are doing.
They also want a report on the costs and performance of EV charging stations by July 2025. You can check out the full report online at nmlegis.gov.
What do you think? What policies or laws should we be talking about in Business Outlook? Shoot an email to mgleason@abqjournal.com.