Montevallo now has a public EV charging station available in the heart of its downtown business district.

Mayor Rusty Nix cut the ribbon at the charging station located at 550 Main St. – directly across from City Hall – during a ceremony on Thursday.

As the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) continues to rise across the country, an EV charging station is now available at Northeast Alabama Community College. The college has installed a ChargePoint Dual Port Level II charging station in the main parking lot adjacent to Alabama Highway 35. Two ports are available.

Electric vehicles are a hot topic right now in the automotive industry as people consider making the switch from gas-reliant vehicles.

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) has already put $7.2 million into installing 41 charging stations across the state to support this transition. The department will also be receiving $79 million over the next five years to begin installing charging stations near all interstates across Alabama.

PowerSouth Electric Cooperative has announced a partnership with electric vehicle charging platform Optiwatt and it could pay off for EV owners.

Optiwatt and 14 of PowerSouth’s distribution member systems invite EV owners across South Alabama and Northwest Florida to participate in the Electric Vehicle Research Pilot. The EV owners can receive a $25 reward.

The Electric Vehicle Research Pilot will analyze EV charging trends to prepare the South’s electricity infrastructure for the expected load from electric vehicle charging. It aims to prepare U.S. electricity grids for increasing EV adoption, which will grow exponentially in the next few years and put local utilities providers under stress due to heightened charging demand.

The city is participating in the TVA DC Fast Charge program. That program makes fast charge available every 50 miles along the major corridor.

MONTGOMERY — Gov. Kay Ivey has awarded $1.2 million to provide charging stations for electric vehicles at five locations in Alabama.

 The grants are awarded to help Alabama be ready as more electric vehicles are purchased and travel the state highways.

“As more electric cars and trucks, including many models produced by Alabama car manufacturers, make their way onto Alabama roadways, they will need access to adequate charging facilities,” Gov. Ivey said. “Our goal is to ensure that electric vehicle charging stations are located not only along the interstate system, but on other major highway arteries throughout the state.”

Funds for all the projects came from appropriations by the Alabama Legislature under the state Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Program. The grants target well-traveled highway systems away from the interstates or busy locations. Most of the latest awards are in locations along Alabama’s highway system on the state’s eastern corridor.

Three Alabama automakers are taking part in a seven-member joint venture to rapidly expand access to electric vehicle charging stations in North America.

Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz are joining the BMW Group, General Motors, Kia and Stellantis NV in developing a new, high-powered charging network with at least 30,000 chargers. The joint venture is expected to be established this year.

The new charging stations will be accessible to all battery-powered electric vehicles from any automaker using Combined Charging System (CCS) or North American Charging Standard (NACS).

The sticker price on Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup is being lowered by thousands of dollars due to increased plant capacity, falling costs for battery raw materials and internal efforts to scale production by the Detroit automaker.

Ford Motor Co. said Monday that final upgrades at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan being completed now will lead to greater availability of a built-to-order truck as early as October at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price closer to initial Lightning pricing.

Members of the Bay Area Chapter of Drive Electric Alabama welcomed the second annual Electric Vehicle (EV) Road Trip to Mobile’s Bienville Square on Wednesday, June 14.

Daphne Dixon, executive director of the Connecticut Southwestern Area Clean Cities Coalition, and Connecticut Clean Cities intern Alyssa Murphy stopped in Mobile during their day’s journey from Baton Rouge, La., to Pensacola, Fla.

The EV Road Trip is a 5,100-mile trip from California to Rhode Island in a Chevrolet Bolt EUV that has been provided by Hertz, the trip’s vehicle sponsor. This is the second year Dixon and Murphy have embarked on the cross-country trip to showcase EV functionality and demonstrate the impact EVs can have when adopted by businesses, governments and community organizations.

Beginning next year, Ford EV owners in the United States can use the Ford’s mobile app to use Tesla’s 12,000 Supercharger stations — the company’s name for its fast charging stations.

The partnership was announced by Ford (F) CEO Jim Farley and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk on a Twitter Spaces livestream on Thursday. Musk is also the CEO and owner of Twitter.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Ford as a company, and it makes great vehicles. This is something we’re super happy to support,” Musk said during the livestream.

Farley also announced that Ford’s next-generation EVs would be made with Tesla-style charging ports rather than the so-called CCS chargers used by most other EV markers, including General Motors, Audi, and Rivian. Tesla’s charging stations outnumber CCS stations in the United States.