The White House is holding an Electric Vehicle (EV) Datathon on Nov. 29 for experts to discuss how data can help deploy EV charging stations and how data collection and curation can help improve electric vehicles.
The event will include the White House Office of Science and Technology, four of the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, EV experts, charging-station providers, local government officials, automakers, software developers, and data analysts.
The attendees plan to discuss new data sets that could result from the Department of Transportation’s Alternative Fuel Corridors, what new data communities need to update their infrastructure to assist electric vehicles, and what new information can be found from combining existing data sets.
Electric vehicles lower greenhouse gas emissions, use no petroleum, and save consumers money by avoiding the rising oil prices. There are 40,000 publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations across the United States and 250 companies have committed to providing charging stations for their employees.
Data has helped the electric vehicle community through the website Fueleconomy.gov, which enables buyers to compare the prices of different car models. The DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center finds the nearest charging stations for drivers, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency show consumers the incentives of electric vehicles, and the Plug-in Electric Vehicle Readiness Score helps communities overcome challenges to improve driver experiences.
“Despite the progress in EVs and in data to support their deployment, more work is needed to continue the conversation among those who are generating and curating new EV data and those who could put this data to good use,” Austin Brown, assistant director for clean energy and transportation for the OSTP, and Candace Vahlsing, senior policy adviser for Energy and Climate Change, wrote in a blog post.
