Electric charging stations coming to Turnpike plazas
All eight service plazas on Florida’s Turnpike from Sumter County to Miami will be getting fast charging stations for electric cars, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday.
Speaking outside the Turnpike headquarters at the Turkey Lake rest stop in west Orange County, DeSantis said each plaza will have three fast charging stations begin to be installed before the end of the year. Turkey Lake is only one of three plazas that already have such stations.
“When you look at electrical vehicles, part of the issue is they have not been terribly affordable for a lot of middle income folks,” DeSantis said. “[But] they’re becoming more affordable. … It’s amazing how much cheaper it is to just charge a vehicle than to fill up a gas tank. And so as technology evolves, we hope that that’ll be reflected in people’s pocketbooks. So we want to make sure we have the infrastructure in place to make that a reality.”
The stations will be funded by the state’s $166 million share of the Volkswagen emissions settlement, for which 15%, or about $25 million, was designated to be used on electric charging infrastructure.
DeSantis said the state hopes to begin the bidding process to install such stations off of major interstate exits in the near future.
“We want to be able to have similar fast charging stations across all of Florida’s major highways,” DeSantis said. “And so if you’re driving [on Interstate] 95 from Miami to Daytona Beach, you can rest assured you can get off an exit and just like you get gasoline, you’re going to have the ability to have access to this.”