In the U.S., more than 95% of passenger car trips are 30 miles or less, based on federal survey data. As vehicles convert to electricity, this means that about 90% of passenger car energy can be, and probably will be, delivered through conventional electrical outlets at home, work, and shopping places. Safety protection, metering, billing, and other functions can be supported by a car to turn a “dumb” electrical outlet into a smart vehicle charge point. Scaling to millions or even hundreds of millions of charge locations becomes cost effective. The talk explores how to think differently about charge infrastructure to move toward ubiquitous energy access. It considers how community projects and modest incentives can bring vast growth in low-cost charge access.

Presenter: Philip Krein

• Philip Krein has been working on electric and hybrid cars for more than 30 years. He is the Grainger Endowed Chair Professor Emeritus in Electric Machinery and Electromechanics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is a past President of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, a past Chair of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Community, an IEEE Fellow, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. In 2021, he received the IEEE Transportation Technologies Award.

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