2025 Impact Highlight
Statewide
Equitable, community-informed planning to strengthen EV resilience statewide
Colorado leads the nation in electric vehicle (EV) adoption, yet major gaps remain in the resilience of EV infrastructure—especially in rural, disadvantaged, and hazard-prone regions. Fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles now represent nearly one in four new vehicle sales as of the first quarter of 2025, according to Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, positioning Colorado as a leader in the clean mobility transition. Communities are experiencing unreliable chargers, limited workforce capacity, and concerns about grid-dependent charging during disasters. This project addresses the need for equitable, community-informed planning to strengthen Colorado’s EV resilience statewide.
To address these needs, the CSU Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering and the Office of Engagement and Extension organized statewide listening sessions and invited key stakeholders to identify concerns related to EV infrastructure resilience. Participants included Colorado state agencies, regional governments, and emergency management offices, along with union and workforce groups such as trade unions, labor organizations, installation and maintenance workers, first responders, and technical training programs.
These stakeholders influence policy, funding, and emergency preparedness, making their engagement essential for aligning resilience planning with statewide strategies. Shared priorities included supporting EV adoption goals, advancing climate action efforts, ensuring public safety during emergencies, promoting economic development, and directing resources effectively.
Fourteen community outreach events, designed to foster open dialogue and encourage active participation from stakeholders, were executed between February – October 2025. To ensure broad accessibility statewide, twelve of the events were held in person within local communities, while two statewide events were conducted virtually, enabling participation from stakeholders residing across the state. This flexible format ensured consistent engagement across diverse regions and allowed for both qualitative insights and structured input to be incorporated into the EV infrastructure resiliency planning process. These sessions brought together 180 participants statewide to address a critical gap in EV infrastructure planning.
This research demonstrates that while EV adoption is expanding across Colorado, the resilience of the supporting infrastructure remains uneven and fragile. Engaging key stakeholders and translating findings into a coordinated, statewide EV infrastructure resiliency plan is a critical next step for states with expanding EV adoption and infrastructure. Such a plan should prioritize three critical areas to create an EV infrastructure system that is not only efficient but also robust in the face of disasters and adaptable to local conditions.