EV Charging show plugging into Las Vegas for 1st time

The electric vehicle charging industry will join Southern Nevada’s robust convention schedule with the inaugural EV Charging Summit and Expo on Wednesday.

The three-day trade show will bring together companies and industry leaders at The Mirage to discuss best practices and innovation from building EV charging stations to ensuring EVs don’t overload electric grids, according to Luke Vinci, managing partner at MVP Media Network, organizer of the show.

“We wanted to target everybody from an (automaker) to people that are servicing the ancillaries of the EV charging space,” Vinci said.

The convention is expected to have around 3,000 attendees. An estimated 200 exhibitors and sponsors will be in attendance across 17,000 square feet of show floor space, Vinci said.

He thinks the show is positioned to grow alongside the EV industry in the U.S., noting that there is already an exhibitor waitlist for its 2024 show.

“(EV usage) is growing all over the country, and Vegas is a great place for direct flights and space to grow this event and we intend to put our flag in the sand in Vegas and continue to grow our event in Vegas,” Vinci said.

EV usage could grow rapidly in Nevada as the ownership of electric vehicles is expected to more than triple by 2032, according to the 2022 Status of Energy Report from the Governor’s Office of Energy. The industry is also positioned to grow across the U.S., as the Edison Electric Institute — an association for investor-owned utilities — expects there to be 26.4 million EVs on roads by 2030, equivalent to 10 percent of all vehicles.

Linda Stevens, chief strategy officer and senior vice president of sales at OATI, said the EV Summit is one of the few nationally-focused shows for EV infrastructure. Software company OATI services the energy industry and is a sponsor of the expo.

“We will grow as an industry because we have common goals, and we’re going to start to develop a common way forward,” Stevens said. “We need cars to rely on a strong, stable, highly reliable, always-on grid. I think people will start feeling the more we get charging infrastructure out there, the less the range anxiety is going to be.”

This expo is also happening at a good time for the EV industry as the recent federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will encourage EV adoption, said Sara Rafalson, vice president of market development and public policy at EVgo, an operator of EV charging stations that will be exhibiting at the expo.

“There are new incentives and tax provisions essentially for both the vehicles and charging,” Rafalson said. “I think all in all, when you combine the policy environment and the different private sector growth, there’s just quite a lot of interest in the sector.”

There has been significant development toward expanding EV charging in the state. Nevada was recently awarded $38 million in federal funds to enhance its charging network, and NV Energy was approved to spend about $170 million to accelerate the electrification of transportation.

Vinci said hopefully the summit can also address grid challenges and other issues around the adoption of EVs.

“(EV adoption) is really going to be driven by consumers wanting electric vehicles,” he said. “And if they do, then that infrastructure has to be there to support it. If the infrastructure is not there, that industry will die off.”

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com.Follow @seanhemmers34 on Twitter.