LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. — As her Tesla charges up, Joanne Mild says the promise of more electric vehicle charging stations coming to the Keystone state is something she's excited about, "It can help me with my route, I can maybe take a better, more direct route and not have to go out of my way to get to a supercharger."
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced Monday that as part of its $171 million plan, 54 new charging stations will be built in 35 counties across the state.
"These charging stations will be primarily on the interstate system, so essentially, what we will have are charging stations spread across the state along the interstate system with a goal of having no greater distance of 50 miles between charging stations," said Mike Carroll, PennDOT Secretary of Transportation.
Lackawanna County will see three of the new charging stations at locations along Moosic Street in Scranton, Routes 6 and 11 in South Abington Township, and just off of Interstate 84 in Mt. Cobb.
An increase electric vehicle owner Guy Frankenfield says the county and the state desperately need, "There are longer distances between charging stations here in Pennsylvania than there are in other states."
As electric cars continue to grow in popularity, Frankenfield says this move to increase charging stations in Pennsylvania will only benefit more and more EV drivers.
"More and more EV car drivers are out there today than there were last year or the year before, so the more we have out there, the more charging stations we are going to need so we can all drive easily without worrying about running out of power," added Frankenfield.
Two of the charging stations in Lackawanna County will be Tesla charging stations, while the third one will be for any kind of electric vehicle.
See news happening? Text our Newstip Hotline.