I-15 in Clark County designated an Electric Vehicle Corridor

A stretch of Interstate 15 in Nevada is among the first highway sections to be federally designated an interstate highway electric vehicle corridor.

The 124 miles of I-15 running between the California and Arizona state lines feature various electric vehicle charging stations, with the latest going online Wednesday at the Eagle’s Landing Travel Center in Mesquite, the Nevada Department of Transportation announced. Two DC fast chargers were activated in December in Jean as part of the corridor.

“This federal designation is not just the first for Nevada, but the first interstate designation in the intermountain west,” said Gov. Steve Sisolak, who attended the ribbon cutting ceremony in Mesquite. “The collaboration between Nevada’s key agencies, utilities and private industry in electrifying Nevada’s highways paves the way forward to transportation decarbonization. It also accelerates the build out of an Intermountain West Electric Vehicle Corridor where Nevada will serve as the keystone state for travel from the intermountain west to the west coast and back.”

NDOT needed to install electric vehicle charging stations every 50 miles to gain the federal designation. The addition of charging stations improves travel consistency and convenience, reliability and performance, while partnering with the public and private sectors to attract new investment.

Charging price varies from station to station, depending on whether it’s a public or private facility and if it’s a fast charger or not, but on average a charge will cost $4.50, according to NDOT.

The charging stations installed along I-15 to secure this designation were developed as part of the Nevada Electric Highway, a partnership between Governor’s Office of Energy, Nevada’s utilities and local businesses to build out electric vehicle infrastructure across the state’s major highway corridors including, I-15, Interstate 80, U.S. Highway 95, U.S. Highway 93 and U.S. Highway 50.

The Nevada Electric Highway is funded by the Office of Energy’s allocation of the Volkswagen settlement and utility partners throughout the state. When complete, the electric highway will feature over 30 charging station sites across Nevada, securing additional federal electric vehicle corridor designations across its highways.

“Nevada’s I-15 designation as a federal alternative fuel corridor underscores our commitment to electric vehicles and reducing greenhouse emissions,” said Kristina Swallow, director of the state department of transportation. “We continue to collaborate with the Governor’s Office of Energy as well as private and public partners in building charging stations statewide and combating climate change.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.