Fleet operators can order Class 8 electric trucks today and receive them in weeks. The utility grid upgrade required to support them can take three to five years. At a recent University of Michigan Electric Vehicle Center panel, experts from EPRI and EV Charging POD laid out what that gap is costing facilities teams and what the industry is building to close it.
EV Interconnection Timelines vs. Fleet Procurement Speed: The Real Gap
Utilities have spent a century planning around building construction cycles. Britta Gross, EPRI's director of transportation, explained that this worked because buildings take years to permit and construct. Electric vehicles broke that model. A facility can electrify an entire fleet in weeks. The grid serving that facility may not be able to respond for years.
Gross said the industry needs to start planning earlier than it ever has. Without early coordination between fleet operators and utilities, interconnection queues lengthen, infrastructure investment stalls, and facilities absorb costs they did not plan for.
EPRI eRoadMAP and GridFAST: How Utilities Are Planning for EV Load Growth
EPRI developed two tools to close the coordination gap. eRoadMAP is a public interactive map showing where and when EV charging loads are expected to materialize across the U.S. grid, down to the individual feeder level. GridFAST, launched in late 2025, is a secure portal that lets fleet operators share early site plans with matched utilities years before a formal service request.
According to EPRI, the interconnection process has historically taken multiple years, far longer than the time needed to procure electric trucks or cars. GridFAST was built to move that planning window earlier, giving utilities the data they need to invest ahead of demand rather than scramble after it. The founding group already includes major operators such as DHL, Republic Services, Pitt Ohio, Con Edison, and Pacific Gas and Electric.
On-Site Power Generation for EV Charging: When the Grid Cannot Keep Up
Stevan Bratic of EV Charging POD described a more immediate workaround. His firm deploys on-site power generation at charging locations using solar, battery storage, natural gas, hydrogen, and waste-to-energy systems. The reason is direct: bringing three-phase power to an unprepared site can cost roughly one million dollars per mile and take years to complete.
For facilities that need Level 3 DC fast charging now, generating power on-site has become the practical path. Battery systems starting at 100 kilowatts and scaling to five megawatts allow sites to charge vehicles, handle peak shaving, and return surplus power to the grid without waiting on utility infrastructure timelines.
Managed Charging and Grid Valley Periods: The Five-to-Ten-Year Opportunity
The longer-term opportunity is managed charging. EVs are parked roughly 95% of the time. Shifting charging to overnight periods, when grid demand drops and capacity sits unused, could absorb substantial load without requiring new infrastructure. Both Gross and Bratic identified this as the most significant grid opportunity in the five-to-ten-year window.
The barrier is standardization. The U.S. has 3,200 utilities and more than 40 automakers producing EV's with no shared protocol for how vehicles report charging status. Until that gap closes, the opportunity stays largely theoretical. Flexible interconnection programs, currently offered by utilities including PG&E and Southern California Edison, offer one model for how utilities can serve large loads with conditional capacity agreements rather than full infrastructure buildout.
The near-term guidance for facilities teams is direct. Grid interconnection queues are long. Operators who engage utilities early, or build on-site generation capacity, will have more flexibility than those who wait.
