The Biden-Harris administration has doled out over a half billion dollars in grants to continue to build out electric vehicle (EV) charging and alternative-fueling infrastructure across the U.S.
Under the $521 million grants, more than 9,200 EV charging ports will be installed in 29 states, the District of Columbia and eight Federally Recognized Tribes. The funds are part of the goals to create a national network of EV chargers to expand the adoption of EVs at home, work and other corridors across the U.S.
Currently, there are more than 192,000 EV chargers in the U.S., nearly double from 2021, according to the Biden-Harris Administration. About 1,000 new public chargers are being added each week, the administration said.
The infrastructure will be built in rural, suburban, urban and other communities supplementing private investments and filling in gaps where charging is lacking, the administration said.
“The milestone of almost 200,000 public chargers is a win for public health, a livable planet, and healthy communities,” said Jesse Piedfort, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign.
Piedfort said expanding the national network to rural and tribal communities is a strategic part of infrastructure to support the transition to pollution-free vehicles.
Deployment of the grants
The grants are part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) discretionary grant program and 10% from the National EV Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program.
The states given grants include:
- Arkansas — $14.9 million
- Arizona — $15 million
- California — approximately $150 million
- Washington, D.C. — $3.9 million
- Florida — $5.6 million
- Georgia — $26 million
- Iowa — $1.8 million
- Illinois — $15 million
- Indiana — $15 million
- Kansas — $775,000
- Louisiana — $5.6 million
- Massachusetts — $16 million
- Maryland — $33.4 million
- Michigan — $25 million
- Minnesota — $7.2 million
- Missouri — $2.5 million
- North Carolina — $5 million
- North Dakota — $3.9 million
- New York — $27.8 million
- Ohio — $25 million
- Oklahoma — $5.2 million
- Oregon — $16.8 million
- Pennsylvania — $11.3 million
- Rhode Island — $15 million
- Tennessee — $4.7 million
- Texas — $16.7 million
- Vermont — $4.9 million
- Washington — $16.1 million
The trucking infrastructure corridor will provide both electric and hydrogen stations along a route in the states of California, Oregon and Washington. Source: rgaudet17/Pixabay
Trucking corridor
One of the biggest funded projects is the zero-emission West Coast Truck Charging and Fueling Corridor Project, which received $102 million to deploy charging and hydrogen fueling stations for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles along 2,500 miles of freight lanes in California, Oregon and Washington.
The goal is to provide emissions-free movement of goods connecting major ports, freight centers and agricultural regions between the U.S. border with Mexico and Canada.
This is in addition to the more than $250 million that was sent to California from the U.S. government to upgrade airports across the state.
According to the state, while trucks only represent 6% of vehicles on California’s roads, they account for more than 35% of the state’s transportation-related emissions.
The charging and fueling stations will support California’s implementation that requires an increasing percentage of truck sales to be zero emission vehicles. Oregon and Washington followed suit and adopted similar policies. Last year, one out of six new medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold in California were zero-emissions vehicles. This is said to exceed sales goals two years ahead of schedule, California said.
