(Credit: Pixabay)The Biden Administration has approved the first round of national electric vehicle charging installations that are part of last year’s infrastructure bill.
The first $900 million of funding is being distributed to the first round of 35 approved charging infrastructure plans submitted by states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The charging stations will be built along 53,000 miles of highways across the country, the Department of Transportation says.
The $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates $5 billion through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program over the next five years for charging stations to be installed by the states. To this point, states were able to make plans and start some activities directly related to their plans, but now they can be reimbursed for the costs of implementing the charging stations.
The states approved to get their projects underway had submitted plans through NEVI. Some of the approved states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.
Electric vehicle implementation has been a priority of the Biden Administration. According to the White House, in 2022 companies have announced $13 billion in domestic electric vehicle manufacturing, $28 billion in batteries, and more than $700 million toward charging.
The infrastructure bill calls for 500,000 chargers, $7 billion to ensure domestic manufacturers have minerals and other materials needed for electric vehicle production, and more than $10 billion for clean transit and school buses. Additionally, this year’s Inflation Reduction Act adds money to improve vehicle manufacturing facilities, incentives to buy electric vehicles, and grants to deploy zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles.
Companies that have invested in US production of electric vehicles and batteries include Toyota, Ford, and General Motors. South Korea’s SK Group has also pledged to invest up to $14 billion in US battery production.
Charging infrastructure is key for further adaptation of electric vehicles, and especially a concern for electric fleet operators. Earlier this week TerraWatt said it has received $1 billion in funding to build out commercial fleet charging centers. IKEA is also quadrupling the company’s chargers and Delta is supplying EVgo with 1,000 fast chargers.
The Biden Administration has a goal for half of all vehicles sold in the US to be electric by 2030. The federal government says it plans to fast-track the remaining state charging infrastructure plans that have been submitted.
“Thanks to the commitment of state leaders who worked hard to develop EV charging networks that work for their residents, we were able to approve these state charging plans quickly and ahead of schedule,” says acting Federal Highway Administrator Stephanie Pollack. “We are reviewing the remaining plans and on track to finish the process by our target date of Sept. 30, if not sooner.”
