The Biden-Harris Administration has announced it is awarding nearly $150 million to 24 grant recipients in 20 states to make existing electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure more reliable.
The grants will be used to repair or replace nearly 4,500 existing EV charging ports and in some cases, bring them up to code. These targeted investments complement the ten of billions in Federal and private sector funding that is building out a national EV charging network, and support good paying jobs across the country installing, maintaining, and repairing EV infrastructure.
The announcement is the latest milestone towards the President’s goal of bringing at least 500,000 public EV chargers online by the end of the decade.
“The EV revolution is here. To make the most of it we must ensure that everyone, from the largest cities to the most rural communities, has access to reliable EV charging infrastructure,” says US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “These grants bring us another step closer to a national EV charging network that keeps up with the EV transition that’s well underway.”
The funding for today’s awards is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and comes from a new program from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program that was newly created under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. NEVI is a $5 billion program administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and supported by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation to help States build out EV charging.
Program rules stipulate a 10% set-aside for States or localities that require additional assistance to strategically deploy EV charging infrastructure. This first round of funding focuses on improving the reliability and accessibility of the current network by repairing or replacing existing EV charging infrastructure. This funding direly complements larger-scale investments being made by the Biden-Harris Administration and by private companies to construct new charging stations.
“Increasing reliable access to EV charging is key to increasing EV adoption,” says USDOT Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg. “Today’s announcement is another investment in a national network that will be interconnected, interoperable, user-friendly, accessible, affordable, and reliable.”
“Charging your electric vehicle should be as easy and convenient as filling up a gas tank – and these grants will help do that by making our EV charging network more reliable,” says Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt. “We’re building a bigger and better EV charging network to keep up with driver demand, and we’re also ensuring the existing network works when you need a charge.”
Eligible applicants and projects for the EV Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator Program were outlined in a Notice of Funding Opportunity published in September 2023. For a full list of grant recipients, please visit the FHWA website.
Under President Biden’s leadership, EV sales have more than quadrupled, and the number of publicly available ports has grown by over 70% since he took office. Read more about the Biden-Harris Administration’s $7.5 billion investment to make our EV charging network bigger and more reliable and how it has helped spur more than $130 billion in new private sector investment in electric vehicle, battery, and EV charging manufacturing – including over $155 billion in U.S. EV battery manufacturing alone.
Today’s announcement builds on a comprehensive series of EV-related actions taken by the Biden-Harris Administration.
- In January 2024, FHWA announced $623 million in grant awards for the first round of the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program, funding 47 EV charging and alternative-fueling infrastructure projects in 22 States and Puerto Rico.
- In December 2023, the Biden-Harris…
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