EV charging gets another massive funding push from Biden administration

The Biden administration says that the number of EV charging stations in the US has doubled since 2021 as it announces another round of grants for states looking to install more charging locations.

The administration claims that there are now over 192,000 publicly available charging ports in the US, with approximately 1,000 new public chargers being added each week. That’s up from approximately 100,000 ports that were in operation at the outset of 2021 when President Joe Biden first took office.

EV charging is often held up as a culprit in the frustratingly slow adoption of electric vehicles in the United States, with EV owners frequently citing in surveys infrequent charging or broken equipment as one of the pain points in their experience. That said, the charging experience has improved in recent years, as thousands of new chargers have come online.

Since his election, Biden has vowed to build 500,000 chargers by 2030 as a way to spur more EV sales, including $7.5 billion for charging expansion in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. But the process has been slow going; in March, The Washington Post reported that only seven charging stations with 38 ports have been opened under the administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. (A spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration did not respond to a request for updated figures.)

Today, the administration is releasing an additional $521 million to 30 states for further charging installation. The awards are for state programs that missed out on the first round of funding and reapplied for round two.

According to the Electrification Coalition, which tracks EV funding, many of the projects receiving funding are focused on “creating access to charging for rural areas, disadvantaged communities and multi-unit dwellings, as well as charging for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.” In total, the money will go toward the creation of “more than” 9,200 new charging ports across the US, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Examples include $102 million to the California Department of Transportation to build both EV charging and hydrogen fueling for freight hauling along 2,500 miles of highways. The Maryland Clean Energy Center will receive $33 million for EV charging in “rural, urban, and disadvantaged communities.” And the Seminole Tribe of Florida will get $933,600 to build seven charging stations across the reservation.