National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program funding freeze will exacerbate charging deserts, analysts say
President Donald Trump's targeting of the program's funds, the subject of a lawsuit filed this week, demonstrates the president's commitment to reducing government support for an EV transition. The program is small compared to the charging infrastructure network being developed by private companies such as Tesla and ChargePoint and with site hosts such as Walmart, Circle K and Pilot.
There are now 75 National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program-funded sites open with 395 ports, making up roughly 0.7 percent of the total number of public DC fast charging stations in the U.S., according to Paren, an EV charging analytics firm.
The Federal Highway Administration has been steadily approving state plans — as of Feb. 6, the agency was obligated to pay $3.27 billion of the $5 billion for states' approved plans through 2025.
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The infrastructure program was designed to solve a pressing problem — private industry has been unable or unwilling to build chargers in areas without significant EV adoption. If the Trump administration succeeds in pulling back the funds, a transition from combustion engine autos to EVs will take longer.
'What it's leading to is a charger utilization divide,' said Loren McDonald, chief analyst at Paren. 'The rich are going to get richer and the poor are going to get poorer, meaning that we're going to see more and more stations being built in Miami and Atlanta and Los Angeles and San Francisco and Austin and New York and Boston — not so much in Bismarck, N.D.'
Congress appropriated $5 billion over five years for the EV infrastructure program through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The program was designed to prioritize infrastructure along highways, padding the already developing charging landscape in urban areas and in states with significant EV adoption.
The intent was 'not to build a lot of stations but to be very strategic about where they were,' said McDonald.
States were required to submit plans for how they intended to use the money allocated by Congress, and then they could access the funds.
On Trump's first day in office, he signed a flurry of executive orders, including 'Unleashing American Energy,' which targeted measures perceived to enforce an 'electric vehicle mandate.'
The order said that 'all agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated' through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 'including but not limited to funds for electric vehicle charging stations made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program.'
Then, on Feb. 6, the Federal Highway Administration said in a letter to states that it would rescind the EV infrastructure program guidance and suspend past and future approvals of state plans using the Biden-era guidance.
Now, states are suing.
'The President directed agencies to withhold congressionally appropriated funds, including NEVI Formula Program funds, as a tool to terminate programs the President dislikes,' the complaint says. 'Agencies have no authority to rescind or revise statutes, or to withhold funds duly appropriated by Congress based on the President's disagreement with the policies and priorities of Congress.'
Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin filed suit against the U.S. Department of Transportation, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, the Federal Highway Administration and the acting administrator of the Federal Highway Administration Gloria Shepherd on May 7.
The states cite several real-world consequences of the administration's orders to withhold funding. An awardee in California, for example, has requested to withdraw its project because of the Federal Highway Administration letter, the suit alleges. The state also reported that site hosts for charging stations decided not to enter agreements after learning that the highway administration was withholding the funds.
'The withholding of NEVI Formula Program funds threatens the successful execution of grant agreements with the awardees of California's second solicitation and will likely result in potential applicants declining to participate in the third solicitation at all,' the suit says.
States are not the only entities slated to be impacted if the administration succeeds. After all, National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program funds were intended to encourage EV adoption and soothe range anxiety for parts of the country currently underserved by charging companies.
'If you're going to interfere with and interrupt the uptake and adoption of electric vehicles, getting rid of stimulated charging infrastructure in remote areas is a very good way to do it,' said Conrad Layson, senior alternative propulsion analyst at AutoForecast Solutions.
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