Shortage of Electric Vehicle Chargers Continues

Consumer demand for EVs is rising in the United States, necessitating six times as many charging sites on its roads by the end of the decade, according to federal estimates. 

The United States has about 180,000 EV chargers today, according to the Energy Department, including 41,000 fast chargers, which can cover a long-distance road trip in an electric vehicle, Politico reported.

In a June study, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory projected that the U.S. will need 1.2 million public chargers by 2030 to meet demand, including 182,000 fast chargers, Politico added.

President Joe Biden has said his goal is to have half the vehicles sold in the United States be electric by the end of the decade. 

Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure package into law in 2021, with $7.5 billion directed specifically toward EV chargers, aiming to achieve his administration’s goal of building 500,000 chargers in the United States by 2030.

But two years later, the program has yet to install a single charger, Politico noted.

Administration officials say creating a brand-new program in every state and marshaling the private sector to meet complex reliability and performance requirements for each federally funded station has been difficult.

The bulk of the infrastructure law funds, $5 billion, are dedicated to building fast chargers along interstate highways under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. The program requires that the chargers meet a strict set of standards, such as being located at least every 50 miles along major routes, being operational at least 97% of the time, and featuring credit card readers for easy payment, Politico reported.

States and the charger industry blame the delays mostly on new contracting and performance requirements they have to navigate to receive federal funds, Politico noted. While federal officials have authorized more than $2 billion of the funds to be sent to states, fewer than half of states have even started to take bids from contractors to build the chargers, Politico reported.

Under the infrastructure law, the NEVI funds are administered by states, which can contract out the construction and operation of the charging stations to private companies. So far, every state has taken the initial steps to receive the NEVI cash by submitting a plan to the Joint Office in 2022 and an update in 2023. If a governor were to reject the funds, municipalities can apply to administer the funds instead.

Following Ohio, Pennsylvania broke ground on its first NEVI-funded charger in November. Another six states have awarded contracts for their first round of charging sites, while 15 states plus Puerto Rico are in the process of soliciting bids from the private sector.

But 27 states and Washington, D.C. have yet to even start soliciting bids. 

The other charging program created by the law, the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program, has yet to allocate any funds, with the first awards expected by the end of the year.

The sluggish rollout could undermine President Biden’s EV-themed reelection messaging and increases the possibility that a Republican in the White House could roll back the charging network efforts in 2025, Politico noted.

At a September rally with autoworkers in Michigan, former President Donald Trump quipped: “They say the happiest day when you buy an electric car is the first 10 minutes you’re driving it, and then after that, panic sets in because you’re worried, Where the hell am I going to get a charge to keep this thing going?”