The federal government announced $623 million in grants to help build out an EV charging network across the United States, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said in a press release. This is seen as a critical part of the Biden Administration’s goal of building out “a convenient, affordable, reliable and made-in-America national network of EV chargers.” The administration has the goal of including at least 500,000 publicly available chargers by 2030.

Since Biden took office, private companies have announced more than $155 billion in investments in the EV and battery supply chain, EV sales have more than quadrupled and the number of publicly available charging ports has grown by nearly 70 percent, according to the statement. More than four million EVs are now on the road, said the DOT.

In 2022, NACS fought for private investment in EV charging stations, reported NACS Daily.

The grants being announced are made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program, a competitive funding program, and will fund 47 EV charging and alternative-fueling infrastructure projects in 22 states and Puerto Rico, including construction of approximately 7,500 EV charging ports.

The CFI program complements the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program. In August 2022, The Transportation Energy Institute released a summary written in partnership with the Center for Sustainable Energy of two programs, reported NACS Daily.

The first refueling locations with EV chargers courtesy of the NEVI program recently went online at a Pilot Travel Center in Ohio.

Some of the projects in this round of grants include:

• $15 million to the Maryland Clean Energy Center to build 87 electric vehicle charging stations in urban, suburban and low- and moderate-income communities across the state. Proposed sites include Coppin State University and 34 disadvantaged communities with multifamily housing. The project also includes workforce development programs that offer services to help train, place and retain people in jobs or registered apprenticeships.

• $70 million to the North Central Texas Council of Governments to build up to five hydrogen fueling stations for medium- and heavy-duty freight trucks in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The project will help create a hydrogen corridor from southern California to Texas.

• $15 million to Energy Northwest, a joint operating agency in Washington State, to install 40 fast chargers and 12 Level 2 chargers across western Washington State and northern Oregon. The project will provide EV access to largely rural and disadvantaged communities, including on Indigenous Tribal lands.

• $1.4 million to the Chilkoot Indian Association, an Alaska Native Tribe, to build an EV charging station in Haines, a rural and disadvantaged community where there are no publicly available EV charging stations.