A cross country US road trip in an electric vehicle might start to sound more appealing thanks to a fresh $623 million round of investment in EV charging networks from the Biden Administration. The new funds will inch the US towards Biden’s ultimate goal of 500,000 EV chargers nationwide by 2030 and help put to rest some riders’ fears of running out of juice mid journey. But infrastructure alone may not be enough to counteract slumping EV sales in recent months. Persistently high prices and drops in gas prices have left most Americans sitting on the fence when it comes to considering a new EV.
The Biden Administration’s Department of Transportation announced the new funding on Thursday, which will come by way of grants sent to support 47 EV charging and alternative-fueling projects spread across 22 states and Puerto Rico. Those projects should lead to the construction of an estimated 7,500 EV charging ports, with many located in lower income and rural areas where charging infrastructure is still spotty. The latest round of EV funding stems from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure law, which carved out $7.5 billion in total funds for charging infrastructure.
“The public placed great trust in DOT, and we are honoring that trust by making improvements to transportation that get people and goods to where they need to be more safely, affordably, and sustainably while creating good-paying jobs,” DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
Continuous investments in charging infrastructure are crucial to addressing range anxiety, one of the top barriers keeping drivers from switching over to electric vehicles. To that end, the administration claims publicly available EV charging ports have increased nearly 70% nationwide since Biden took office in 2021. That adds up to 161,562 total ports as of late last year, which works out to around a third of the administration’s goal of half a million chargers by the end of the…
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