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| The
charging station at
the Pilot Travel
Center near London,
Ohio, was set up by a
partnership between
General Motors, Pilot
Company and EVgo, with
some funding from the
federal government.
Credit: Dan
Gearino/Inside Climate
News |
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Recalling
the optimism that
surrounded the launch
of the National
Electric Vehicle
Infrastructure program
is bewildering, even
though it happened
just five years ago.
The $5 billion
initiative was part of
the Biden
administration’s goal
of having 500,000
public EV charging
ports by 2030. Pete
Buttigieg, Biden’s
transportation
secretary, said NEVI
would “help us win the EV race.”
And then things went
sideways. First, the
Biden administration
took a long time to
write the program’s
rules and had barely
started disbursing
money by the time
President Donald Trump
took office. Then,
Trump froze the funding and has been defending the
decision in court ever
since.
It would be reasonable
to assume that NEVI
hasn’t done much. But
a report issued this week by the Sierra Club
tells a different
story. Despite many
obstacles, the program
increased its reach
and accomplishments in
2025, with states
spending $94 million
on projects. That’s
more than double the
$44 million spent in
2024. This translates
to hundreds of
charging ports, with
agreements to deploy
thousands more.
And the successes
aren’t where you might
expect. Pennsylvania
and Ohio rank first
and second,
respectively, in
program funding
because they were
among the first to get
organized and apply.
But the spending is
still a tiny share of
the amount originally
set by Congress with
the 2021
Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs
Act, also known as the
Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law.
More than 95 percent
remains unspent,
largely because of
legal challenges
related to the federal
freeze.
“Far more urgency,
accountability, and
action are needed to
deliver the truly
nationwide EV charging
system Congress
promised the American
people in 2021,” said
Josh Stebbins,
managing attorney at
Sierra Club, in an
email.
Stebbins is part of
the legal challenges
to the freeze. In one
case, Washington v. U.S. Department of Transportation,
17 states and a
coalition of
environmental advocacy
groups successfully
argued that the Trump
administration broke
the law by trying to
claw back the money. A
Jan. 23 ruling by the
U.S. District Court
for the Western
District of Washington
agreed with the states
and ordered that
funding resume.
Advocacy groups are
urging states to move
aggressively to secure
and spend the funds,
which requires work to
develop project
proposals for charging
stations.
The 2021 legislation
allocated funding to
states based on their
share of federal
highway aid, with the
payments spread over
five fiscal years
starting in 2022.
At the end of 2025,
$2.7 billion was
available under the
terms of the
legislation but not
yet sent to the
states; $1.3 billion
was “obligated” under
the program, which
means states had
contracts to spend
this money but had not
spent it; and $94
million had been
spent, according to
the report.
The states that spent
the most were the ones
that moved the fastest
to submit proposals
from 2022 to 2024.
This is why
Pennsylvania, with
$16.2 million from the
program, has received
more money than larger
states such as
California, which got
$920,000.
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Federal
money covers a portion
of the costs to deploy
public charging
stations, with others,
often businesses,
covering the rest.
After reading the
Sierra Club report, I
decided to visit the
first NEVI-funded
project in the United
States, which is a
short drive from me in
the Columbus metro
area. It’s at a Pilot
Travel Center along
I-70 in London, Ohio.
The area around the
exit has four large
gas stations or truck
stops, two of which
have EV chargers.
The Pilot Travel
Center’s four charging
ports looked the same
as when I wrote about them in 2023. And just like
then, nobody was
charging during my
visit.
So, I went down the
street to TA Travel
Center, which had 12
charging ports, and
met Chip and Cathy
Lillyman of Celina,
Ohio, who were
relaxing in their
Lexus RZ 450e while
the battery charged.
High gasoline prices
make this a good time
to buy an EV, even
with the Trump
administration’s
cancellation of
consumer rebates. The
price was $4.29 at
every station that
day, which is pretty
close to the local
high since the Iran
war started in
February.
Chip Lillyman, who is
a retired auto body
shop owner, said high
gas prices were one
the main reasons they
bought an EV. Previous
gas price shocks are
vivid in his memory,
especially the one
during the early 1970s
Middle East oil
embargo.
“I worked at a gas
station at that time,”
he said.
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| Cathy
(left) and Chip
Lillyman of Celina,
Ohio, were charging
their new Lexus EV
this week at the TA
Travel Center near
London, Ohio. Credit:
Dan Gearino/Inside
Climate News |
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The Lillymans traded in
their Honda CR-V for the
Lexus last week, and
plan to do most of their
charging at home, but
were traveling that day.
The TA Travel Center is
not listed among those
receiving NEVI funding.
Providing EV charging is
one of several ways a
convenience store can
attract customers, and
competition is intense
at this exit. But EV
market share in Ohio
remains low, ranked
28th in the country
as of the third quarter
of last year, the most
recent figure available
from the Alliance for
Automotive Innovation, a
trade group.
As EV market share
grows, convenience
stores will need to add
chargers. I’m going to
keep checking in and see
which nearby locations
here have chargers, and
how much they’re used.
As of March, the country
had 170,158 public level
2 charging ports, which
are a step up from a
garage wall outlet, and
69,630 DC fast-charging
ports, according
to the federal
government’s Joint
Office of Energy and
Transportation.
Five years earlier, the
country had 81,601 level
2 ports and 17,231 DC
fast-charging ports.
But NEVI has had little
to do with the growth.
The few hundred chargers
connected to the program
are barely a blip
compared to what’s
happened in the broader
market, with private
investment and state and
local programs helping
to build a national
network.
Most of NEVI’s
contribution is still
coming, which is one
reason I think the
Biden-era goal of having
500,000 charging ports
by 2030 is well within
reach—even though the
current administration
is often hostile to EVs.
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Other
stories about the
energy transition to
take note of this
week:
EV Ownership
Reaches a Tipping
Point in Much of the
World: Data
and recent research
indicate that electric
vehicle sales have
reached a point of
self-sustaining
momentum in China,
parts of Southeast
Asia and Europe, Attracta Mooney, Kana Inagaki, Nassos Stylianou
and Jana Tauschinski
report for Financial
Times. This is
despite what’s
happening in the
United States, where
the Trump
administration’s
cancellation of
consumer tax credits
has contributed to a
slowdown in EV sales.
You Could Buy
5 Chinese EVs for
the Price of 1 New
Car in the United
States: Reuters
looked at the lack of
affordable electric
vehicle adoptions, one
reason for slow
adoption in the United
States. The average
new car in the U.S. in
March cost $51,456,
while Chinese
automakers offer a
variety of EVs that
cost the equivalent of
about $10,000, as Qiaoyi Li and David Dolan report.
The Trump
Administration
Agrees to Pay Two
More Companies to
Abandon Offshore
Wind Leases:
Bluepoint Wind and
Golden State Wind have
said they will end
their offshore wind
leases and receive
reimbursements from
the federal government
of about $900 million,
as Jennifer McDermott and Matthew Daly report for
The Associated Press.
This follows the
administration
agreeing to pay
TotalEnergies to
abandon plans for
offshore wind
projects, as part of a
larger strategy to
discourage offshore
wind development.
Bluepoint Wind was
going to be off the
coast of New Jersey
and New York, and
Golden State Wind was
going to be off the
coast of California.
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