Trump was likely referring to the $7.5 billion approved by Congress over five years to help build an electric vehicle charging network in the United States. But all the money hasn't been spent or even made available to the states. Experts say the funding is expected to help build thousands of charging stations and more than 30,000 personal charging ports.
As of mid-August, deployed funds have helped build 61 charging ports at 15 charging stations, with an additional 14,900 charging ports in the pipeline, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
Some media reported that Trump's tone on electric vehicles has softened recently after receiving support on July 13 from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, which produces and sells electric vehicles. However, Trump continues to spread misinformation about electric vehicle infrastructure.
On at least eight occasions over the past two months, Trump has dramatically exaggerated the cost of the government building electric vehicle chargers.
“They built eight chargers… for $9 billion! Think of them as gas tanks. Think about it. They spent $9 billion on eight chargers! Three of them don't work,” Trump said on 7 Falsely claimed during a speech at the Republican National Convention on March 19.
On July 26, Trump said at a conservative conference in Florida that the U.S. government would spend $5 trillion to build electric vehicle chargers at designated locations across the country.
Trump, July 26: I said, you know, Elon, remember, I love electric cars, I think your car is great, I love it! But it's not for everyone…sometimes you want to drive a long distance and you don't want to stop. You know, in the Midwest, somewhere in the Midwest, they built eight charging stations, you know, right? They spent $9 billion! Now, do you know what a charging station is? It's a small thing. They spent $9 billion. That means if they did it at all designated locations across the country, it would cost $5 trillion. So our state is going to have to declare bankruptcy and they're going to have to file for bankruptcy protection to build them. This is crazy!
The next day, at a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, he repeated much of the same rhetoric, only he raised the total cost to $10 trillion and promised to “end Biden on day one – Harris’s electric vehicle mandate”. .
Most recently, on August 5, Trump reiterated this statement in Atlanta: “For eight shippers, they spent $9 billion. Is it a good business? So, at this rate, the entire country's load will be To $10 trillion,” he said.
Pete Gould, a transportation policy and mobility technology expert and lobbyist for the electric vehicles and charging industries, told E&E News that Trump's calculations “sound so ridiculous… because they're not true.”
We asked the Trump campaign for their version of events but have yet to receive a response. Trump appeared to distort news reports about a five-year, $7.5 billion investment plan to help create an electric vehicle charging network. The funds were appropriated by Congress through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Joe Biden in 2021.
On March 29, the “Washington Post” published an article with the title “Biden invested US$7.5 billion in electric vehicle charging, but only built 7 charging stations in two years.” Later in May, Autoweek published an article titled “$7.5 billion in federal funds to produce just 8 electric vehicle charging stations.” Both articles criticized the slow pace of implementation of the program but did not state that all funds had been used up. Not all stations are located in the Midwest. The article stated that stations have been opened in Hawaii, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Vermont.
As we mentioned, as of mid-August, federal funding has helped build 61 chargers at 15 charging stations, with 14,900 more chargers currently in development. Under the funding, each charging station or location must have at least four charging ports or chargers.
Michelle Levinson, senior manager of electric vehicle finance and policy at the World Resources Institute, told us that the number of charging stations currently open “represents only a small fraction of what the program is expected to achieve” and that “in terms of funding , the Biden administration has made good progress.
The Federal Highway Administration doesn't fully fund every project, so it can't tell us how many charging stations or ports the $7.5 billion could ultimately build, because “it ultimately depends on how states and communities plan to use their funds.” a spokesperson said in an email. The new charging stations will be built using both federal funds given to states and private financing.
But Atlas Public Policy, an electric vehicle policy analysis group, told the Washington Post in March that $7.5 billion should be enough to build “up to 20,000 charging points or about 5,000 charging stations.” Nick Nigro, founder of Atlas Public Policy, told us his team has since revised those estimates upward.
Nigro said that taking into account only the $5 billion earmarked for building charging stations along major highways, the latest data from 10 states shows the government's share of port construction averages $150,000 per port. This equates to more than 30,000 ports and up to 7,500 stations, assuming four ports per port (Nigro said the number of stations will likely be less because many stations will have more ports). The remaining $2.5 billion could also build more charging stations and connectivity ports.
WRI's Levinson told CNN that this is a reasonable estimate and “our experience with similar projects would yield similar numbers.”
The Biden administration aims to have 500,000 chargers by 2030, with additional public and private funding. According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, as of August 14, there were 65,904 public charging stations in the United States and a total of 179,547 electric vehicle charging ports.
Financing process and progress
According to a statement sent to us by FHWA, of the $7.5 billion in funding, $5 billion will go to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Initiative (NEVI), which will provide funding to states for major projects in the country. Build chargers along highways. So far, about $2.4 billion has been provided to all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. But the money hasn't been fully spent yet, and states haven't even issued awards yet. As of mid-April, 19 states had received $287.6 million in NEVI funding, according to a report from the National Association of State Energy Officials.
FHWA tells us that states are in various stages of implementing funds received under state programs. To date, funding provided by NEVI has established 15 charging stations and 61 charging stations in eight states. That number “is expected to grow rapidly, as 28 states have announced conditional or final awards for 719 charging stations,” the agency said.
Additionally, approximately $623 million has been awarded to 47 projects through the Cargo and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) discretionary grant program, which received the remaining $2.5 billion in funds allocated by the Infrastructure Act, according to FHWA. The agency said the first round of funding through the CFI program in fiscal 2022 and 2023 is expected to build about 7,500 electric vehicle charging ports in states and regions where people live and work.
Finally, approximately $148.8 million was awarded in grants to 24 projects in 20 states through the Electric Vehicle Charger Accessibility and Reliability Accelerator Program, which is designed to provide assistance to states and localities in need of additional assistance. FHWA tells us the funding comes from the NEVI program and is expected to “rehabilitate or replace approximately 4,500 electric vehicle charging ports.”
To receive federal funding to build electric vehicle chargers, states must submit plans to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation by August each year, and then, if the plans are approved, bids can be solicited and funding provided to carry out the work.
“There’s definitely a long way to go before we get this project off the ground, and we’d like to see states move faster, but it’s not more than we expected for such a large initiative,” Levinson said. “Some states are more aggressive than others. Other states are more advanced, but all participants must consider complex considerations such as site selection and permitting challenges, ensure the appropriate infrastructure is in place to handle this new technology, and tailor projects to the unique needs of their state's communities. These processes can take time (it's not uncommon for a new charging station to take two to three years), but we're pleased to see that 36 states have already issued applications for the first round of funding.
Administration officials and experts also say Biden's plan has been slow to implement due to other factors, including developing guidelines, strict new standards and requirements for building these charging stations, and forging partnerships with states that in most cases have no experience. There are electric vehicle charging stations.
As for the Biden-Harris “electric vehicle mandate” claim reiterated by Trump at the North Carolina rally on August 14 and the New Jersey press conference on August 15, as we have explained before, the government cannot force how to authorize it. Many cars must be electric.
Biden's goal is for electric vehicles to account for 50% of new car sales by 2030. Follow the rules, but also be flexible in following them. For example, they could choose to build more efficient internal combustion engines for hybrid or gasoline vehicles.
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