The Biden administration on Tuesday opened an application for the first round of $2.5 billion in funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure under a community grant program.
The bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted in November 2021 includes $7.5 billion to help fund the national electric vehicle charging network, with a goal of building 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030.
This newly directed program, the Fuel Delivery and Charging Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Funding Program, is one of two main channels for that funding. It will provide $2.5 billion (over five years) to cities, counties, local governments and Tribes, according to a press release from the Department of Transportation.
2023 Cadillac Lyriq at the EVgo DC fast charging station.
The CFI program funding is split into $1.25 billion for the Community Program to deploy EV chargers in publicly accessible locations such as schools, parks, and public buildings, and the Program The $1.25 billion Corridor program for chargers along with the Alternative Fuel Corridor, designated as conventional travel routes for electric vehicles under a different program that originated in 2015.
The initial funding round included $700 million from fiscal years 2022 and 2023 for these projects, with additional funding rounds followed throughout the CFI program’s planned five-year life. Funding from both the Community and Corridor Programs can also be used for hydrogen, propane, or natural gas fuel supply infrastructure.
Toyota bZ4X 2023 at EVgo . charging station
This follows the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula (NEVI) Program, which sets aside $5 billion for states and primarily applies its $5 billion to highway projects, generating more Electric vehicle fast charging routealso mainly along Alternative fuel corridor.
The NEVI funding process began last year, with First plan submitted by the states in the summer and all of them were approved by the end of September. The federal government also outline the rules for eligible charging sites in September. That has several charging networks — including Tesla — vying for some of this money.
Addressing the needs of rural and urban communities can be even more complex and will require several new solutions. For example, convenience stores want Bringing EV charging to rural America. And Seoul is closing the urban charging gap with installation plans more than 200,000 chargers in the next four years.
