California approves $1.4 billion EV infrastructure push, including hydrogen fuel and truck charging
Last week, California announced approval of a three-year, $1.4 billion infrastructure push to meet the state’s ambitious goals for electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
The majority of funding in the 2021-2023 plan is for toll infrastructure, with $314 million designated for light vehicle charging and $690 million for heavy and medium vehicle infrastructure. emissions, according to a press release from the California Energy Commission (CEC). The latter includes funding for both battery-electric and fuel-cell commercial truck infrastructure.
In addition, the hydrogen fuel infrastructure is separately allocated $77 million. The plan also includes $25 million for “zero and near-carbon fuel production and supply.” Other categories include $244 million for zero-emission vehicle production and $15 million for workforce training and development.
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This plan backs Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2020 executive order requiring all new passenger vehicle sales to be zero-emissions (battery-electric or fuel cell) by 2035. In June of this year, CEC says California will need almost 1.2 million EV chargers by 2030 to meet that goal.
The investment plan follows other recent infrastructure projects, including a utility-based program that will add a 38,000 charging stations statewide for five years. Megawatt charging for electric commercial trucks could also be part of California’s future infrastructure plan. In May, startup WattEV announced plans for a Solar powered EV truck stop in Bakersfield, California, providing 4 megawatts of charging capacity initially and then expanding to 25 MW.
California’s announcement after President Biden signed the federal infrastructure bill. That bill includes $7.5 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure is on its way towards 500,000 toll booths. For the country as a whole, that seems like a small start.
