Washington
CNN
—
The Biden administration on Thursday introduced over $620 million in grant funding to assist counties, cities and tribes across the nation install new charging stations for electrical automobiles and long-haul freight vans.
The funding, which comes from the bipartisan infrastructure regulation, will fund 47 initiatives in 22 states and Puerto Rico – together with EV charging and hydrogen fueling stations – and can end in 7,500 new charging ports nationwide, in response to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
“We’re at a second now the place the electrical car revolution isn’t coming, it is extremely a lot right here,” Buttigieg instructed reporters.
The Biden administration and personal firms are racing to get extra charging stations put in as extra Individuals shift to electrical automobiles. About 1.4 million EVs have been bought final yr – about 9% of complete passenger automobiles gross sales within the US, Buttigieg mentioned.
White Home nationwide local weather adviser Ali Zaidi mentioned there have been about 170,000 chargers on US roads by the top of 2023. Early in his time period, Biden set a goal of 500,000 chargers publicly obtainable to motorists by the top of the last decade. One of many limitations to getting extra EVs on the street is an absence of dependable and quick charging stations.
Buttigieg instructed reporters the brand new grants are particularly targeted on getting extra charging stations into each rural and extra densely populated city areas – kickstarting charging infrastructure in areas which are more durable to achieve or have multi-family residence buildings that lack charging ports. Two Indian tribes in Alaska and Arizona may even obtain funding.
A few of the initiatives chosen for funding embrace EV and hydrogen fueling amenities for freight vans in a few of the busiest freight corridors in California, new EV charging stations throughout Boise, Idaho, and chargers for residents of multi-family residences in a number of New Jersey communities.
Zaidi referred to as the announcement a “large deal” and mentioned it would assist “massively” develop “shopper selection for drivers within the US.”