The Biden-Harris Administration has announced that applications are now open for the Electric Vehicle Charger Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator which will provide up to $100 million in Federal funding to repair and replace existing but non-operational, electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.
These targeted investments will complement hundreds of billions in private sector investment, support good paying jobs across the country installing, maintaining, and repairing EV infrastructure, and make current charging network more reliable.
The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, a $5 billion program created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and administered by the Federal Highway Administration to help states build out EV charging sites, stipulates a 10% set-aside for grants to States and localities that require additional assistance to strategically deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
The first round of funding will focus on improving the reliability of the current network by repairing or replacing existing EV charging infrastructure at the same time the Biden-Harris Administration is making larger-scale investments to deploy new charging stations.
Based on initial estimates of non-operational chargers, FHWA anticipates that the available $100 million in funding will likely cover the repair or replacement costs of all eligible projects, which will be awarded through a streamlined application process. This includes both publicly and privately owned chargers – so long as they are available to the public without restriction.
“Charging your electric vehicle should be as easy and convenient as filling up a gas tank – and this investment will make our EV charging network more reliable, full stop,” says Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt. “We’re building a bigger EV charging network to keep up with driver demand, and we’re also going to make sure the currently available network is working when you need a charge.”
The program is informed by the US Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) Station Locator, which identifies offline stations as temporarily unavailable. A charger can be identified as temporarily unavailable for several reasons, ranging from routine maintenance to power issues. On September 11, 2023, the AFDC indicated that out of 151,506 public charging ports, 6,261 (4.1%) were temporarily unavailable.
Eligible applicants and projects for the EV Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator are outlined in a Notice of Funding Opportunity. Applications are due by November 13, 2023.
Read more about the Biden-Harris Administration’s $7.5 billion investment to make our EV charging network bigger and more reliable and has helped spur more than $130 billion in new private sector investment in electric vehicle, battery, and EV charging manufacturing – including over $100 billion in US EV battery manufacturing alone.
Today’s announcement builds on a comprehensive series of EV-related actions taken by the Biden-Harris Administration.
