Back in 2021, the United States Congress passed a funding plan that would provide thousands of charging stations for electric vehicles. The plan was pushed for heavily by the Biden Administration and ended up passing with a budget granted of $7.5 billion to establish the infrastructure. After two years, the program has not kept to its promise at all, having not constructed any charging stations around the country.
The plan was passed amidst major political pushes toward electric vehicle usage to reduce climate change risks.
The charger industry places prominent blame for the delays upon the requirements that have been established that are far too difficult to navigate, creating no room for anyone to receive any of the grant money. States have expressed similar feelings as well, stating they are simply not able to receive any funding to begin construction. More than $2 billion of the $2.5 billion has been sent to states, but most have been unable to take any bids from contractors.
Because of the political pushes towards electric vehicle usage, more people than ever have been transitioning from gas powered to electric vehicles. This has led to a significantly higher demand for charging stations in the last few years, meaning we really do need the chargers more than ever. With the large delays, it is expected that the chargers will not even be available until at the earliest mid-2024.
President Biden has a goal to have half of the U.S. vehicles sold to be electric by 2030, which is unlikely in this current state.
With lack of widespread access to chargers around the country, people will begin to lack any interest in making the switch in vehicle types. With this lack of interest, statistics will start to go against the Biden administration’s goal of combatting climate change, which will give access to the GOP to counterattack the severe claims of climate change.
Currently, the United States has about 180,000 public use chargers available. 41,000 of these chargers are the “fast chargers” intended to quickly charge up a vehicle on long-distance drives. In order to support the goal of half of new car sales to be electric vehicles by 2030, the country will need an estimated 1.2 million chargers. If the $7.5 billion program does not begin construction of these soon, it is unlikely that the U.S. will successfully reach its requirement in time for the goal to actually become a reality.
