The Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced the approval—ahead of schedule under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program (earlier post)—of 35 Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Deployment Plans from States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

With this early approval, these states can now unlock more than $900 million in NEVI formula funding from FY22 and FY23 to help build EV chargers across approximately 53,000 miles of highway across the country. The NEVI formula funding, which makes $5 billion available over five years, is expected to help build a convenient, reliable, and affordable EV charging network across the country.

Approved Plans are available on the FHWA web site.

Prior to approval, State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) were able to begin staffing and activities directly related to the development of their plans. After plan approval, states can be reimbursed for those costs and now have a wide range of options to use their NEVI Formula funding for projects directly related to the charging of a vehicle, which could include upgrade of existing and construction of new EV charging infrastructure, operation and maintenance costs of these charging stations, installation of on-site electrical service equipment, community and stakeholder engagement, workforce development activities, EV charging station signage, data sharing activities, and related mapping analysis and activities.

Proposed standards for EV charging require electricians working on EV charging infrastructure installation to be certified through the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program, a non-profit, industry-recognized training program.