Here’s how many EV charging stations Biden built with $7.5 billion of your tax dollars

The Biden administration is under fire for its $7.5 billion rollout of electric vehicle charging stations – which is proceeding at a snail’s pace.

The government pledged in 2021 to roll out 500,000 stations by 2030 in an effort to reduce “range anxiety” that makes Americans hesitant to buy electric cars.

But the initiative has only 102 fully operational units nine states, including New York, Hawaii, Ohio And Pennsylvania.

When asked about the slow rollout, a spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration referred DailyMail.com to a statement from the transportation secretary.

Pete Buttigieg said the $7.5 billion has not yet been spent, clarifying that the money “is the entire program budget for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program.”

He added that the operational chargers are “just the first handful.” Most will be built in the second half of the decade.”

But the slow rollout comes as Biden’s mandate that the majority of new cars be electric by 2032 is fast approaching, although President-elect Donald Trump has signaled he plans to scrap that rule.

The transportation secretary’s comments come just months after Buttigieg came under fire when it was revealed that only eight chargers had been built in May.

“Making a charger takes more than just sticking a little device in the ground — it takes utility work, and this is really a new category of federal investment,” Buttigieg said.

“But we’ve been working with each of the 50 states, each of them is getting formula dollars to do this work, which puts them in the first handful.”

Gabe Klein, executive director of the Joint Office, said, “We expect to see hundreds of federally funded chargers operational this year.”

However, electric vehicle sales fell from 8.1 percent to 7.0 percent in the first quarter of 2024, indicating that demand for eco-friendly vehicles among Americans is waning.

President Biden launched the NEVI to transition to electric vehicles in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change.

The plan, written into the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provided $5 billion to build a charging network along U.S. highways and $2.5 billion for charging and fueling infrastructure (CFI).

While nine states have already used federal money to build new stations, construction is underway in another four states. Another ten states have been awarded construction contracts, but 17 have not yet submitted proposals.

In August, the Biden-Harris administration announced another $521 million in grants to further build out electric vehicle charging and alternative fuel infrastructure in 29 states.

In the video surfaced againButtigieg said on CBS’ Face the Nation that even though only eight chargers have been built, President Biden still plans to reach his EV goals by 2030, adding “the very first handful of chargers are already being physically built .’

The announcement was in response to a letter written by Republicans in February questioning why electric vehicle chargers are being built at such a slow pace, despite taxpayers paying billions of dollars for the initiative.

“We are deeply concerned that under your efforts, American taxpayer dollars are being woefully mismanaged,” wrote Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington), Jeff Duncan (R-South Carolina) and Morgan Griffith (R-Virginia).

“The problems with these programs continue to grow – delays in charger delivery, states’ concerns about labor contract requirements and minimum operating standards for chargers,” the spokesperson said. letter continued.

In addition to the delays, Biden’s new chargers must meet higher expectations than fast-charging alternatives.

There are around 10,000 ‘fast’ charging stations across the country – 2,000 of which are Tesla superchargers – but the non-Tesla equivalents have been criticized for poor performance.

Fast chargers can provide an electric vehicle with a full battery in 30 minutes.

Biden’s stations must be fully operational 97 percent of the time, no more than a mile from U.S. highways and provide 150 kW of power.

Building a Level 2 electric charging station can cost between $10,000 and $20,000 for the equipment alone, not including the price tag associated with regular maintenance.

“I think there was an expectation that the program would move quickly, very quickly, without taking into account all of those different components,” Erin Belt, decarbonization program manager for the Virginia Department of Transportation, told me. E&E News.

The initiative is expected to gain momentum between 2026 and 2028, according to Klein, who said that’s when taxpayers will see their money make the most impact.

Biden also proposed another rule in September that would provide $1,000 in individual tax credits for installing the equipment.

This would only be available to residents living in low-income and non-urban areas who are exposed to higher levels of vehicle pollution from vans with EV chargers.

“This new tax credit will further help consumers and businesses across the country make the affordable choice for clean vehicles,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk.

Charging stations come in three levels, with the first, the slowest, taking 40 to 50 hours to charge, while level 2 – most commonly used in homes, workplaces and public spaces – takes between four and ten hours to charge. to load.

The third level is the fast charging option most commonly used by Tesla.

A significant amount of energy is required to operate the Level 2 station, with each charger requiring as much electricity as is needed to power twenty homes.

“We’re building a national EV charging network from the ground up, and we want to do it right,” a spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration said. The Washington Post in March.

“After developing program guidance and working with states to guide implementation plans, we are well on our way as states move quickly to bring NEVI stations online.”

Whether Biden’s EV initiative will be safe for newly elected President Donald Trump, who has vowed to reallocate funds to build “important projects like roads, bridges (and) dams,” has become a point of contention in recent weeks.

But experts say that despite the slow rollout of EV chargers, Trump won’t be able to redistribute the funds, according to Andrew Rogers, who helped write the programs when he was chief adviser to Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. told Politics.

“Regardless of whether their funding is fully obligated by January 20 next year, these programs are not going anywhere,” Rogers said.

DailyMail.com has contacted the Federal Transportation Administration for comment.