The Future of EV Charging Can Be Found at Your Local Gas Station

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By Aarian Marshall, Wired. 

Excerpt: This week, the US Department of Transportation released new interim guidance for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. These rules advise states on how to spend $5 billion in funding for new electric-vehicle fast chargers, with the goal of creating a nationwide highway network of some half a million public chargers. The NEVI program was first established in 2021 by the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill, with the goal of doing away with one of car buyers’ biggest electric-vehicle fears: that they’ll run out of charge. But the program came under fire in the first weeks of Donald Trump's administration, part of a push to nix what the president has called an “electric vehicle mandate.” The DOT “paused” the program for months, halting some payments to the states. (The department was forced to restart funding in some states after a handful of blue ones won cases in court.). ...The agency also added some new provisions, including one that encourages states to give their money to charging locations where the businesses that own the stations also own the ground below it. The goal here is to “accelerate project delivery”—and it’s great news for incumbents in the (now mostly gas) fueling industry. Big winners will likely include the names you recognize from today’s road trips: truck stop operators...and even some big-box stores, like Walmart.... 

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