- The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program passed under the Biden administration allocated $5 billion to build more EV chargers in the U.S.
- The program awarded grants to states, who then passed the funds on to charging companies to build EV chargers.
- Tesla was the third largest recipient of these funds since the program started, despite CEO Elon Musk’s vocal support for ending EV incentives.
Lately, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has backed President Trump’s anti-electric vehicle-subsidy stances and has even called for ending all of them across the board. But that would mean a hit to his bottom line as well, and certainly make Tesla Supercharger expansion more expensive.
Tesla has been the third-largest recipient of grants to build fast chargers under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program, the latest data from EVStates.org shows. Tesla’s grants have totaled $31.1 million, according to the site’s NEVI Awards Dashboard. It’s been awarded more money than Electrify America at $11 million, EVGo at $8.7 million and ChargePoint at $945,000, for context.
But the charging industry, including Tesla, could be in for a different reality now that Biden’s out of office.
Trump has declared a war on Biden’s EV initiatives, and that includes a call to end funding EV fast chargers. This move has already faced pushback from the auto industry, although undoing these programs may prove trickier than expected, with looming legal battles and uncertainties over unspent federal funds.
Above all, the NEVI program has been the subject of online ridicule and misinformation. Last year Trump supporters spread false claims that billions in NEVI funds had built only a handful of charging stations. Former Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg jumped on X (formerly Twitter) late last year to set the record straight and explain how federal EV funding actually works.
As of the time of publication, the funds are on track to support the build-out of 539 fast-charging ports across 95 Tesla Supercharger sites. The majority of these sites are located near refreshment stops—either a shopping center, convenience or grocery stores, hotels, or restaurants. Of these, only six Tesla stations are open so far, with 87 with their status as “conditionally awarded.”
About 55 stations are set to receive the so-called “Magic Dock” with CCS adapters as well for non-Tesla EVs.
Photo by: InsideEVs
The largest recipient of NEVI funds is Francis Energy Charging. It has been awarded nearly $88 million to build 112 charging stations and 354 ports. The company already has about 200 active charging stations in the U.S. and plans to deploy 1,200 more stations nationwide.
The second largest recipient of this program is Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, which received $49 million to build over 282 ports at more than 72 sites.
So far, $2.4 billion of the $5 billion NEVI allocation has been awarded to states. The states have passed on about $511 million to charging companies. In his first week back in office, Trump signed an executive order freezing unspent EV-related funds. That leaves the fate of the remaining billions—and whether states can continue awarding contracts—uncertain.
It’s also unclear what will happen to the new online dashboard, which has proven to be excellent in tracking NEVI’s progress. Will it continue to be updated with the latest and most accurate information? That’s uncertain, too.
Still, funds already “out the door” will be tough to claw back, as states and charging companies will likely push back hard. Those awards alone are set to add thousands of chargers across the U.S. in the coming months and years. And sure, the NEVI rollout has been slow (thanks to red tape and the lack of a national permitting framework), but it’s poised to make EV road trips a lot easier and way more fun in the long run.
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