White House announces plans to expand nationwide EV charging network

Feb. 15 (UPI) -- The White House has announced a major clean energy initiative that will spark electric vehicle manufacturing in the United States while using federal dollars to help create half a million new electric vehicle chargers over the next seven years.

The White House issued a statement Wednesday detailing the plan to create a network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers throughout the nation's highways by 2030, while underscoring President Joe Biden's continuing strategy to address the escalating global climate crisis.

Major U.S. automakers, including Tesla, GM, Ford, and ChargePoint, have committed to build and install the new charging network across the nation, and will receive funding from Washington to fulfill the effort so long as federal standards are met.

"These recent and new commitments will make more public chargers available for all EVs," White House infrastructure chief Mitch Landrieu said during a Tuesday press briefing. "With announcements like today's and the overall growth we're seeing, it's clear that this administration is making incredible progress towards building our electric future."

As part of the plan, billionaire CEO Elon Musk has agreed to modify Tesla's proprietary technology so that the company's public charging stations are compatible with the wider network, not just its own cars.

Tesla, which leads the industry in total EV sales in the U.S., plans to triple its inventory of superchargers while making 7,500 of its power stations available to other car brands by the end of 2024. This includes a network of 3,500 superchargers along the nation's highways as well as the company's more conventional ports commonly seen in the parking lots of hotels and restaurants.

The deal also includes a separate plan to install 2,000 fast chargers at Pilot and Flying J truck stops across America.

Landrieu said that Musk had been instrumental in negotiating the latest deal between the government and the auto industry over the past year.

"He was very open, he was very constructive," Landrieu said. "And at that time, he said his intent was to work with us to make his network interoperable. Everybody else on the call agreed."

The contributions come as the White House said it aims to standardize EV chargers to ensure that all Americans can use the nationwide charging network "no matter what car you drive or what state you charge in."

The Federal Highway Administration also shared a final plan to comply with the Build America, Buy America Act, which dictates that all EV charges funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure law are constructed in the United States.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, has set an ambitious goal to have electric cars and trucks make up at least 50% of new vehicle sales by 2030.

"The path to net-zero emissions by 2050 is creating good-paying manufacturing and installation jobs on the way," the White House said in its statement.

Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law seeks to invest $7.5 billion in EV charging, plus an additional $10 billion for clean transportation efforts, and more than $7 billion to build EV battery components and other materials, the White House said.

Funds from the Inflation Reduction Act are also being used to fund the effort, providing tax credits for inflation-weary Americans to buy electric vehicles, and to help implement the charging infrastructure nationwide.

The White House emphasized that the government's investment would create thousands of new manufacturing and union jobs, and that all the charging stations would be built inside the United States.

Electric vehicle sales have tripled since Biden took office more than 24 months ago, and the number of publicly available charging ports has grown by at least 40%, the White House said, adding that more than 3 million electric vehicles are being driven in the U.S., alongside about 130,000 public charging stations.