NEVI Program Moving Ahead Following Court Decision
NEVI, or the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, that was a component of the Infrastructure and Jobs Act (aka, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) that was passed during the Biden Administration in 2021, prior to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, was frozen by the Trump Administration. This was challenged by 16 states and the District of Columbia in Federal Court. (CT was not one of the plaintiff states.)
The District Court in June ruled in favor of 14 of the plaintiffs that this was an illegal withholding of Congressionally appropriated funds. (The other 3 plaintiffs were found to have not sufficiently demonstrated injury, which boils down to not yet having projects underway. That was also the reason CT did not join the lawsuit.) The Administration chose not to appeal and the funds have been released to all the states that have submitted an approved plan, which CT had done. So, the $52.5 million in federal funds for DC fast charging sites in CT will be released. The first tranche of $5.4 million is in the process of being deployed. These are the federal amounts and do not include the minimum 20% match from the awardees.
Phase 1 Is Now Phases 1a and 1b
The initial set of awards are for phase 1a projects that are denoted in the map above. Below are more details about the locations. Our expectation is shovels in the dirt by early next year.
When the Department of Transportation (DoT) solicited site applicants initially, proposals were not received for all of the sites that were originally designated along the Alternative Fuel Corridors (AFC). This is a map of all of the AFC sites for which proposals were initially requested and you can see that there were planned locations along I-95 in Norwalk and Old Saybrook, and a site in North Canaan near Route 7.
Since the program was revived, another round of solicitations went out under the new rules. These will now be the phase 1b sites. Based on DoT material, the federal rule changes include no longer requiring a letter of intent and no longer requiring locations to be within a priority zone. These were the only two specific examples cited but there could be others, such as a loosening of environmental review requirements. DoT reports receiving over 80 responses to the updated RFP and expects to determine conditional grants by the end of the year.
Phase 2 – Community Charging
The RFP process for phase 2 will begin once certification is received that the AFC locations are fully built out. So, we are likely a couple of years away.
This phase will focus on areas with limited DCFC charging options. The language in the plan sent to the Federal Highway Administration, doesn’t specify whether the awards are limited to DCFC or if they can include level 2 chargers. That sentence implies a focus on DCFC.
The document has hedged language about future funding availability (“Assuming federal funds are available…), so it seems possible that Congress could cut funding in appropriations for future years. Assuming Congress gets out of the habit of governing via continuing resolutions and actually hammers out a budget, that is the place to look.
For your reading pleasure, Connecticut’s Charging Ahead Plan can be found here.
If any of our readers observe any of the designated sites being built out as we move into 2026, please let us know and send us a photo.