Federal EV charging stations are key to Biden’s climate agenda, yet only 4 states have them

LONDON, Ohio (AP) — Within 24 hours of buying his red Ford Mustang Mach-E, Liam Sawyer set off on a camping trip.

Sawyer, who bought the electric SUV “because I think the technology is cool and the range is just long enough,” searched ahead of time for convenient charging stations between his home in Indianapolis and Allegheny National Forest in western Pennsylvania.

About 175 miles (282 kilometers) into his journey, he stopped at a new public charging station at the Pilot Travel Center along Interstate 70 outside Columbus, Ohio. The station, which opened in London, Ohio, in December with four chargers, can power an EV in about half an hour while drivers buy food and drinks and use amenities.

That first charge cost Sawyer, a 32-year-old civil engineer, about $20.

The Ohio charging station was created from the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed into law in November 2021. More than two years later, only four states — Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and Hawaii — have opened stations funded by the program.

Biden, a Democrat, has set a goal of creating a national network of 500,000 publicly available chargers by 2030. Easily accessible charging ports are a key part of his effort to encourage drivers to move away from gasoline-powered cars and trucks that contribute to global warming.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«read more» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> read more </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Biden administration approves the nation’s seventh large offshore wind project