Elon Musk, Donald Trump Are Killing EV Charging Funding - What Now?

Earlier this week, as feared, the U.S. Federal Government halted the funding of all charging station deployments that were funded - or planned - under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure plan (AKA NEVI). Funded by money allocated in by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of November 2021, NEVI program funding was being released to U.S. states on a yearly basis from 2022 through 2025, with funding contingent on some pretty strict rules. The latest in a cruel line of illegal actions from the White House (funds already appropriated cannot, under Federal law, be legally withheld) it's already causing havoc in the EV charging industry. And while the Secretary of Transportation has promised existing programs will be funded, that's not what we're hearing from our contacts in the industry. So today, here's what we know about the halt, along with some history behind the program. We dispel one often-quoted myth about funding that's been quoted again and again by anti-EV politicians - and we ask how we, as EV owners and advocates, can ensure we do everything we can to keep networks alive, survive the cull of charging network support, and continue to drive electric regardless. ---- 00:00 - Introduction 02:25 - Fighting Misinformation 03:01 - NEVI's history 05:25 - The false claims don't add up... literally 08:17 - Our personal experience of charging station being vandalized 10:01 - Repairs within reason - but these priorities will change 11:25 - Removing funding helps Tesla and Elon Musk 12:05 - NEVI funding removal will disrupt EV adoption 12:54 - Some states will help out 13:36 - Fragmentation highly likely 14:18 - Costs will go up, reliability will go down 14:39 - How to deal with this all 17:57 - Preparing for disruption 20:52 - Thanks, and Goodbye! ---- Presenter: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield. Camera, Editor, Colorist: Michael Horton Art and Animation: Erin Carlie Producer: Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield Music supplied through Artlist.io © Transport Evolved LLC, 2025 ----- Links: View the (now deleted) NEVI funding documents we unearthed using the Internet Archive (https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20250123185555/https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/nevi/formula_prog_guid/90d_nevi_formula_program_guidance.pdf ) View NEVI funding allocations as per the FHWA (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure-investment-and-jobs-act/funding.cf - still alive as of 12 February, 2025) If the files have been deleted - you can also see some we've saved here: https://nextcloud.transportevolved.com/s/nCLZC9FbCjoAkxN ---- PLEASE help support the channel (if you are going to use Amazon) by using our Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/40xOyjm As amazon affiliates, we will earn money from qualifying purchases made using this code. ----- Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC675NhQ4EU5TzwCMwYp5XCw/join This video was made possible thanks to the kind donations of our supporters on Patreon and Ko-fi. Join them in supporting us. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/transportevolved Buy the team a coffee -- or a meal! https://ko-fi.com/transportevolved Donate using bitcoin: BC1QRZRGCCXUKPDZ2DZ9KX9JYJXMZDYHYGFZ0MN4WH Support us by buying some merch at https://www.redbubble.com/people/TransportEVd/shop Follow our 'second' channel - Transport Evolved Take Two, at https://www.youtube.com/transportevolvedtake2 Join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/U3tnkGNfCA Follow the show on Mastodon: https://mastodon.transportevolved.com/ Follow the show on PeerTube: [email protected] Use the TE Aptera referral code - i.refs.cc/zz56EbIi - but watch our explainer video FIRST: https://youtu.be/mwzwEssgqNI Sign up for EnergySage at https://www.kqzyfj.com/click-101290941-16952262