EV Roundup

Since our last quarterly EV Roundup, the Biden Administration has continued to increase investment in EV infrastructure across the United States and support tax credits for the domestic EV industry in its efforts for EVs to make up half of all new vehicles sales to be EVs by 2030 and to achieve carbon-neutral electricity supply by 2035.

Amidst these federal policy dynamics, a recently released J.D. Power study found that consumer demand for EVs has fallen slightly over the last year. This marks the first time buyer consideration for EVs has dropped from the prior year in the last three years. The cost of new EVs, range anxiety, and the complexity of incentives for EVs continue to be the main barriers to widespread EV adoption. These factors have been exacerbated in recent months by inflation, high interest rates, and a lag in new models coming to market. Despite this dip in demand for EVs, most of the largest U.S. EV automakers saw dramatic sales growth in EVs over the last year, and analysts project that these trends will continue through 2024 and 2025.

This update provides a quick look at several new federal and state funding opportunities for charging infrastructure, where states stand in their NEVI efforts, and a few noteworthy industry updates over the last quarter.

U.S. Government Policy News

• On May 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity ("NOFO") for the largest single grant opportunity for alternative fuel charging in U.S. history. The $1.3 billion NOFO seeks applications for two categories of charging and fueling infrastructure grants. The first category will award the second round of grants under the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program ("CIF Program") established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These funds are provided for deploying EV charging, hydrogen, propane, and natural gas fueling infrastructure on public roads and in publicly accessible locations. FHWA will reserve funding for certain applicants that were not awarded grants in the highly popular first round of the program. The second category of grants will be awarded through funds set aside under the NEVI Formula Program for deploying charging and alternative fueling infrastructure along designated alternative fuel corridors. Applications are due by August 28, 2024.
• In its Q2 2024 update on state's efforts to roll out its NEVI programs, the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation reported significant strides. Eleven states announced awards or conditional awards under their NEVI programs, with Maine, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio, and Kentucky on their second round of awards. Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont opened their first NEVI-funded stations last quarter, and New York opened its third NEVI-funded station. This brings the total number of operational NEVI-funded charging ports to 33 ports across 8 stations in 6 states.
• The Department of Treasury adopted final regulations for which EVs are eligible for the 25E previously-owned clean vehicle tax credit and the 30D new clean vehicle tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act. The 25E credit provides up to $4,000 to purchasers of eligible, previously owned EVs. The 30D tax credit provides up to $7,500 in consumer tax credits for the purchase of eligible new EVs. The final rule bars manufacturers from claiming the 30D tax credit on EVs that use parts from foreign entities of concern but provides two years of compliance flexibility. This flexibility period reflects numerous comments on the proposed rule calling for the need to enable the industry to develop systems to trace their EV battery supply chains and develop offtake agreements with component sources in countries with a U.S. trade agreement. According to the EPA, approximately 40 vehicles will qualify for full or partial tax credits, with that number expected to change in 2025 and 2027 when requirements under the rule go into effect and the grace period ends.

State Policy News

• New York's newly created Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Interconnection Working Group (EVIIWG) is considering and developing a straw proposal to streamline utility queue management and interconnection processes for EV infrastructure. The straw proposal draws on best practices from Consolidated Edison's experience under New York's Make-Ready Program. The EVIIWG will convene at the beginning of June 2024 to discuss feedback on the proposal.
• Maryland passed the Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification (DRIVE) Act in May 2024. The DRIVE Act supports bidirectional electric vehicle charging by, among other things, requiring the Maryland Public Service Commission to establish an expedited interconnection process for bidirectional EV systems. The Public Service Commission may also approve or require investor-owned utility companies to offer upfront incentives or rebates to customers for bidirectional EV service equipment.
• The Vermont Legislature delivered this year's transportation bill to the Governor after the issue of a proposed annual fee on EV owners posed a major sticking point. The bill includes an $89 "annual EV infrastructure fee," equal to the initial registration fee, for certain battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The fee is intended to fund EV charging infrastructure in rural parts of the state.

Industry News

• In the last quarter, more than 13,000 publicly accessible Level 2 and direct current fast charger (DCFCs) ports opened nationwide, according to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. This brings the total number of publicly accessible Level 2 and DCFC ports in the U.S. to more than 183,000. This is more than a third of the Biden Administration's goal of deploying 500,000 public charging ports by 2030.
• Blink Charging recently announced its selection as one of the New York State's EV charging providers. The company was awarded a contract with the Office of General Services to provide the state with Level 2 chargers, DCFCs, and network services. Blink will conduct site assessment and preparation for the installation of the chargers and provide monitoring, maintenance and training support to support the electrification of state and municipal fleets and public charging solutions. New York-based Livingston Energy Group was also awarded a statewide procurement contract with OGS to provide public, private, and fleet-charging infrastructure.
• Tesla recently opened its network of over 2,000 high-speed Superchargers to non-Tesla owners who can access the chargers with an adaptor. Despite recent layoffs within its Supercharger division, the company announced that it will continue to expand the Supercharger network in the coming year.