San Franciaco, San Jose win $27 million in EV grants

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on Friday announced $635 million in grants to continue building out electric vehicle (EV) charging and alternative fueling infrastructure.

Two Bay Area projects won funding:

• The Environment Department of the City and County of San Francisco will receive nearly $15 million to install up to 300 EV charging ports in publicly accessible garages, lots, and curbside locations, primarily serving disadvantaged and other underserved communities. The project deploys both Level 2 and DC Fast Chargers to increase the total number of charging ports in the city by 30%. The city will have 1,275 publicly available EV charging ports by the conclusion of this project.
• The City of San Jose, representing several cities in Santa Clara County, will receive $12 million to install EV charging stations in underserved communities throughout the county. The project will install 237 EV charging ports across San Jose and neighboring cities within the Silicon Valley Clean Energy service area. In San Jose, 120 EV charging ports will be installed at 12 city-owned public libraries, community centers, and parks. The project will serve many locations throughout the region, including parks, a public health clinic, community centers, public parking lots, and municipal fleet facilities

Funding for the projects came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s signature zero-emission refueling infrastructure programs. Across the country, the grants fund 49 projects that will deploy more than 11,500 EV charging ports and hydrogen and natural gas fueling infrastructure along corridors and in communities across 27 States, four Federally Recognized Tribes, and the District of Columbia.

President Joe Biden set a goal of building out 500,000 publicly available EV chargers by 2030, a goal that is expected to be achieved early. As of today, there are more than 206,000 publicly available EV charging ports with 38,000 new public chargers turned on in 2024 thanks to private sector investment, and a combination of direct federal funding, federal tax incentives, and state and local funding.

“The Biden Administration has made historic investments to support the EV transition and make sure it’s made in America,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “These investments will help states and communities build out a network of EV chargers in the coming years so that one day, finding a charge on a road trip will be as easy as filling up at a gas station.”