US to spend nearly $150 million to fix broken charging ports

The US Transportation Department is investing $148.8 million for repairing or updating nearly 4,500 electric vehicle charging ports in some 20 states.

The latest announcement is part of President Biden’s $7.5 billion plan to extensively build out EV infrastructure in the US.

This new set of funds offers 24 recipients in 20 states grants to upgrade, replace, or repair existing EV charging infrastructure, and relieve some of the common frustrations drivers have when rolling up to an out-of-service charging port. Biden has the goal of bringing at least 500,000 public EV chargers online by the end of the decade – and that includes fast chargers no more than 50 miles apart on major highways and interstates.

The new funds are part of the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, which is funded by a $1 trillion 2021 infrastructure law. Under the program, “states need to operate federally-funded charging ports for at least five years, which must work 97% of the time,” Reuters reports.

As more automakers are adopting Tesla’s NACS, NACSs are expected to soon make up about 60% of the fast chargers in the United States, the government said.

Reuters reports that the White House is aiming to finalize new rules that should further boost EV sales and radically cut emissions.

Biden has made the focus on transitioning American drivers to EVs a central part of his policy – and the government has touted some big results since his taking office. EV sales have quadrupled in the US, with the number of publicly available charging ports rising by nearly 70%. Today, more than 4 million EVs are on US roadways, with the goal for half of the country’s car sales to be electric by 2030.