Minnesota cashing in on EV charging grants
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is preparing to award grant funding for 13 electric vehicle charging station sites. The sites will receive a combined total of $7.8 million, with individual awards ranging between $497,735 and $828,952. The sites will now finalize contracts for the funding, undergo environmental reviews, and finalize site designs
The funds are part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program (NEVI) of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. Yet the administration’s plan to have 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030 has been off to a slow start. Despite setting aside $5 billion in 2021 for NEVI, only eight stations have been built as of May 2024. The free market has already supplied 183,000 privately built charging stations, with 13,000 added Q2 of 2024.
Gabriella Hoffman, director of the Center for Energy and Conservation at the Independent Women’s Forum, debunks the narrative that “public investment” will “inspire more Americans to buy” EVs:
There are already 183,000 privately-run EV stations currently operating in the U.S. The majority, over 140,000, are Level 2 charging stations that take 4-10 hours to achieve an 80% charge in battery electric vehicles (BEV) and 1-2 hours to achieve an 80% charge in plug-in electric vehicles (PEV). Their availability hasn’t compelled the majority of Americans to make the switch to electric cars…
An April 2024 Gallup poll found only 44% of U.S. adults are either “seriously considering or might consider buying an EV in the future”—down 11% from 2023 when support hovered at 55%.
EVs comprise only 0.68% of registered vehicles in Minnesota. But if you’re an owner of an EV (and not one of the 46% of U.S. EV owners that want to switch back), check out the awardees’ charging stations on your next road trip. Oh, and you might want to push that road trip back to 2025 or 2026: “installations are expected to begin within the next year.”
- Circle K Stores, in Moorhead, totaling $497,735
- Pilot Travel Centers, in Alexandria, totaling $783,554
- Circle K Stores, in Sauk Center, totaling $497,735
- Universal EV, in St. Cloud, totaling $590,952
- Kwik Trip, in St. Michael, totaling $660,662
- Francis Energy Charging, in Brooklyn Park, totaling $758,677
- Circle K Stores, in Proctor, totaling $497,735
- Kwik Trip, in Moose Lake, totaling $746,764
- Circle K Stores, in Forest Lake, totaling $497,735
- Francis Energy Charging, in Burnsville, totaling $828,952
- Tesla, in Albert Lea, totaling $546,512