Publicly available EV chargers have doubled since Biden took office, administration says

The number of publicly available electric vehicle (EV) chargers has doubled since Biden took office, the Biden administration said Tuesday. 

There are now 192,000 publicly available charging ports with approximately 1,000 new public chargers being added each week, the Energy Department said in a press release.

Access to chargers remains a significant hurdle in the adoption of electric vehicles, as many potential consumers fear not being able to charge up while driving long distances. 

And while the number of chargers appears to have grown in recent years, the administration has faced some scrutiny over its charger deployment rate.

In 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law authorized $7.5 billion to build out the nation’s EV charging network.

But in March The Washington Post reported that only seven chargers funded by the law were in operation. Asked for an updated figure, a spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration said that currently, 69 chargers funded through the infrastructure program were in operation.

The spokesperson said they expect this number to grow quickly, saying 28 states have announced awards for more than 2,800 charging ports. 

Based on the small number previously known to be deployed, the figure announced by the administration appears to primarily consist of privately funded chargers. Administration officials did not immediately provide an updated estimate on how many federally funded chargers have been deployed. 

The announcement came alongside an administration announcement regarding how it would use $521 million of the federal funds. That money will go toward grants that are expected to support 9,200 chargers across 29 states, two tribes and Washington, D.C. 

Among the recipients are the cities of Atlanta, which will build chargers at its airport, and Milwaukee, which will put the chargers in places that currently lack infrastructure, are of low-to-moderate income or that have significant numbers of multifamily homes. 

President Biden has said he hopes the nation will have 500,000 chargers by 2030.

Story was updated at 6:26 p.m. ET