On Monday, the Oregon Department of Transportation revealed that the state’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) project gives it total access to over $40 million in federal funding. Over the next five years, c aims to build a public network of strategically placed DC fast chargers capable of charging an electric vehicle from zero to 80% in around twenty minutes along commonly traveled highway corridors.
Serving as ODOT’s transportation electrification coordinator, Brett Howell noted that the goal is to build approximately 60 charging stations, each with a minimum of four chargers, along 11 of Oregon’s major roadways and interstate corridors. “Despite Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, there was a lot of conjecture about the status of the money and whether Oregon would be able to obtain those resources,” Howell observed. “Ultimately, we now have that funding at our disposal. It is confirmed. We are ready to move forward with this project.”
Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of the Biden administration, the NEVI initiative was created in 2021. As part of that law and the Inflation Reduction Act, President Donald Trump has cancelled billions of dollars set aside for climate action since the beginning of his administration. The government halted the NEVI project in February, saying the federal government would create new guidelines for states, then ask them to provide modified plans for approval.
Oregon, on the other hand, had already sent its plans, and the federal government pledged roughly $26.1 million for the building, installation, and management of the charging stations. The state had already had working experience with ElectrifyAmerica, EV Gateway, as well as with EV Charging Solutions to contribute about $10 million for the creation of fast-charging locations in the US and along Interstate 5 south of Eugene. Highway 97 and Interstate 205. Oregon and a dozen other states started a lawsuit meant to get the program back after the Trump administration stopped payments.
