The Biden administration announced a series of plans Wednesday designed to make life easier for electric vehicle drivers looking for charging stations — regardless of what make or model they drive.
The goal is to build a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers, namely along highways, and ultimately have EVs make up at least 50% of new car sales by 2030, according to a statement from the White House. This falls under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which invests $7.5 billion in EV charging, $10 billion in clean transportation and more than $7 billion in EV battery components, critical minerals and materials.
The administration held a call with EV companies, including Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), back in April 2022. Since then, the company committed to building at least 7,500 chargers that the White House says will be open for use by any model EV by the end of 2024.
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Among those present on the call was Elon Musk.
“Elon Musk was on that call," White House infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu told reporters Tuesday. "He was very open, he was very constructive, and, at that time, he said his intent was to work with us to make his network interoperable."
Other companies are expected to announce plans this week, including an effort from Hertz and BP to build a network of interoperable stations primarily at airports. Pilot Company, General Motors and EVgo are also working on a network of stations, according to the White House, and smaller commitments have come from TravelCenters of America, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Starbucks.
Tesla shares were down 0.2% to $208.87 Wednesday morning. Vicinity Motor Corp, a small-cap company in the EV sector, stock was up 1.2% to $0.87.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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