Congress should short-circuit the nation’s electric vehicle charging program

By Steve Swedberg of CEI. Excerpt:

"how many EV charging stations has NEVI installed? After all, the NEVI program was enacted in November 2021. The Biden administration was hoping to have 500,000 charging ports installed by 2030. With $5 billion allocated over a five-year period, one would think that NEVI would have established a well-functioning network of EV chargers by now. Here are some estimates as to how many EV chargers have been installed under NEVI:

·      The EV States Clearinghouse, which is co-maintained by the National Association of State Energy Officials and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, has the estimate at 532 charging ports currently open.

·      An industry analysis reported that EV charging data analytics company Paren puts the estimate at 725 ports.

·      The Government Accountability Office calculated that as of April 2025, there were 384 EV charging ports installed under federal government programs. Notably, this figure includes ports from NEVI and another program called the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program.

Regardless of the estimate used, the number of charging ports installed by the federal government is less than 1,000 and accounts for much less than one percent of the 235,428 charging ports available as of January 2026 and the 500,000 charging ports promised by the Biden administration by 2030. More than four years after enactment, and with billions appropriated, this level of deployment suggests more than ordinary implementation lag. Even a backloaded program would show clearer signs of growth by this point. Instead, NEVI’s output indicates structural bottlenecks embedded in its design rather than temporary startup delays.

Paperwork over power

Even before the Trump administration decided to rescind the existing NEVI Formula Program Guidance and suspend state approvals of deployment plans, NEVI was already floundering in red tape. As of February 6, 2025, which was a few days after USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy was sworn into office, $2.7 billion of the $3.3 billion available in NEVI funds were unobligated. In plain terms, most of the money Congress set aside had not been committed to projects.

According to the center-left think tank Third Way, NEVI’s slow progress is not due to lack of need or funding, but to bureaucratic hurdles. Complex requirements and delayed federal guidance left states navigating red tape instead of building charging stations, highlighting inefficiencies in the program’s design.

The Environmental Law Institute further breaks down these hurdles mentioned by Third Way by showing that NEVI’s deployment delays are baked into the program’s structure. States and contractors must navigate local building approvals, utility interconnection studies, and environmental reviews for each proposed site, which often stalls projects for months before a single charger goes live.

In addition, federal “Buy America” requirements add supply-chain constraints that create additional bottlenecks and increases production costs. Industry groups and state Departments of Transportation have warned that “Buy America” requirements could delay federal EV infrastructure projects due to limited domestic suppliers and complex compliance processes. These intertwined requirements illustrate how well-intentioned federal oversight can transform a supposedly fast-moving infrastructure program into a slow-moving bureaucratic behemoth.

Private sector vs. NEVI deployment timelines

An interesting point of comparison is the project timelines between the private sector and NEVI installations. Industry analysis indicates that regulatory and utility interconnection processes alone commonly add a year to 18 months to the timeline for NEVI‑funded charging projects, well before construction begins. Although all 50 states have submitted and received approval for NEVI EV charging deployment plans, the plans do not include uniform benchmarks for how long it takes from award to station operation. Arizona expected it to take a year to install once approved, whereas California provides a range of one to two years.

By contrast, the private sector reports shorter timelines. EV charging financing company Sustainable Capital Finance (SCF) estimates that it can take 3 to 16 months to install an EV charger, whereas EV charging company EVgo puts the figure at 18 months. EV charging stations take time to install, irrespective of red tape. At the same time, these diverging timelines illustrate why the private sector is able to generate tens of thousands of ports in the time that NEVI has installed fewer than 1,000 ports. 

Daren Bakst, director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment, has noted this discrepancy reflects a broader principle: states and private actors ultimately determine where and when chargers are built, and government mandates cannot substitute for market-driven deployment. In fact, Bakst highlighted that even with billions allocated to NEVI, no chargers had yet been installed at the time of his analysis in December 2023. This insight reinforces the idea that federal intervention cannot reliably accelerate infrastructure deployment.

Beyond regulatory red tape, NEVI has been hampered by predictable governance failures that exacerbate the timeline issues. For example, a federal court recently ruled that the US Department of Transportation unlawfully froze congressionally appropriated NEVI funds, which forced states to litigate simply to access money already authorized by law. Such administrative paralysis is not an anomaly. It is a predictable outcome when a program centralizes decision-making in federal agencies subject to shifting priorities, complex compliance rules, and political interference.

NEVI spending fails the traveler

Despite a $5 billion commitment made in 2021 to build a nationwide EV charging network, there are fewer than 1,000 operational charging ports. This amount represents a miniscule fraction of the ports already available nationwide, and more importantly, the amount promised by the Biden administration. The Government Accountability Office highlights how NEVI lacks clear performance goals or benchmarks, meaning policymakers cannot even track whether NEVI is meeting its intended outcomes. Combined with bureaucratic hurdles, slow deployment, and small scale of charging ports at this stage, it becomes difficult to argue that NEVI is doing anything of substance to positively contribute to transportation infrastructure.

At the same time, private companies continue to expand the EV charging network across the US and often complete projects in a matter of months instead of years. History has shown that building a nationwide network of fueling infrastructure does not require subsidies. Gas stations achieved this growth organically in the 20th century without subsidies. Those same market forces can drive and already have been driving EV charger deployment."