By Scott Sturgis, Philadelphia Inquirer
The Trump administration has tried to pull the plug on the federally funded EV charger program designed to electrify America’ highways, but that isn’t stopping Pennsylvania from charging ahead.
The $7.5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021, and aimed to build out charging infrastructure in all 50 states.
But a Feb. 6 letter from the Federal Highway Administration pulled back much of that money, leaving states scrambling to determine exactly what they could do.
Pennsylvania is among the states in a position to forge ahead.
“Kudos to PennDot — PennDot was on it,” said Ingrid Malmgren, senior policy director for the EV advocacy nonprofit Plug In America. “They really have been paying attention, they’ve been making plans, they have chargers up and running. They’re definitely ahead of other states.”
PennDot announced at the end of last month that three new NEVI chargers have been added to the network, giving the Philadelphia region’s EV owners more freedom to plan trips west to Pittsburgh, with a station near the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Carlisle, and north to upstate New York, with another on I-81 just south of the border. A third station near Chambersburg has also come online, bringing the total number of stations to eight, with three more to come soon, PennDot said.
The three new stations join five already in service in the Commonwealth, including one in Aston, Delaware County.
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