Getting more Americans to switch to a battery-powered car by improving access to charging infrastructure is a key component of President Biden’s agenda. The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill provides for $7.5 billion in charging network investments over a five-year period, with a portion set aside for low-income and rural areas.
California’s incentives for disadvantaged communities are gradually increasing. Applications for the state’s EV rebate program from low- and middle-income households have increased to a quarter so far this year, and around a third of funding for a popular state EV charging program is earmarked for disadvantaged communities.
Replicating California’s programs on a national scale will require vastly more funding than the U.S. government has currently allocated. Lower-income areas in largely Black and Hispanic California neighborhoods continue to be significantly less likely to have access to public chargers, a February study by researchers at California’s Humboldt State University found.
Read the article at Reuters.
