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Comment by trothamel | Hacker News Reader

The letter from the FHWA to states is here:

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/nevi/resources/state-pl...

It looks like it's being suspended while new guidelines are are produced.

To me, this makes sense. The program produced "more than 30" EV charging stations, which doesn't seem like a ton given that they've had 3+ years to do it. That's with over $1.5B spent already, according to https://driveelectric.gov/state-plans

I think it's reasonable to reform a program that's dramatically failing to meet its goal.

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What would you expect? The funding has been available for ~2 years, and it takes about 2 years to plan & build & connect EV stations. The vast majority of those stations are still in progress.

Looking at the Q4 2024 update, 9 states haven't even put out solicitations for EV installations yet, and 8 plus Peurto Rico just handed out their first money in Q4 2024. Those stations would be expected to come online in 2026.

Of course that now won't happen, the cancellation ensures the money will have been wasted.

https://driveelectric.gov/news/q4-2024-nevi-quarterly-update

Agreed.

It was two years ago that the standards were released. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/02/28/2023-03...

The product development lifecycle for big, well integrated, software-complex infrastructure hardware I would assume is not short. Actual roll out would likely tail that significantly.

By comparison to some of the other actions afoot now, this doesn't feel like the worst. But it sure feels like it's in the same category of absolutely foolhardy, spiteful, and harmful Deconstruction & smashing of the State.

I'd suspect that if it takes 2 years to plan and build and connect EV stations, that's a problem, and we should review what's causing it to happen so slowly.

Maybe the problem is that the government funding is unreliable, the rules keep changing and progress keeps getting interrupted.

Why can't this work continue while that review happens, and then simply accelerate once the roadblocks are removed?

It took us 2 years to add bog standard expansions to our factory, and we had amazing people who were trained efficiency engineers hand holding every hiccup.

It took 6 months for the power upgrade portion to happen after we submitted it to the power company (no government involvement at play).

Megawatt sized grid connections do not happen quickly.

Infrastructure always takes a long time to plan and build out. Even just the permitting for new EV chargers takes time to get.

The standards came out in March 2023. Project proposals were drawn up not just for individual sites and charging hardware but for whole corridors and networks and lots of related infrastructure. Many were submitted in 2024 and got approval. Funds were starting to get disbursed for approved projects. Those projects are at various stages of construction with a few being completed.

Once again, it's not just the plans to build and connect individual EV stations. If you already have a place to put it and the electricity capacity available that part shouldn't take more than a few months. This wasn't about just anyone wanting to install a charger submit a quick proposal and get grant money. It was to make a coordinated system of chargers along with all the other related infrastructure to support them. To ensure chargers got installed in the places where its more complicated to get them deployed, and ensure they were deployed with reliable hardware and plenty of support infrastructure.

Sorry but have you ever worked on a large scale project? There are numerous things to address, from placement, to design, to hiring, to scheduling - all before construction can even begin. When taking how Republicans keep trying to dismantle programs as they are being built it's a miracle even that many stations have come to fruition so far.

> That's with over $1.5B spent already, according to https://driveelectric.gov/state-plans

No, that money hasn't been spent yet. The money has been __allocated__ but it's taken a very long time for states to come up with and get plans passed locally at which point only then would the money be spent.

If any of this is true that's like ~$50M per charging station.

I would be really curious how much commercial ones cost.

Likely the government figures are inflated by lots of waste and consultants making huge money.

I suspect the money is going out before the charging stations are being built - but if it's taking 3 years to build them, that's kind of a problem in its own right.

I don't mind the government spending money to do stuff, but spending money to not do stuff feels bad.

It is not three years to build them. It's not like the initial plan got created in 2022 and then it's time to grab shovels, pull cables, and pour concrete. There is a lot of planning required for states to create corridors and what not. Most of the projects only got approved in the last year or so. Several states only just got their proposals submitted.

Most of the money spent so far was only spent in this last year.

The 1.5B spent is misinformation.

The money has been _allocated_ but it hasn't been _spent_ yet and that's because it's taken a very long time for _States_ to come up with proposals that can be funded.

It's just taken much too long to happen, but that's at the state level (the Fed Gov is allocating the money but the States are managing it).

There are allocated funds that will be expanding the network pretty hardcore this year.. unfortunately now after that it will dwindle but between this and next year I'd expect to see a fair amount of NEVI stations as states implement their plans.

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