Tesla Leads the Pack in Fed EV Charging Funding

Tesla is reportedly leading its rivals in receiving federal grants for electric vehicle chargers.

According to a Saturday (Sept. 2) report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Elon Musk’s car company is installing chargers faster than other companies, and claims to do so at substantially lower costs than its competitors. 

The company has been the top bid to construct chargers at around 18% of sites chosen by states to fund fast chargers, the report said, citing data from EVAdoption, an electric vehicle (EV) and charging analytics firm. Tesla has received around $8.5 million of the approximately $77 million handed out so far.

The funds are part of a $5 billion pool of federal money designed to install fast chargers along American highways, letting drivers more easily give their cars more juice. 

The WSJ notes that car companies are heavily invested in EVs, though government data shows the U.S. with just a little more than 33,000 fast chargers.

As PYMNTS reported earlier this year, Tesla Superchargers account for about 60% of the total fast chargers in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Department of Energy.

In June, both General Motors and Ford agreed to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) for their EVs. Together, the three companies make up about 70% of EV sales in the United States 

“That three of the top EV sellers in the North American market have now agreed on a standard for charging hardware makes Tesla’s network the de facto primary EV network in the country,” PYMNTS wrote in June.

That move, the report added, positions it “as an industry standard, an important advantage to hold as companies in a variety of industries gear up to meet the needs of a new, and growing, generation of EV drivers.”

Meanwhile, a number of American companies have begun expanding their own EV charging capabilities. For example, Walmart announced in April it was adding to its EV fast-charging network at thousands of Walmart and Sam’s Club locations across the U.S. — adding to the almost 1,300 stations on offer at 280 locations.

And in March 7-Eleven said it plans to build one of the largest retail electric vehicle fast-charging networks, adding stations across its 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes locations.