DOE and DOT Announce $7 Million for New Projects to Accelerate Decarbonization of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Freight Transportation, Releases Funding Notice of Intent to Increase Accessibility and Functionality of EV Chargers  

The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), announced funding to accelerate the creation of zero-emission vehicle corridors that expand the nation’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The Department has awarded $7.4 million to seven projects to develop medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle charging and hydrogen corridor infrastructure plans that will benefit millions of drivers across 23 states. Additionally, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, DOE announced its intent to release funding to address barriers to a cleaner, safer, more affordable, and more reliable Made in America EV charging network. These funding measures, in coordination with additional clean transportation announcements from the Federal Highway Administration and the White House, will be critical to achieving President Biden’s goals of building out a national network of 500,000 EV chargers and ensuring that 50% of new light-duty vehicle sales are electric by 2030. 

“A clean transportation sector requires vast investments across the entire industry, including to decarbonize the trucks that move our goods and building more charging ports to get those trucks from coast to coast,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “President Biden’s historic clean energy laws are making it possible for us to get more EVs on the road by expanding charging infrastructure into underserved communities, while reducing range and cost anxiety among drivers who want to go electric.” 

Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Planning Selections 

The DOE-funded projects will focus on electrification plans for essential and heavily trafficked domestic freight corridors, including those serving Northern and Southern California, the Eastern Seaboard, the Northeast, Southwest, and much of the Midwest. The projects, administered by DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), will advance the President’s decarbonization goals by accelerating the deployment of medium- and heavy-duty EV charging and refueling infrastructure to reduce emissions from freight corridors and the depots, ports, and other facilities those corridors service. Selected projects support DOE’s Justice40 priorities by demonstrating the impacts and benefits of these freight corridors plans on underserved communities. The projects would also help improve air quality in underserved areas of major American cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, and Salt Lake City. 

See related article: Biden-Harris Administration Announces $47 Million to Develop Affordable Clean Hydrogen Technologies

The selected projects are:

• CALSTART: East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor. This project will launch an intensive strategic planning effort to spur the deployment of commercial medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure through the development of an East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor along the I-95 freight corridor from Georgia to New Jersey. 
• Cummins Inc.: MD-HD ZEV Infrastructure Planning with Focus on I-80 Midwest Corridor. This project will develop an extensive two-phase MD-HD EV Charging and H2 Fueling Plan for the Midwest I-80 corridor serving Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, to support 30% of the MD-HD fleet using ZEV technologies by 2035.
• GTI Energy: Houston to Los Angeles (H2LA)–I-10 Hydrogen Corridor Project. This project will develop a flexible and scalable blueprint plan for an investment-ready hydrogen fueling and heavy-duty freight truck network from Houston to LA (H2LA) along I-10, including the Texas Triangle region, and in the process develop methodology for future corridor plans across the country.  
• Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator: First to Last Mile: Creating an Integrated Goods Movement Charging Network around the I-710 Corridor. This project will create a plan for innovative infrastructure solutions at industrial facilities and commercial zones along critical freight arteries feeding into Southern California’s I-710 freeway. The project will explore how private sector fleets can establish an integrated network that leverages existing industrial and commercial real estate assets while providing greatest benefit to municipalities and communities.
• National Grid: Northeast Electric Highways Study. This project will forecast electric charging demand at traffic stops on freight corridors across Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to help inform a blueprint for future large-scale, least-cost deployment of commercial EV charging and serve as an exemplar for other regions.
• Rocky Mountain Institute: San Francisco and Bay Area Regional Medium-and Heavy-Duty Electrification Roadmap. This project will create a roadmap for charging infrastructure to support the full electrification of three key trucking market segments – drayage, regional haul, and long-haul – in the Bay Area of California. 
• Utah State University: Wasatch Front Multi-Modal Corridor Electrification Plan – Greater Salt Lake City Region. This project will develop a community, state and industry supported action plan that will improve air quality in the underserved communities most impacted by high-density medium- and heavy-duty traffic in the greater Salt Lake City region. 

Notice of Intent to Issue Ride and Drive Electric Funding Opportunity Announcement

The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation has issued a funding Notice of Intent to address challenges to achieving an equitable clean transportation future by improving the charging experience for EV drivers and expanding charging infrastructure into underserved communities. Anticipated topic areas include:

• Enhancing EV Charging Resiliency 
• Community-Driven EV Charging Deployment Benefits Planning, Implementation, and Tracking in Underserved Communities
• Workforce Development
• Increasing Commercial Capacity for Testing and Certification of High-Power EV Chargers
• Validating High-Power EV Charger Real-World Performance and Reliability 

These announcements will directly help companies implement the requirements included in the recently published minimum standards developed by DOT with DOE input for federally funded EV infrastructure and will support the forthcoming $2.5 billion in competitive grants to build alternative fueling infrastructure in communities across the nation. The combined measures will be critical to achieving President Biden’s goals of 500,000 EV chargers and 50% of new light-duty vehicles sales being electric by 2030 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. Today’s slate of announcements exemplifies the administration’s commitment to a transportation future that is cleaner, more equitable and affordable, and provides economic opportunities to boost domestic manufacturing of EV materials and infrastructure and create good-paying jobs.