The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is investing more than $7 million on plans to create zero-emission-vehicle corridors and increase the country's electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.
The $7.4 million in funding announced Feb. 15 is supporting "seven projects to develop medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicle (EV) charging and hydrogen corridor infrastructure plans that will benefit millions of drivers across 23 states," according to the DOE. The agency also announced its intention to release funding, in coordination with the Department of Transportation, to focus on obstructions to "a cleaner, safer, more affordable, and more reliable Made in America EV charging network," according to the announcement.
“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,” DOE Sec. Jennifer Granholm said in the announcement.
The seven funded projects will develop proposals for electrifying significant domestic freight lines. The DOE's Vehicle Technologies Office and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office will oversee the projects, which will concentrate on vital and busy corridors around the U.S,. including those that serve California, the Eastern Seaboard, the Northeast, the Southwest, and the Midwest, according to the announcement. These initiatives would speed the building of infrastructure for fueling and charging medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles, which would lower emissions from freight lines and the facilities they service, such as ports and depots, according to the DOE.
"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," Sec. Granholm said in the announcement.
