More electric vehicle charging stations could soon be coming to small towns in Pennsylvania thanks to an unfrozen wave of federal funding.
YORK COUNTY, Pa. — The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program (NEVI) is a federal initiative to build publicly available EV charging stations across the country.
It started during the Biden Administration but was paused shortly after President Donald Trump entered office in 2024.
A federal judge ultimately reversed the decision.
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Of the $5 billion in federal funding available, Pennsylvania is slated to receive more than $170 million by the program’s end.
“Throughout the last couple years, we had a bit of a public feedback process from our local transportation planning partners throughout the state; that informs our priorities for the locations where people are looking to have these chargers come in,” said Colton Brown, Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Coordinator with PennDOT.
Pennsylvania has already spent roughly $60 million to build charging stations off interstates and major roads.
Any organization registered to do business in Pennsylvania can apply for funding now, according to Brown.
“We have well more charging stations than any other state.”
According to the state’s NEVI formula program, York County applied for $2.2 to $2.9 million to build chargers in specific areas.
“What we did was a survey and we got it out to constituents and municipalities about where they’d like to see additional electric vehicle charging stations,” said Chris Caba, with the York County Planning Commission.
Despite national EV sales on the decline, Caba says charging stations are economic assets.
“We want people that travel into Pa. — into the county or over to Lancaster, Adams County and the Harrisburg area — to have more accessibility so that they can go about their daily lives.”
Brown agrees, believing more local chargers could boost tourism.
“It can be enabling people with electric vehicles in other areas to come in and have a place to charge, meaning they’re able to come, to linger, to do things, tourism, and all that sort of stuff,” Brown said.