Indiana was well on its way to installing electric vehicle chargers along interstate highways using nearly $100 million in federal funds. But the Trump administration put that funding on hold.
A statewide EV education initiative wants people to know there’s still some money available for chargers out there — even if it's not nearly as much.
Go Electric Vehicle Indiana (GOEVIN) is wrapping up a statewide tour this week. Former college basketball player and coach Constantin Popa was at the group's event in Indianapolis. He now works for Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises — a tech company that sells EV charging equipment, among other things.
Popa said some of his clients have put their plans to install EV chargers on hold because of the uncertainty surrounding the federal funding — including a hospital.
“Figured that this will be some great information to have and to know that there are other avenues of getting funding," he said.
Volkswagen paid Indiana millions of dollars in a settlement over its air violations.
Carl Lisek is with Drive Clean Indiana, a group that's part of the Go EV Indiana initiative. He said though some of that money has been spent already, there’s still more than $3.1 million for direct-current (DC) fast chargers and nearly $170,000 for slower, Level 2 chargers.
The more chargers there are, the less "range anxiety" people have — the nervous feeling that they won't be able to reach their destination if they drive an electric vehicle.
Go EV Indiana is hoping to find Hoosiers willing to put charging stations in places like Dale and Martinsville to help fill in the gaps.
“It's not the end all be all, but we feel with the number of electric charging stations that have been deployed to date — with the addition of maybe some of those electric vehicle deserts — we’ll be very strong as a state,” Lisek said.
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There are 189 DC fast chargers and 490 Level 2 chargers in Indiana. Electric vehicles only made up about 3 percent of all plated vehicles in the state last year.
The Indiana Department of Transportation has already chosen 39 sites for it's first round of fast chargers through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program (NEVI).
Go EV Indiana’s final “Closing the Gap Tour” event will take place in Hammond on Friday at the South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority from noon to 2 p.m. Central.
Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or on Signal at IPBenvironment.01. Follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.