ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida will soon begin working on its plan to build electric vehicle charging stations across the state, the Federal Highway Administration announced.
Florida's Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Deployment was approved ahead of schedule under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, the Biden administration announced Thursday.
The early approval makes Florida one of 35 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico with approved plans, the FHWA said. With approval, Florida has access to more than $900 million in NEVI formula funding to help build EV charges across the country.
"The NEVI formula funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which makes $5 billion available over five years, will help build a convenient, reliable, and affordable EV charging network across the country," the FHWA said in a news release.
Over the next five years, Florida is estimated to receive $198,057,481 in funding with $29,315,442 expected in 2022.
The state plans to add about 6,772 public charging ports to its charging network using funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The plan is to implement high-power chargers across over 6,244 miles of designated EV corridors in the state of Florida.
"Today, with funding in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are taking an important step to build a nationwide electric vehicle charging network where finding a charge is as easy as locating a gas station," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
Now that the plan has been given approval, Florida and other states can reimburse costs that went into staffing and activities directly related to developing the EV charging network plan using government funding.
The funding can go to numerous projects including "upgrade of existing and construction of new EV charging infrastructure, operation and maintenance costs of these charging stations, installation of on-site electrical service equipment, community and stakeholder engagement, workforce development activities, EV charging station signage, data sharing activities, and related mapping analysis and activities," the FHWA said.