By Energy.Gov
As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) announced today a conditional commitment to EVgo Swift Borrower LLC (EVgo) for a loan guarantee of up to $1.05 billion to expand public electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. The loan guarantee, if finalized, will support EVgo’s deployment of approximately 7,500 charging ports at roughly 1,100 charging stations across the United States. The first deployments will include high-power 350kW fast chargers capable of charging two EVs simultaneously, and EVgo plans to continue installing power sharing equipment over the 5-year deployment timeline.
LPO’s conditional commitment to EVgo is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s broader efforts to make EV charging more accessible to residents across the country. President Biden set a goal to build a network of 500,000 publicly available EV chargers by 2030 to support the adoption of EVs and the development of a U.S. supply chain, creating good-paying jobs in manufacturing, installation, operations, and maintenance in all pockets of the country. The United States is on track to achieve this goal years early, having recently doubled the number of publicly available EV chargers since the beginning of this administration, with over 196,000 publicly available chargers operational. The Biden-Harris administration and DOE are building towards a future where EVs are affordable and accessible in every part of the country.
EVgo would deploy the charging stalls across the country, including in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The chargers would be compatible with all new EVs capable of fast charging, including those that use NACS and CCS connectors.
In support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to deliver good-paying, high-quality job opportunities to communities across the country, this project is expected to create more than 180 external construction jobs and over 550 maintenance and support jobs, as well as roughly 290 roles at EVgo supporting engineering and operations.
EVgo is committed to improving customer experience and working with LPO to lift up the charging industry together so that more Americans can access reliable, fast-charging EV infrastructure at convenient locations across the United States and ensure workers, consumers, and communities benefit from the historic transition to a clean energy future. Through the deployment of grid-enabled EV charging stations, which would also further the deployment and use of highly efficient EVs, the project is expected to enable the avoidance of at least 284,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. This amount is roughly equivalent to removing 61,000 gasoline-powered cars from the road for a year.
EVgo aims to support future EV growth with its public charging services, particularly in areas expected to experience the fastest growth, such as metropolitan areas. EVgo plans to deploy 7,500 charging stalls, equipped with high-power 350-KW chargers that can serve two cars at once, in a variety of high-traffic locations, including some of the nation’s leading retail centers and grocery store chains. With a DCFC, drivers can reach 80% charge from empty in as little as 20 minutes (though charging speed may vary based on vehicle and battery conditions).
Expanding the accessibility of DCFCs is essential to reaching the Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious goal for EVs to make up half of all automotive sales by 2030. As covered in LPO’s Tech Talk on EV charging, the availability of reliable, convenient, and fast charging is a key consideration to potential EV buyers. While EV drivers who live in single-family homes can charge their cars overnight with a Level 1 or Level 2 charger, people who live in multi-family housing may not have access to home charging and would benefit the most from fast charging.
The EVgo DCFC rollout would also feature the use of an innovative technology called dynamic power sharing, which optimally allocates the power output of the charging location among all vehicles that are connected to the station at one time. Dynamic power sharing more efficiently uses available utility power and power conversion equipment than non-power sharing equipment. With this technology, any unused power from adjacent stalls is given to vehicles that are charging so they can receive the full requested power, allowing the vehicle to refuel as quickly as possible. The chargers funded through this project would also feature Autocharge+, a payment system that allows users to initiate charging without a credit card or phone after they enroll.
As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to build an equitable and inclusive clean energy future, LPO borrowers are expected to develop and ultimately implement a comprehensive Community Benefits Plan (CBP). CBPs ensure borrowers meaningfully engage with community and labor stakeholders to create good-paying jobs and improve the well-being of residents and workers. One element of EVgo’s CBP is ensuring that its contractors source bids from a variety of companies; and further, EVgo intends to include union contractors as suppliers of prefabricated charging station “skids,” which decrease overall project costs and reduce construction cycles by pre-installing chargers on metal frames prior to delivery to the project site. Over half of the 7,500 charging stalls are expected to use these prefabricated skids.
EVgo is also working to ensure workers interested in the EV charging field can access training and apprenticeships. The company is developing a scholarship program for employees of contractor partners to complete the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program (EVITP). The EVITP certification is increasingly a requirement of state and federally funded EV infrastructure projects.
Today’s announcement also supports President Biden and Vice President Harris’s Justice40 Initiative, which set the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments in climate, clean energy, and other areas flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. EVgo intends to install more than 40% of new charging stations in disadvantaged communities, as identified by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.
Projects like the one announced today will benefit from the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Tax Credit, also known as 30C, which was created by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. The credit is only available in rural areas and those that are disadvantaged relative to a given region. EVgo intends to install roughly half of its new charging stations in 30C-eligible Census tracts, bringing public charging infrastructure to lower-income communities to ensure equitable investment in transportation electrification.
The loan guarantee would be offered through LPO’s Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, which includes financing opportunities for innovative energy and supply chain projects and projects that reinvest in existing energy infrastructure.
While this conditional commitment indicates DOE’s intent to finance the project, DOE and the company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions and DOE must complete environmental review before the Department decides whether to enter into definitive financing documents and fund the loan.
