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For the past four years, electric vehicle chargers have been popping up along Texas highway corridors, but they may not work\u00a0fast enough for traveling drivers. (AP Photo\/Mike Stewart)<\/p>\n
Mike Stewart\/AP<\/p>\n
For the past four years, electric vehicle chargers have been popping up along Texas highway corridors, but they may not work\u00a0fast enough for traveling drivers.<\/p>\n
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The chargers are being funded through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, a $5 billion federal initiative providing states with 80% of the necessary funds to implement EV chargers along major highways. State and private funds supply the other 20%. NEVI expects to provide a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Chargers are split into three categories: level two, similar to the ones\u00a0EV owners install in their homes and best for overnight; direct current fast chargers, best for shorts stops and on the go; and megawatt, used on the go for large, heavy duty vehicles.<\/p>\n
By the time the project is completed, Texas will have spent more than\u00a0$400 million in NEVI funds. The North Central Texas Council of Governments estimates there are currently 818 level two charger stations (2,043 ports) and 194 DC fast charger stations (1,086 ports) on public highways and alternate fuel corridors in the region. This means only 34.7% of the charger ports across North Texas highways and AFCs\u00a0are DC fast chargers, the rest being level two, which were discouraged by the Texas Department of Transportation for highway use.<\/p>\n
\u201cLevel two doesn’t make sense along transit corridors,\u201d said John\u00a0Higham, vice president of communications and public affairs for the\u00a0national Electric Vehicle Association. \u201cLevel two in certain rural communities makes perfect sense depending on where it\u2019s installed\u2026 level two is not a tool to get you from point A to point B as efficiently as possible.\u201d Higham drives a zenith red Lucid Air and charges it at home using solar panels. This is his 7th EV.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Level two chargers can take up to 10 times longer than DC fast chargers, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.<\/a> However, level two chargers are cheaper and faster to install, with the council\u00a0estimating costs at about $16,500 per port. DC fast chargers can cost around $94,000 per port.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Lori Clark, senior program manager for the North Texas council’s\u00a0alternative fuel and energy program, noted the price difference as well as charging speed difference. She said many of the level two chargers “were built by the private sector separate from the TxDOT program” and “have been around for many years.”\u00a0<\/p>\n In Texas, the deployment plan is split into two phases. The first, completed in January, focused on \u201cfully building out\u201d alternative fuel corridors \u2013 designated routes offering accessible charging along major interstates and highways.\u00a0The corridors are not only for EVs but also provide hydrogen, propane, and both compressed and liquefied natural gas stations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Phase one also included providing direct current fast chargers within one mile of the highway for every 50 miles of road.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople really want and they\u2019re really focused on DC fast charging because they\u2019re very used to going to a gas station and filling up quickly, so that is what the industry has focused on,\u201d \u00a0Lindsey Perkins said, director of communications for Plug In America.\u00a0 \u201cI do think that over time people will probably find more value in level two chargers.\u201d She drives a midnight silver metallic Tesla Model 3 and has been an EV owner for eight years.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Phase two, which starts in May, focuses on providing chargers to rural areas and adding more charging blocks to urban areas by allocating money to necessary Metropolitan Planning Organizations. Potential rural counties include Erath, Johnson, Kaufman, Palo Pinto and Somervell. TxDOT allocated up to $60 million dollars for this phase. Nationally, 1 million EVs will be supported after completion.<\/p>\n Both Perkins and Higham said as longtime EV drivers, they have seen an increase in fast chargers popping up all over the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n Interstate 35 through Dallas, Austin and San Antonio is considered one of the most robust highways for EVs in Texas, with more than 20% of all EV chargers on I35, I-35E and I-35W, according to TxDOT\u2019s official charger location list. NEVI funding requires each station to have four DC fast charging ports, and allow users to be able to pay without a subscription service or app.\u00a0<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n States receive funding every fiscal year after completing and submitting a detailed use plan to the Federal Highway Administration. The plan must also explain community engagement outcomes, as well as physical and\u00a0cyber security strategies. As stated in the NEVI guidelines, funds received from the federal government \u201cshall be for projects directly related to the charging of a vehicle and only for EV charging infrastructure that is open to the general public or to authorized commercial motor vehicle operators from more than one company.\u201d States are also encouraged to consider \u00a0\u201cproximity of existing off highway travel centers, fuel retailers and small businesses\u201d when proposing charging locations.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n TxDOT will select chargers and their locations at the April monthly meeting. The decision will be made prior to the May grant cycle. Officials from the council of governments\u00a0stated they wanted to make their decisions as soon as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe would like to be ready,\u201d Clark said during the March Regional Transportation Council meeting. \u201cWe would like our region to be one of the first out the gate that benefits from these investments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past four years, electric vehicle chargers have been popping up along Texas highway corridors, but they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57170,89828,27,29,28,88572],"class_list":{"0":"post-232206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-electric-vehicle","9":"tag-ntcog","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news","13":"tag-tp-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775016909_917_rawImage.jpg\" "\\"#\\"")
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