US president Donald Trump is working to suspend a $5 billion programme launched by his predecessor to support the construction of EV chargers.

Administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program contributed to doubling public EV charging ports to nearly 204,000 between 2020 and 2024. However, the Department of Transportation has now placed NEVI under review and “rescinded” its guidance, according to a memo seen by Kallanish.

The FHWA says it will publish new guidance for public comment “in the spring.” Meanwhile, all state EV infrastructure deployment plans have been suspended, so “no new obligations may occur” under the NEVI programme until the new guidance is published, it adds. 

While states can choose whether to carry on with their existing plans or scrap them, the FHWA will allow the reimbursement of existing obligations “in order to not disrupt current financial commitments.”

As of November, 41 states had released at least their first round of solicitations, with 35 states issuing conditional awards or agreements for over 3,560 fast-charging ports across 890 locations.

“New guidance from the federal highway administration would seem to stop work on many of the contracts that have already been signed, which would mean stopping companies from work they have already started to deliver the charging infrastructure,” comments Shoshana Lew, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation. “This would be unfortunate since rapidly rising EV sales are putting high demand on the current supply of chargers along our vast roadway network.”

“Although the administration cannot terminate the NEVI program, it is delaying the rollout of NEVI funding and creating confusion about infrastructure plans and projects that are already approved or underway,” Josh Cohen, head of policy at EV charging group Switch, writes on LinkedIn. “FHWA should expect to receive significant pushback on this, including legal challenges.”

Last month, a group of 24 states and districts, including Colorado, won a request for a temporary restraining order to unfreeze federal funds, after Trump blocked a series of Biden-era initiatives on his inauguration day.

However, the group filed a motion for preliminary injunction on Friday as the funds were still withheld despite the temporary restraining order.