US Fast Charging Needs to Focus on Moving Faster

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Last week, Jennifer Sensiba wrote about the chaos created by NEVI funding disruption. In the final year of the program, Trump put an illegal freeze on releasing funding, interrupting progress. However, while the administration’s disruption in funding was destructive, the speed of the program made it vulnerable to that disruption.

The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program (NEVI) was approved in November 2021 and runs through fiscal 2026, which ends September 30th. It took over a year for final rules to be developed. Trump, of course, had to change those rules. Trump’s interruption in releasing funding ate up months before the courts ruled that it must be restored. However, the program is still running out of time.

We are still a few months away from the post-mortem, but we can already see that NEVI will fall short of what was hoped. It was part of an overall goal to have 500,000 fast chargers by 2030. The first charger went online in late 2023. As of October 2025, 121 stations were energized across 16 states through NEVI. According to the latest updated map, there are currently 166 operating locations, 7 former NEVI locations, 1 awarded, and 97 under construction. Another map shows 105 stations energized and 898 announced. Funding has been approved for up to 4,000, some yet to be announced, but the clock is ticking. Approvals took time. After approvals, the average time from construction start to going online was 117 days. That was before the funding pause. Beyond NEVI, the US has a total of 14,521 fast charging stations, according to AFDC.

For comparison, BYD started to install second-generation flash charging stations earlier this year and had 4,239 stations online at the launch earlier this month. 358 stations were added last week, bringing the total to 4,597 in 279 cities. In other words, it is averaging more flash charging stations brought online in four days than NEVI accomplished in four years. From construction start, it takes less than a week to go online. Less than 7 days compared to an average of 117 days. By the end of the year, they are planning to have over 20,000 charging stations. Every charging pile offers multiple charging guns able to supply up to 1500 kW each, and many stations offer multiple piles. All stations integrate buffer batteries, and many integrate solar. In one year, one company with more advanced chargers will bring online more DC charging capacity than our entire country has accomplished to date. By most estimates, it will do that for far lower cost than just the NEVI budget. Those MW+ stations are being installed in a country that already has millions of DC charging stations with similar capabilities to those being installed through NEVI.

Some might agree with many of the complications added to the program. Some might want to develop local supply chains, which also means using undeveloped supply chains that cannot deliver quickly. Some might want to restrict suppliers to domestic companies, even if they cannot deliver as fast. Some might want technology to be more defined and regulated. Some might support siting requirements for low-income and rural areas. Or they might want to ensure that any associated jobs go to unions. Some state and local politicians might want to put their fingerprint on it and ensure their stakeholders are being taken care of. Some may think communities should have lengthy time for review and commentary, even though they rarely go through the same process for massive tanks of gasoline…. But those complications slow down execution. Trying to ensure that each piece of legislation does everything for everyone ensures that it accomplishes little for anyone.

The Peril of Slow Execution

Given recent events, I recently re-read The Art of War by Sun Tzu from circa 500 BC. It is still very relevant today. It is also not long-winded or hard to understand. While many on the left will shy away from discussions of war, the strategies can be applied to the execution of any plan, especially those where a conflicting party is present. A section at the start of the second chapter is especially relevant:

When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.

Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.

Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

The same could be applied to implementing clean technology projects. With time, cutting edge technology becomes dull. Enthusiasm wanes. People become distracted, frustrated, and exhausted. Supply chains become divided and disrupted. Political tides change, and new “chieftains” come to power. Those rising to power then shift objectives and contribute to delays in projects that they don’t support. Projects and funding go through starts and stops, causing permanent damage and increasing costs. The “consequences” become inevitable. Rapid execution will undoubtedly lead to some costly mistakes, but our delays are far more costly.

We have seen a similar pattern with mass transit here in NYC. The first phase of the 2^nd Avenue Subway took decades to build, with frequent starting and stopping. It took longer to complete than it took China to take Shenzhen from its founding to becoming larger than New York City. Costs totaled $2.6 billion per mile, more than some entire subway lines in other countries. Going slow and complicating projects led to massive cost overruns for the city. While some undoubtedly profited, subway riders paid the price. Fares went up to pay for a project that took too long to provide a benefit. The expensive delays also cost the city in terms of public willingness to take on new projects.

Part of the problem is reduced speed due to overcomplicated design. Some of the problems are due to people trying to profit from projects. Some bureaucrats will proclaim that “it’s not that simple,” when simplicity becomes essential. Some problems also come from those who see the project as competition for the status quo and want to slow a transition. It will take focus to avoid distraction. Have no doubt that fossil fuel interests are trying to delay the execution of these initiatives to undermine success, just as Trump’s legal team delays his prosecutions.

Democrats can often be their own worst enemies by massively overcomplicating legislation and regulations, trying to please everyone and solve every problem with each piece of legislation. Meanwhile, fossil fuel interests are more than happy to help them complicate the execution. The Democratic Party could use some of Truman’s focus on streamlining now.

Republicans often betray the “fiscally conservative” values that they claim to uphold by loading up bills with pork or changing allocation formulas to direct spending to their home district that could be more effectively spent elsewhere. They can refocus on the streamlined government that they once claimed to believe in. The “law and order” party has also had a recent tendency to ignore laws. I have no doubt that Eisenhower received some laws as president and orders as a general that he was not a personal fan of, but I also have no doubt that he did his best to effectively execute.

Vehicle electrification is moving forward at an astonishing pace globally, while the US slows down. It is unlikely that the US will ever attain a position of “dominance” around electric vehicles or clean technology, but the country will need to move faster if it hopes to avoid irrelevance.

It is too late for NEVI to live up to its full promise. However, we can take it as a learning opportunity and focus on streamlining the next project. Plan to execute so quickly that funds run out before the next presidential election. Don’t rely on a continuity of leadership. Not everybody will be able to get everything they want, but more can get done with focus. The next fast charging project will need to move faster.