This funding opportunity is made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s signature EV charging investments: the $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program and funds from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program that are set aside for strategic grants to states and local governments to deploy EV chargers. Supported by unifying guidance and technical assistance from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office), the CFI program is administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and is open to state, regional, Tribal, and local government entities.

This funding opportunity is a critical pillar to the Administration’s charging strategy and addresses needs for charging at multi-family housing and destinations where vehicles are parked. CFI also allows applicants not eligible for NEVI to get needed funding, which is critical to ensuring federal dollars help disadvantaged communities join the EV revolution. The investments from CFI also help support zero-emission freight infrastructure, helping implement the National Zero-Emission Freight Strategy.

These efforts are helping deploy a network of convenient, reliable Level 2 and DC fast EV chargers across the country—along with the good paying jobs building and maintaining the network entails—to bring the unparalleled convenience, health benefits, and cost savings of EVs to every American community, a key step towards the President’s goals of building a national network of 500,000 public EV charging stations and halving national greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The CFI Program is divided into two distinct grant funding categories and requires that 50% of the funding over five years is made available for both Communities and Corridors:

• Community Charging and Fueling Grants: This program will strategically deploy publicly accessible EV charging infrastructure and hydrogen, propane, and natural gas fueling infrastructure in urban and rural communities.
• Alternative Fuel Corridor Grants: This program will strategically deploy publicly accessible EV charging infrastructure and hydrogen, propane, and natural gas fueling infrastructure along designated AFCs.

A key difference for EV charging projects in this round of funding is that the maximum distance from an AFC has been increased from one mile to five miles to align with the maximum distance for other CFI-eligible fuels. Increasing the maximum distance for EV charging will help connect corridors to communities, increase flexibility for developers, help utilities incorporate new load into the grid, and accelerate deployment of charging infrastructure.

Funding available under this opportunity consists of two components:

1. Up to $800 million to fund CFI Round 2 applications to provide grants to eligible entities to strategically deploy publicly accessible EV charging infrastructure, hydrogen fueling infrastructure, propane fueling infrastructure, and natural gas fueling infrastructure in certain locations or along designated AFCs that will be accessible to all drivers of EVs, hydrogen vehicles, propane vehicles, and natural gas vehicles.
2. Up to $521.2 million to fund applications previously submitted but not selected for award under the FY2022/2023 CFI Round 1 funding opportunity (693JJ323NF00004) published on March 14, 2023.