Federal Government Releases Electric Vehicle Toolkit for Urban Areas

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
July 13, 2023

The U.S. Department of Transportation, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, on July 12 released a free technical resource to help larger communities take advantage of federal funding for electric vehicle charging stations and other forms of electric transportation.

The release of the new guide follows the release of the Rural EV toolkit last year and updated earlier this summer. 

The new guide, Charging Forward: A Toolkit for Planning and Funding Urban Electric Mobility Infrastructure, provides a comprehensive resource for communities, metropolitan planning organizations, transportation providers, businesses, and property owners and developers by including information on how to scope, plan, and identify ways to best leverage funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The toolkit builds on the efforts of the Joint Office “to provide states and communities across America with information and assistance to accelerate an electrified transportation system that is convenient, affordable, reliable, and equitable,” according to a Department of Transportation news release.

The toolkit also includes guidance to help urban areas implement other forms of electric transportation, such as public transit, electric bikes and scooters, and ride-share services.  

Last September, DOT approved plans from all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico to build a nationwide network of EV chargers, supported by $5 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program.

And this spring, DOT opened the application process for the first $700 million of the total $2.5 billion in funding to build EV charging infrastructure in communities and neighborhoods across the country through the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program.

The toolkit builds on recent progress towards the expansion of EV infrastructure, including the recently published minimum standards for federally funded EV infrastructure and President Biden’s EV charging Build America, Buy America requirements.

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris Administration released the first-ever blueprint to decarbonize the nation’s transportation sector and cut all transportation-related greenhouse emissions by 2050 – an interagency effort between DOT, the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  

DOT will be hosting a webinar to present the Urban Electric Mobility Toolkit in more detail. More details will be made available soon on the Joint Office’s website at driveelectric.gov.  

In May, DOT released an updated Rural EV Toolkit that incorporated feedback from rural communities and stakeholders on the toolkit’s first iteration.

The updated toolkit includes more information on EV charging programs and information on related topics like public transit and school bus electrification.

The revised toolkit and other rural EV resources are available at www.transportation.gov/rural/ev