The Arkansas Department of Transportation (“ADOT”) is circulating what it describes as an Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (“EVSE”) Industry survey seeking input from:
. . . prospective EVSE site-host suppliers, developers, and operators who are likely to apply for National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (“NEVI”) funding.
The survey’s objective is stated to be the collection of:
. . . information identifying challenges and opportunities for the development of NEVI compliant EVSE charging stations on Arkansas’ Interstates and Alternative Fuel Corridors.
This activity is being driven by the requirement that Arkansas (along with the other states) fully build out NEVI compliant EVSE stations every 50 miles on its interstates and alternative fuel corridors to obtain NEVI funding for the construction of EVSE charging stations in the above-referenced segments. Eleven Arkansas gaps (four gaps over 50 miles with sub-segments marked A & B) are stated to be required to have NEVI compliant EVSE stations.
ADOT is the Arkansas agency that is developing a competitive grant program to administer the NEVI program in the state. A competitive program will be utilized to contract with private entities for the installation, operation, ownership, and maintenance of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Note that the NEVI Formula Program established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates $5 billion to build a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030 along federally designated alternative fuel corridors.
The NEVI program is administered by the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. The Federal Highway Administration has previously stated that minimum standards for such facilities are needed to help ensure that the national EV charging network is user-friendly, reliable, and accessible. In other words, the attempt is to ensure that, regardless of the type of electric vehicles driven, state in which a user is located, or charging company that is utilized, there is a unified network of chargers with similar payment systems, pricing information, charging speeds, etc.
A link to the ADOT survey can be found here.
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