Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office), released a free technical resource to help larger communities take full advantage of federal funding for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and other forms of electric transportation. According to the release, the new toolkit follows the Rural EV toolkit released last year and updated earlier this month.

The new guide is called Charging Forward: A Toolkit for Planning and Funding Urban Electric Mobility Infrastructure, which provides a comprehensive resource for communities, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), transportation providers, businesses, and property owners and developers by including information on how to scope, plan, and identify ways to best leverage billions of dollars in funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This 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. The toolkit includes guidance to help urban areas implement other forms of electric transportation, such as public transit, electric bikes and scooters, and ride-share services.

As stated in the release, building an affordable and accessible public charging network will help make electric forms of transportation more convenient for the 71% of Americans who live in communities with a population over 50,000. While many EV owners can charge their vehicles at home or work, people who live in higher density areas, especially those living in apartments and condos, may not have easy access to a garage or the space for a private charger, which means they are more reliant on public charging options.

Last September, DOT approved plans from all 50 states and 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. 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. Together, this funding represents the largest investment in EV charging in U.S. history and a key step towards meeting the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of building 500,000 public EV chargers and reducing national greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% by 2030.

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.

The Department will be hosting a webinar to present the Urban EV 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.

The urban toolkit is available here: www.transportation.gov/urban-e-mobility-toolkit and is included in the DOT Navigator—a one stop shop for accessing the range of federal transportation technical assistance resources.

Read more about the Urban EV Toolkit on DriveElectric.gov/news/urban-toolkit-2023