Trump Plans to Eliminate All 8,000 EV Charging Stations at Federal Facilities | Carscoops

      The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), during Donald Trump’s administration, has categorized them as non-essential.

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       by Stephen Rivers

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      The Trump administration is set to discontinue the operation of government-owned electric vehicle (EV) chargers.

      This decision will impact thousands of charging locations nationwide and is already in progress.

      It remains uncertain what will become of the chargers and the vehicles relying on them.

      

      In a significant policy change, the Trump administration has reportedly ordered the closure of all electric vehicle charging stations located at federal buildings throughout the U.S. This decision activates the shutdown of numerous EV chargers, with around 8,000 charging ports overseen by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).

      

      

      The directive also involves plans to sell off recently acquired electric vehicles from the federal fleet. Collectively, these actions represent a clear departure from the sustainability efforts promoted by the previous administration.

      Read: Trump’s Budget Cuts Pose Risks to Biden’s $6.6B Rivian Loan for EV Factory

      An internal email from the GSA, reportedly seen by Colorado Public Radio, indicates that the agency no longer considers its charging stations to be “mission critical.” Consequently, these chargers will be deactivated and rendered unusable for all users.

      

      

      

      

      This impacts both federal employees using federally owned electric vehicles and those who previously charged their personal vehicles at these stations. Some regional offices have already started to take chargers offline, with an official announcement anticipated soon.

      

      

      The GSA oversees federal assets, which include a fleet of around 650,000 vehicles. Under the Biden administration, it initiated a strategy to shift towards zero-emission vehicles. This plan involved acquiring over 58,000 electric vehicles and setting up over 25,000 charging stations. However, it fell significantly short of those targets, and this new directive abruptly halts that initiative.

      The GSA is preparing to divest the electric vehicles currently in its fleet, but it’s unclear where they will be sent. Technically, the agency might opt to remove the vehicles from the fleet and place them in storage rather than sell them. Additionally, the GSA oversees some chargers for other federal agencies, so those departments may also have to abandon their electric vehicles.

      How the agency plans to replace the phasing-out vehicles is also uncertain; options include purchasing new gasoline-powered models or redistributing older ones from retirement.

      This situation follows Trump’s recent suspension of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, a $5 billion initiative designed to broaden the nation’s EV charging network. Taken together, these decisions could hinder the overall adoption rate of electric vehicles across the U.S., and one thing is certain: it will not accelerate it.