Trump administration orders states to halt EV charging programs

The Trump administration on Thursday ordered a halt to a $5B program to build electric vehicle chargers on highways nationwide. According to a statement, “As result of the rescission of the NEVI Formula Program Guidance, FHWA is also immediately suspending the approval of all State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plans for all fiscal years. Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new State plans are submitted and approved. Instructions for the submission of new State plans for all fiscal years will be included in the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance. Since FHWA is suspending the existing State plans, States will be held harmless for not implementing their existing plans. Until new guidance is issued, reimbursement of existing obligations will be allowed in order to not disrupt current financial commitments.” Publicly traded companies in the EV space include Tesla (TSLA), Ford (F), GM (GM), Rivian (RIVN), Lucid (LCID), Nio (NIO), Xpeng (XPEV), Li Auto (LI), Nikola (NKLA), and Zeekr (ZK). EV charging companies include Blink Charging (BLNK) and ChargePoint (CHPT).