Gee you mean like those grant programs a decade ago that were meant to increase implementation of broadband, but all they did was have a bunch of poorly attended regional meetings where ISP representatives were the primary stakeholders who even bothered to show up?
This is completely incorrect and doesn’t account for how this process is actually run.
The funds are distributed from the federal level to states. Generally, each state’s highway planning department has to formulate a plan for how to spend this money in a way that covers federally funded travel corridors and in a way that is equitable so chargers aren’t being dropped only outside of wealthy neighborhoods and meeting other criteria. Then this has to get approved.
While figuring out placement, states have to run a bidding process to select vendors to actually deploy the chargers. This takes time to ensure the bids are viable.
Then it takes time to actually deploy a charging site. From the locations chosen, you have to verify the power company is willing to service the site, or if it makes sense to relocate due to cost. Then the utility company has to drop a big transformer (don’t forget, supply chain issues!). While this happens, your DCFC maker has to still churn out the charging equipment (which, for anyone other than Tesla this past year has been pretty slow).
This is standard bureaucracy+process. This is not some private entity grabbing funds and running off.
Gee you mean like those grant programs a decade ago that were meant to increase implementation of broadband, but all they did was have a bunch of poorly attended regional meetings where ISP representatives were the primary stakeholders who even bothered to show up?
This is completely incorrect and doesn’t account for how this process is actually run.
The funds are distributed from the federal level to states. Generally, each state’s highway planning department has to formulate a plan for how to spend this money in a way that covers federally funded travel corridors and in a way that is equitable so chargers aren’t being dropped only outside of wealthy neighborhoods and meeting other criteria. Then this has to get approved.
While figuring out placement, states have to run a bidding process to select vendors to actually deploy the chargers. This takes time to ensure the bids are viable.
Then it takes time to actually deploy a charging site. From the locations chosen, you have to verify the power company is willing to service the site, or if it makes sense to relocate due to cost. Then the utility company has to drop a big transformer (don’t forget, supply chain issues!). While this happens, your DCFC maker has to still churn out the charging equipment (which, for anyone other than Tesla this past year has been pretty slow).
This is standard bureaucracy+process. This is not some private entity grabbing funds and running off.
I believe he was comparing it to a similar broadband grant in a comidic fashion