Tesla, along with three other companies, has quietly supported a project with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that secured $100 million in funding to set up charging stations for electric trucks throughout Illinois. This funding was the largest awarded by the Biden administration’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in the latest round of a program aimed at improving charging infrastructure for vehicles.
In this round of the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Program, the FHWA distributed a total of $636 million to 49 different projects after having given out over $1 billion to about 100 projects in the first round last year.
Interestingly, Tesla had also proposed a different project that would create an electric truck route stretching from Northern California all the way to Southern Texas, but that project did not receive funding in either round of applications.
Megha Lakhchaura, who is Illinois’ state official responsible for electric vehicles, explained in an interview that she was inspired to apply for this funding after seeing another project succeed. That project, run by TeraWatt and New Mexico’s Department of Transportation, got $63 million to build charging facilities along a key highway.
To apply for funds, the Illinois EPA decided to team up with Tesla, Prologis (a company specializing in logistics real estate), Gage Zero (focused on electrifying fleets), and Pilot (a major truck stop operator). This collaboration allowed them to combine their requests into one application for the program.
Currently, Illinois is building charging stations for regular passenger vehicles using a mix of state and federal funds. However, there hasn’t been much financial support specifically aimed at electrifying medium and heavy-duty vehicles. To counter this, the Illinois EPA called for partners in June 2024 to help them with the application, which received a lot of interest from various companies.
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For this project, they initially requested approximately $126 million from the funding program. Prologis sought $60 million, Tesla asked for $40 million, Gage Zero requested $16 million, and Pilot asked for $10 million. Each partner also promised to contribute some of its own money to help with the construction of the charging stations: Prologis pledged $18 million, Tesla offered $19 million, Gage Zero put up $4 million, and Pilot committed $2.5 million.
Although the FHWA awarded slightly less funding than they initially requested, Lakhchaura noted that there is still important work to be done in deciding how to distribute the funds among the partners. This funding will help the state install 345 charging ports and parking spaces across 14 different locations. These chargers will have varying capacities, ranging from 150 kilowatts (kW) to 1 megawatt (MW), which means they will be able to charge electric trucks quickly.
Lakhchaura pointed out that most advancements in charging infrastructure have been concentrated on the coasts of the United States, leaving the Midwest relatively underserved. She believes that establishing this charging hub could be significant not just for Illinois but also for addressing national long-haul trucking needs.
