Trump takes aim at Tesla’s EV charging financing programs

President Donald Trump is trying to cut off funding for EV charging infrastructure from two programs benefiting Tesla — the latest example of how Elon Musk’s political interests are at odds with the car company’s goal of developing sustainable energy.

It is not a given that Trump’s gambit will succeed. But if it does, Tesla could be cut off from two sources of funding the automaker has used over the past two years to build its market-leading EV charging network.

In one of the countless executive orders Trump has signed the first day of the second termhe declared that “(a) all agencies must immediately cease disbursements from programs established by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bilateral Infrastructure Act. It specifically calls for an end to funding for EV charging stations provided through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) grant program.

Those institutions must submit a review of “grant, loan, contract or any other financial payment processes, policies and programs” within 90 days from the date of issuance of this order, and all heads of institutions must submit a report to the Department. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and National Economic Council (NEC). The order also states that agencies may not allocate additional funds “unless the Director of OMB and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy determine that such payments are consistent with any review recommendations they choose to adopt.”

Musk has long claimed that Tesla’s mission is to “accelerate the transition to sustainable energy.” But he’s now officially working with the second Trump administration, which is making big changes in sustainable energy on its first day. Trump has already signed executive orders to stop it federal lease for offshore wind developmentdrawing The US withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreementand tries to reverse the other EV policies of the Biden administration.

Tesla was part of a group recently awarded $100 million from the CFI program to build charging infrastructure for heavy-duty trucks in Illinois, TechCrunch said. first reported last week. The company was hoping to get about $40 million of the group’s initial funding request of $126 million. Tesla has also repeatedly sought about $100 million in CFI funding to build a truck-loading corridor between northern California and southern Texas. the application has been passed many times.

Tesla’s CFI award in Illinois is a small fraction of nearly $2 billion awarded by the Department of Transportation over the past two years. Tesla won a larger share of grants from the NEVI program — which allocates smaller amounts of money to states, which in turn use those funds to offer grants to build charging infrastructure. Tesla won approximately 13% of all NEVI awards By mid-2024, and used those millions to further develop its Supercharger network, which is now open to nearly all competing EVs.

Trump could slow or stop the flow of future spending from these programs, according to Martin Lockman of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Climate Change Law Center. He may do so, especially if his administration is successful in its promised legal fight On the Control of Seizures Actit limits the ability of the president to stop Congress from spending appropriated money.

“There’s a lot of wiggle room here, and the Trump administration will certainly do everything in its power to delay spending under these bills,” he said.

It’s not clear whether Trump can legally stop funding awards already under contract.

“People who have contracts today have rights under those contracts and the president cannot take them away,” he said.

But, Lockman warned, if the agencies feel enough pressure from Trump, they could violate the terms of those contracts and potentially the laws that set up the funding programs in the first place and refuse to give the money. In this case, companies, state and local agencies or other entities that have won awards from NEVI or CFI will have to fight to fulfill them.

“If the new administration wants to force people to fight for their contracts in court, that will certainly be a huge obstacle to building EV infrastructure,” he said.