States and nonprofits sue feds for illegal withholding of $5B in EV charger funds
California and 16 other states have sued the government for illegally withholding $5 billion in funds that Congress earmarked for EV charging, calling the action “another trump gift to China.”
Update, May 22: After the initial lawsuit was filed on May 7th, a number of nonprofits including Sierra Club, Earthjustice, NRDC, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Plug in America joined the lawsuit today. Also, the Government Accountability Office determined today that the seizure of funds was illegal.
The federal NEVI (National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) program was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), otherwise known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, pushed for and signed by President Joe Biden.
Among other things, the IIJA dedicated $5 billion in funding to expanding EV chargers, in order to give more Americans access to EV ownership, and allow them to unlock the fuel cost and health savings that EV owners, and communities with high EV penetration, enjoy.
Since then, every state has submitted a plan and that money has gotten assigned to projects around the country in various levels of completion, with several charging stations already open.
The NEVI program was even the main driver of Tesla opening up its charging port and creating the NACS standard, due to the law’s requirement that federal funding can only go to charging stations that have open access to multiple brands of vehicle. Tesla’s Superchargers used to be open only to Teslas, but after this law passed, Tesla started opening them up to other brands.
And wide adoption of the NACS standard by the industry promises to fix a lot of the problems with EV charging.
So, NEVI is a great program, and it’s helping Americans to save on fuel and maintenance costs, reducing barriers to charging, and making the world cleaner for everyone who breathes air.
So of course, the enemy of America currently occupying the White House (despite there being a clear Constitutional remedy for this crisis) opposes it.
In February, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), at the behest of convicted felon Donald Trump, froze funding for the NEVI program, even though that funding was already allocated by Congress for this purpose. Who knew a felon would break the law?
Now, states are pushing back against the illegal funding freeze, as 17 states, led by California, Colorado and Washington, are suing the FHWA to free up the funds that were allocated to them. Joining the lawsuit are Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta laid out their argument in a press release by the California Governor’s office.
Among those arguments is something we’ve mentioned many times here on Electrek: that republican efforts to diminish the US EV industry are a “gift to China,” who have well and truly taken the lead in the global EV industry, and other countries – particularly the US – are just not doing enough to keep up.
When America retreats, China wins.
President Trump’s illegal action withholding funds for electric vehicle infrastructure is yet another Trump gift to China – ceding American innovation and killing thousands of jobs.
Instead of hawking Teslas on the White House lawn, President Trump could actually help Elon – and the nation – by following the law and releasing this bipartisan funding.
-California Governor Gavin Newsom
Another of President Biden’s laws, the Inflation Reduction Act, was an effort to increase investment in the EV industry in the US – and did so while also lowering the deficit. It worked extremely well, leading to hundreds of billions in investment and hundreds of thousands of jobs in American EV manufacturing. Certainly much more effective than the unwise tariffs that both President Biden and Mr. Trump have supported.
However, as one might expect from an enemy of America, Mr. Trump has opposed that law as well. After he begged the oil industry for a billion-dollar bribe to harm EVs during his presidential campaign (where he also repeatedly promised to raise inflation for Americans), his republican party now thinks they have the votes to inflate the price of EVs by $7,500 – on top of the inflation Mr. Trump has already caused on electric and non-electric models alike.
Oddly, despite Mr. Trump’s clear opposition to the well-being of Americans, and particularly to the well-being of the American auto industry, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, perhaps America’s most high-profile auto CEO, donated hundreds of millions of dollars to this anti-EV candidate. He has used tortured logic to claim that raising the price of his products by $7,500 relative to the competition won’t hurt his business, but that’s just wrong.
As Governor Newsom points out in his quote above, this situation seems puzzling. While Mr. Trump did improperly utilize government property to create a bizarre ad for his largest political donor, his policy proposals so far – which Musk claims he “loves” – have generally been directed towards harming Tesla and other EVs. The money from the NEVI program could go a long way towards filling the gaps in EV charger buildout around the country, making Teslas more usable for Americans who don’t live in areas where chargers are easy to come by.
Pausing that funding not only puts charger plans into chaos (something Musk is no stranger to), it also means that Tesla can’t use money that it created an entire charging standard just to get a piece of. And it’s not the only time the squatter in the White House has made EV charging harder, as he previously tore out 8,000 paid-for EV chargers, causing waste and higher fuel costs for government vehicles simply out of his seemingly infinite spite for the country which he’s currently illegally running into the ground.
The lawsuit requests that a court stop Mr. Trump’s illegal actions and permanently halt the FHWA from withholding these funds.
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Fortescue is marching towards zero emissions as it invests in new, zero-emission mining equipment options across its global operations. And that investment? It’s already paying off. One analyst says the company’s saving almost $400 million in fuel costs alone. Each year.
From massive, Liebherr-built electric haul trucks and excavators to more than $400 million in Chinese equipment from XCMG, Fortescue is putting its money where its mouth is and making real efforts to decarbonize its global mining operations.
“We’re moving rapidly to decarbonize our Pilbara iron ore operations and eliminate our Scope 1 and 2 terrestrial emissions by 2030. To achieve this target, we will need to swap out hundreds of pieces of diesel mining equipment at the end of their life with zero emissions alternatives,” said Fortescue Metals Chief Executive Officer, Dino Otranto, when the XCMG order was announced. “As the global mining industry continues to evolve, we’re proud to be at the forefront of driving innovation in value adding green technology and showing the world that industry can decarbonize.”
Those efforts aren’t just cutting back on air pollution. Electric equipment assets are helping to keep the company’s workers safe and healthy, too. What’s more, they’re saving the company money – they’re already seeing $300-400 million in fuel savings annually.
Liebherr T264 electric haul truck
The Liebherr T264 electric haul trucks now working for Fortescue defy common sense notions of size, scale, and power. Each truck tips the scales at 176 tonnes (194 tons) and can haul more than 240 tonnes (265 tons) of payload thanks to powerful electric motors and a big-as-a-house-sized 3.2 MWh battery that can be recharged in a little over 30 minutes by Liebherr’s proprietary 6 MW DC fast charger.
If you could keep the car from exploding, that 6 MW (that’s 6,000 kW to you and me) charger could zap a Tesla Model Y Long Range’s 75 kWh battery in some thirty (30) seconds.
“Fortescue has ordered 360 of (T264 battery electric haul trucks) as part of a $4 billion deal with Liebherr to electrify operations at its enormous iron ore mines,” says Gavin Mooney, general manager at Australian energy software platform, Kaluza. “Fuel and energy costs are Fortescue’s biggest operating costs as well as largest source of emissions. By electrifying operations like this it will be able to kill two birds with one stone.”
Battery electric vehicles have moved millions of tons of material at Fortescue mines over the last two years alone, and continue to keep the minerals moving with minimal less impact to the environment.
Electrek’s Take
With billions of dollars on the line and pressure to reduce carbon emissions coming from all sides, it should come as no surprise that the race is on to bring practical, electric, and autonomous heavy mining equipment to market. At CES 2024, electric equipment from Hyundai, Bobcat, Volvo CE, and Caterpillar garnered lots of attention with their innovative concepts, and analysts like IDTechEx estimate that a single 150-ton haul truck can use over $850,000 worth of fuel in a single year.
Meanwhile, big electric haul trucks like this 240 ton unit from Caterpillar can, in certain use cases with high amounts of regenerative braking, operate without any significant cost to recharge. At that point, the reduced maintenance and downtime of BEVs compared to diesel vehicles becomes icing on the TCO cake.
We spoke to Fortescue Zero executives a few months ago on a special interview episode of Quick Charge. Check it out (above) then let us know what you think of Fortescue’s fuel savings in the comments.
Sources links throughout; featured image by Fortescue Zero.
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This world’s first fully electric deconstruction site is being hailed as a landmark in sustainable urban development — and it’s powered by Siemens technology and Volvo Group’s battery-electric trucks and heavy equipment.
The deconstruction project (that’s kind of like a really careful demolition) marks the first full-scale electric deconstruction of its kind, and serves as important proof that with the right partners and the will to do it, urban construction projects like this can be carried out sustainably, today – and all without fossil fuels. It’s all part of Siemens’ €500 million technology campus redevelopment, the deconstruction site in Erlangen, Germany, and marks a pivotal step in advancing sustainable urban transformation and circular construction practices.
In collaboration with the demolition specialists at Metzner Recycling, Volvo CE deployed a fully electric fleet of equipment assets specially chosen to deliver quiet, precision demolition across the 25,000 cubic meter job site.
As well as deconstruction tasks, the electric machines helped sort and process approximately 12,800 tons of construction waste, with 96% recycled into raw materials for future use – supporting the shift towards circular materials management.
VOLVO CE
“At Siemens Real Estate, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of sustainable construction and demolition,” explains Christian Franz, Head of Sustainability at Siemens Real Estate. “This groundbreaking electric deconstruction project boasts an impressive 96% recycling rate and is a testament to our commitment to achieving excellence in sustainability … this project illustrates how partnerships and determination can create a lasting impact and help shape a more sustainable real estate industry.”
In addition the construction equipment was hauled into the site by Volvo Truck’s battery electric semi trucks, enabling emission-free operations from demolition, to crushing, materials processing, and transport.
Electrek’s Take
With a full line of electric wheel loaders, excavators, articulated haul trucks – even drum rollers and off-grid charging solutions to haul around with their electric semi trucks – Volvo is in a great position to take advantage of increasingly restrictive noise and emission regulations across Europe.
It’s too bad they’re suing California to be able to pollute more.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo CE.
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Hyundai offered a first look at the hot hatch earlier this week after unveiling the Concept Three, its first compact EV under the IONIQ family. The new EV, set to arrive as the IONIQ 3, already has a sporty, hot hatch look, but that could be just the start.
Hyundai has a new EV hot hatch in the making
The Concept Three took the spotlight at IAA Mobility in Munich with a daring new look from Hyundai. Based on its new “Art of Steel” design, the concept is a stark contrast to the Hyundai vehicles on the road today.
Hyundai took the “Aero Hatch” design to the next level, deeming it “a new typology that reimagines the compact EV silhouette.” And that it does.
When it arrives in production form in mid-2026, it’s expected to take the IONIQ 3 name as a smaller, more affordable sibling to the IONIQ 5.
Hyundai is set to unveil the electric hatchback next spring with an official launch planned in Europe in September 2026. According to Hyundai’s European boss, Xavier Martinet, the IONIQ 3 could make for the perfect EV hot hatch.
Martinet hinted that the IONIQ 3 could receive the “N” treatment, telling Auto Express that “The concept is quite sporty, and obviously you have heritage with N brand.” Hyundai’s European boss added that “it’s a fair topic to consider.”
Although it doesn’t sound too convincing, Hyundai’s head of design, Simon Loasby, called it “an opportunity.” Loasby was quick to add, “We’re not calling it N, it’s not approved yet.”
“But I think everyone in the company is realising what Europe needs, and that’s compact hot hatches, so it’s a topic for discussion,” Hyundai’s design boss added.
The Concept Three is 4,287 mm long, 1,940 mm wide, and 1,428 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2,722 mm, or about the size of the Kia EV3 and Volkswagen ID.3. Both of which are set for hot hatch variants.
If the IONIQ 3 N does come to life, it will be the third Hyundai EV to receive the high-performance upgrade, following the IONIQ 5 N and IONIQ 6 N.
The IONIQ 5 N “was just the first lap,” according to Joon Park, vice president of Hyundai’s N Brand Management Group. He told Auto Express that Hyundai is “at the starting line” and plans to apply what it learned from its first EV hot hatch to upcoming models.
If you’re looking for an affordable electric hot hatch, Hyundai already offers one. After Hyundai cut lease prices last month, the IONIQ 5 N is now listed at just $549 per month. That’s $150 less per month than in July.
Want to test one out for yourself? You can use our link to find 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 models in your area (trusted affiliate link).
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