A Volkswagen e-Golf charges at an electric vehicle charger in Escondido, Calif. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg News)
President Donald Trump’s federal funding cuts are poised to slow down growth in the installation of electric-vehicle charging stations across the country, according to the CEO of a company that supplies them.
The suspension of a government program funding new charging stations will likely mean the U.S. will have at least 200,000 high-speed chargers in place by 2030, said Mark Morelli, CEO of Vontier Corp., which manufactures EV chargers and fuel dispensers. That’s half of earlier expectations of about 400,000.
The Federal Highway Administration said in February it would suspend the approval of grants under the so-called NEVI program. The funding, included in the bipartisan infrastructure law passed under former President Joe Biden, was meant to allocate $5 billion over five years to install chargers in every state.
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“Electrification is a trend that’s underway — without that funding, it may not accelerate to the rate or pace that it was prior,” Morelli said.
Trump has made rescinding Biden’s pro-EV initiatives a key plank of his economic platform. In his address at the Republican National Convention in July, he promised to “end the electric vehicle mandate from day one” of his second administration.
While growth will slow, electrification won’t stop, with the number of chargers still growing from about 60,000 now, Morelli said. He added that the energy transition had already began to slow down in some parts of the world even before Trump took office.
Some automakers have said building a network of chargers is key to help drive adoption of battery-powered cars. Meanwhile, retailers have been putting up EV chargers as a way to draw shoppers to their stores.
Raleigh, N.C.-based Vontier, which was spun off from Fortive in 2020, owns brands including maintenance group Matco Tools and software development group Teletrac Navman. Morelli said this diversified portfolio will help the company to weather geopolitical uncertainty in the U.S. and worldwide.
