Electric vehicle drivers motoring in New Hampshire are known to have what’s called “range anxiety.” A lack of widespread charging infrastructure makes EV motorists nervous about how far they can get in the state before they need a charge and whether a charging station will be available to them at any given destination.
Today, there’s a new anxiety … just as some headway was being made on expanding the state’s charging network.
With President Donald Trump deemphasizing federal support for renewable energy programs — and his freeze on funding that was paying for EV charging expansion in New Hampshire — electric vehicle advocates here are concerned about what happens next.
The NH Department of Transportation (NHDOT) announced in early February its suspension of the federally backed project to build electric vehicle charging stations, this after the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), at Trump’s direction, rescinded guidelines for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program put in place by the Biden Administration.
The FHA advised that no new funding would be approved until they conduct a review of the program. Whether or not the funding spigot will be turned back on is unknown.
“It might start to flow again, but, needless to say, there’s just a huge amount of uncertainty and how this is all going,” said Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of Drive Electric NH and Clean Energy NH.
Money to help build out the charging station infrastructure here comes from two sources.
One is the federal government through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) and Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) programs funded by the $7.5 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress and signed by President Biden. The NEVI program is worth about $17 million, while the CFI part is worth about $15 million, according to Evans-Brown.
Funding has already been awarded for four sites funded by NEVI, said Evans-Brown, adding the schedule calls for four new sites per year until the funding expires. “But now the Trump administration has frozen all those funds, and so now it’s totally unclear how much of it will actually get out the door,” he said.
The CFI part hadn’t been contracted, said Evans-Brown. “Will we ever see that $15 million is very much an open question,” he said.
The other funding source is the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust fund, which is worth about $31 million or more to the Granite State. About $4.6 million has been set aside specifically for electric vehicle support.
The VW money is overseen by the state Department of Environmental Services. The department says there is no impact to the Volkswagen-funded projects.
Eight charger projects have been funded with the VW money in Erroll, Claremont, Lancaster, Colebrook, Keene, Dover, Epping and Peterborough. Four others are waiting for Executive Council approval in Hooksett (two sites), Ossipee and Warner.
The NEVI/CFI money is the potential larger loss, and, thus, at risk of having a greater impact.
“I think the jury is out on whether this pause is permanent or not,” said Evans-Brown, noting that together the NEVI and CFI programs were worth about $32 million to New Hampshire. “Given the lack of state or utility programs to close this gap, federal funds are really important to the New Hampshire economy,”
In its grant outline in September, the NHDOT identified up to about 40 shovel-ready sites throughout the state for publicly available Level 2 (L2) and Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC).
Level 2 chargers are slower but more common than Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) chargers. L2 chargers are often used at home and work, while DCFC chargers are more common at public charging stations and along highways.
It said the build-out “will enable EV travel, increase EV adoption, and reduce range anxiety and localized tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases…”
Clean Energy NH and Ski NH have issued a joint report that says, without significant investments in EV infrastructure, New Hampshire’s tourism industry risks losing significant revenue.
“New Hampshire’s tourism economy is highly supported by visitors who drive here from states where EV adoption rates are among the highest in the country,” said Jessyca Keeler, president of Ski New Hampshire.
“As more and more people from our core markets such as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and other states in the Northeast buy EVs, it is increasingly likely that they will forgo visits to NH, where they can’t find sufficient charging options, and instead travel to our neighboring states where they can,” she added. “We know that the tourism industry is vital to the state’s economy, and we should be working to find creative, New Hampshire-based solutions to help us stay competitive into the future.”
The report, “Driving Towards a Sustainable New Hampshire Economy: Supporting New Hampshire’s Tourism Industry through EV Charging Infrastructure,” says the Granite State’s $7 billion tourism industry is at a crossroads.
A joint Clean Energy NH/Ski NH statement said other states are building EV charging infrastructure through financial incentives, utility programs and public-private partnerships. Massachusetts and Vermont, for instance, have leveraged diversified funding sources to expand their charging networks, making them more attractive for both EV drivers and businesses.
New Hampshire, however, they said, has largely depended on federal grants and the Volkswagen so-called “Dieselgate” settlement funds, putting it at a competitive disadvantage. “To prevent further economic loss, the state must take decisive steps, including setting clear EV adoption targets, enabling utility-led investments, securing additional funding, and fostering collaboration between the public and private sectors,” they said.
“New Hampshire is pretty far behind when it comes to building out our charging infrastructure, which is a serious risk to the tourism sector,” said Evans-Brown.
State Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, believes the money should ultimately be made available since the funding was approved by Congress, and has not been rescinded or modified by Congress.
“I’m very much a pragmatist,” said state Sen. David Watters, D-Dover. “There’s a lot of politics around this, but for me, it’s always been what’s going to help the New Hampshire economy.”
Watters pointed to three pillars of the economy that derive benefit from electric vehicles and an expanded charging infrastructure: motor vehicle sales, tourism and attraction to local downtowns.
“The auto dealers are looking at an environment where they want to be able to say to people that, if you buy one of these cars, you’re gonna be able to charge,” said Watters.
And he’s well aware of the potential impact on the tourism industry.
“We had a little study committee on EVs last summer through a House bill, and we heard it loud and clear — from the ski industry, in particular — that people have a choice to go to Maine or Vermont,” said Watters, noting that the bordering states have a better EV infrastructure.
He said legislators have also heard from the municipal association about the need for EV charging in downtowns as a way to attract visitors — and their dollars — to their shops and restaurants.
Watters himself drives a plug-in hybrid. On days at the capital, he drives his Honda the 39 miles from Dover to a charging station in downtown Concord, then returns home to recharge.
Watters has filed legislation, SB 272, that would allow towns to create revolving funds for installation and maintenance of electric vehicle charging stations. This bill also, subject to a fine, prohibits any person not driving an emergency vehicle from stopping, standing or parking in a parking place designated for electric vehicles.
The irony in all this is that Trump’s de-emphasis on renewable energy options such as EVs and a re-emphasis on consumables such as oil has a direct bearing on Elon Musk, his ardent supporter and the man behind all the DOGE cuts and chaos.
In addition to working to reverse the Biden EV initiatives, Trump has signed orders halting federal leases for offshore wind development and pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement. He said he intends to revive the stalled Keystone XI Pipeline project to transport crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska and the Gulf Coast of the United States.
Musk is founder and CEO of EV-maker Tesla. In 2024, the Tesla Model Y was the world’s best-selling plug-in electric vehicle. According to TechCrunch, Tesla stands to gain from the infrastructure build-out funded by the CFI program, now on hold.
