Tesla is accelerating past the competition in the race to deploy electric vehicle (EV) chargers across the United States. According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, Tesla is emerging as the leader in securing federal grants for EV chargers, setting a pace that outpaces its competitors while keeping costs substantially lower.
Tesla has been able to secure the top position in bids for installing chargers at approximately 18% of sites designated by states to receive federal funding for fast chargers. Data from EVAdoption, an EV and charging analytics firm, revealed that Tesla has already received about $8.5 million of the roughly $77 million disbursed so far.
All of that money will be used much more efficiently by Tesla than its competitors. Earlier this year Tesla applied for a grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TECQ), requesting as little as $30,000 per charger, while others were asking for the maximum $150,000 allowed under the program. If the agency had given all the funding to Tesla (they ended up getting no money), they would have been able to install around 700 chargers.
Instead, the program will see just 170 chargers installed.
Tesla’s dominance is evident when you look at the stats, with Superchargers accounting for approximately 60% of all fast chargers in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Department of Energy. That dominance has led other automakers, like General Motors and Ford, to embrace Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) for their EVs, solidifying Tesla’s expansive network as the primary EV charging infrastructure player in North America.
