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BATON ROUGE — Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Louisiana is set to receive approximately $75 million over the next five years for electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, with $14.1 million allocated this fiscal year. This is part of President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law to deploy chargers along highways and in rural areas to support domestic manufacturing jobs and make EVs more accessible and affordable for working families. Under guidelines set by the Federal Highway Administration, federal funds require a minimum 20 percent state match. In order to bridge this funding gap, DOTD will be developing an EV charging infrastructure deployment grant program and an alternative fuel vehicle infrastructure grant program if there is sufficient interest from the private sector in hydrogen, natural gas, additional EV or propane fueling infrastructure.

“This investment is a step in the right direction to help Louisiana achieve its climate goals of becoming net zero by 2050, and I am thankful to Sen. Bill Cassidy and Congressman Troy Carter for their work in making this a reality,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards. “We have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the impacts of climate change, which harms the state’s natural resources. One of the biggest changes in a low-carbon future will be seen in the way we travel. By making electric vehicles affordable to the daily commuter, and having the infrastructure to accommodate this, Louisiana can transition to using more renewable energy sources. These changes won’t come overnight, but this investment will help us in our efforts to reach these goals.”

“We aim to have Louisiana become a competitor in EVs, and in doing so want to convert the appropriate allocation of “gas” station assets into “fuel” stations where a wide variety of fuels are available, electricity for recharging EV batteries being one of them,” said DOTD Secretary Shawn D. Wilson. “Once again, I’d like to thank Sen. Bill Cassidy and Congressman Troy Carter for their support of the IIJA bipartisan bill which will help the state move infrastructure projects forward.”

DOTD will begin to develop the grant programs and aims to solicit applications over the next year.  In the second year, the department will make awards, monitor and inspect installations, and identify and correct weaknesses in the grant programs for use in future rounds of solicitations and awards.