Georgia expanding EV charging station network

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Georgia received about $130 million in federal funding to expand electric vehicle charging stations.

Credit: Capitol beat News Service

ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) is expanding a planned network of federally funded electric vehicle charging stations, state Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry said Thursday.

The state received about $130 million in funding through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program last year to build EV charging stations along Georgia’s interstate highways.

With the program just getting off the ground, only the states of Ohio and Hawaii have executed contracts to begin building the stations, McMurry told members of the State Transportation Board at their monthly meeting. 

Ohio became the first state to actually break ground on a charging station with a ceremony Wednesday at an interchange of Interstate 70 between Columbus and Dayton.

In Georgia, once the EV charging stations along the interstates have been completed, the DOT plans to build additional stations along U.S. 27 and U.S. 76 with future federal funding, McMurry said.

“We’ve got to get the interstates first … before we jump on these [additional] corridors,” he said.

U.S. 27 runs through Georgia north to south for 356 miles near the western edge of the state bordering Alabama. U.S. 76 runs through North Georgia east to west for 150 miles, extending from the South Carolina line to the Tennessee line.

With planning for the interstate charging stations still in the early stages, McMurry said it likely will be several years before the DOT gets to the additional non-interstate highway corridors.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Capitol Beat News Service.