Biden’s Buy America push for EV chargers gets a jolt

By James Bikales | 03/12/2024 07:00 AM EDT

Administration officials hope incentives will help the U.S. stake a claim in the nascent industry before competitors like China.

Electric vehicle chargers sit outside a Ford dealership.

Blink Charging aims to produce 50,000 chargers per year at its newly expanded manufacturing facility in Maryland. David Zalubowski/AP

BOWIE, Maryland — Generous federal incentives for electric vehicle chargers are spurring the growth of a new domestic manufacturing industry to build the equipment needed to power the cars of the future — including at a new plant here in the federal government’s backyard.

Blink Charging cut the ribbon Monday for its new global headquarters and an expanded manufacturing facility at the suburban site, where it intends to eventually ramp up output to 50,000 EV chargers a year.

“Just three years ago, we barely made any chargers here in the United States,” White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters ahead of the ceremony. “Today, we can make hundreds of thousands of them, employing hundreds of folks like the ones employed at this facility here in Maryland.”

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Since the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021, companies have announced $372 million in investments for EV charger manufacturing that will support nearly 5,000 new jobs, according to tracking data from the research firm Atlas Public Policy and BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of environmental and labor organizations.

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