Why It Matters
Massachusetts received roughly $64 million in federal funding to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure along its major roadways, yet nearly four years after the federal approval, not a single charger funded through that program has been installed in the state. The delay has drawn sharp criticism from transportation advocates and raises questions about Massachusetts’s ability to execute on its own clean energy commitments.
What Happened
The federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program — known as NEVI — was established through the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law as a $5 billion national initiative to build out a reliable EV charging network. Massachusetts was allocated approximately $64 million through the program.
The state moved to select vendors roughly two years ago, identifying three companies to locate sites and build and maintain charging stations. Contracts were ultimately signed with two of those vendors — Applegreen and Global Partners — while the status of a third contract, with Weston & Sampson, remains unclear.
To date, the two vendors with signed agreements have spent close to $4 million on development and planning activities, but no physical infrastructure has been completed. Applegreen has placed equipment orders for sites in Greenfield and Newburyport and is targeting a late July construction start. Global Partners has received approval to place equipment orders and is finalizing site plans for locations in Lancaster, Wrentham, and Raynham.
Voices of Frustration
Transportation advocates have grown increasingly impatient with the pace of progress. Jim Aloisi, a former Massachusetts transportation secretary, offered a blunt assessment: “The slowness of adoption here is mystifying.” Eric Bourassa, another figure in the transportation policy community, said broadly that the pace of NEVI deployment in Massachusetts has been disappointing — a view he suggested was widely shared.
The Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Coordinating Council, established in Massachusetts in 2022, was created in part to coordinate efforts like those under NEVI, but the program’s stalled rollout has continued nonetheless.
By the Numbers
The gap between Massachusetts’s EV ambitions and current reality extends beyond charging infrastructure. According to 2022 projections from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the NEVI allocation would be sufficient to fund 92 charging ports statewide.
Key benchmarks from available data include:
- Massachusetts has roughly 166,000 light-duty electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids registered, against a state target of 200,000.
- Medium- and heavy-duty EVs on Massachusetts roads total approximately 735, far short of a target of 3,200 set for the end of 2025.
- The state is estimated to have around 2,000 fewer charging ports than current demand requires.
- Despite the shortfall, Massachusetts ranks fourth in the country for charging ports per capita, reflecting prior private-sector investment.
Zoom Out
Massachusetts is far from alone in struggling with NEVI implementation — only 19 states nationwide have at least one operational EV charger funded through the program. The federal initiative has faced widespread delays across the country, driven by site permitting challenges, utility interconnection timelines, and contractor capacity constraints.
Still, the Massachusetts delay is notable given the state’s comparatively advanced EV adoption rates and the size of its federal allocation. Other states that have begun deploying NEVI-funded stations have moved through similar vendor-selection and permitting processes in less time. Massachusetts lawmakers have previously focused legislative attention on technology and transportation policy, including a push to establish a federal framework for artificial intelligence that reflects broader interest in emerging infrastructure priorities.
What’s Next
The immediate near-term milestone is Applegreen’s targeted late July construction start at the Greenfield and Newburyport locations — which would mark the first physical NEVI-funded EV chargers installed on Massachusetts roadways. Global Partners is expected to finalize site plans for its three locations in the coming weeks as well.
Whether construction proceeds on schedule will be closely watched by state transportation officials and EV advocates who have waited nearly four years for the program to move from planning to pavement. The state still faces a substantial gap between its current EV charging capacity and both its own targets and projected demand.