City of Gainesville receives federal award to fund new EV charging stations

Press release from City of Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The City of Gainesville has been awarded $11.65 million in grant funding through the federal Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Program, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced this month. The funds will enable the city to build 47 new Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations throughout the area; the dual-port stations would be capable of charging as many as 94 EVs at the same time.

Seventeen sites for the charging stations were proposed on the federal grant application in September. Municipal locations include the MLK, Jr. Multipurpose Center; Butler Plaza Transit Station; Sweetwater Wetlands Park; Depot Park; Gainesville City Hall; Eastside Community Center; Northside Park; SW Parking Garage; and the Gainesville Technology Entrepreneurship Center.

In cooperation with community partners, Alachua County and Gainesville Regional Utilities, additional sites for new charging stations were the Alachua County Health Department; Alachua County Tax Collector Office/Florida Department of Motor Vehicles; Sweetwater Preserve; Veterans Memorial Park; Cynthia Moore Chestnut Park; Tower Road Branch Library; University Air Center; and the Gainesville Regional Airport.

“As EVs move onto the secondary market, we are already seeing increased demand for them, and this helps make certain usage can be city-wide,” said Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward. “There are going to be even more of them on the road than there are now, and that infrastructure for them is necessary. This is a very big deal,” he said.

Currently, there are 126 charging stations throughout the city. Stations in East Gainesville were proposed, in part, to reach underserved low- and moderate-income communities where private sector investment was unlikely, absent federal funding. The new chargers (Levels 2 and 3) also will help build out Alternative Fuel Corridors – designated routes where drivers can easily find alternative fuel stations that provide options such as electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, natural gas, or propane, instead of traditional fuels.

“The Biden Administration has made historic investments to support the EV transition and make sure it’s made in America,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “These investments will help states and communities build out a network of EV chargers in the coming years so that one day, finding a charge on a road trip will be as easy as filling up at a gas station.”

In the coming months, the City will secure a private contractor for the project, which will contribute $2.91 million, raising the total value of the project to $14.56 million. Later this year, the City will host community engagement sessions, and following design and site improvement work in 2026 at each location, installation of the charging stations should begin in late 2027.

The second round of grants, totaling $635 million, is made possible by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, spurring private investments in the EV charging network and helping accelerate the nation’s transition to a clean energy economy.

In 2018, the Gainesville City Commission adopted a goal of net zero emissions by 2045.

“Transportation and energy generation remain the largest contributors of Gainesville’s carbon emissions,” said Gainesville Chief Resiliency Officer Dan Zhu. “This project will play a critical role in reducing those emissions,” she said.

Building a sustainable community and mobility for all neighbors are key principles of the City’s strategic plan.

  • If there was a true demand for EV charging stations the private sector would have already filled the gap. This is just more government waste. More federal subsidies to benefit EV manufacturers. Tesla and all other EV manufacturers would have gone bankrupt a decade ago without billions in corporate welfare from our lovely congress and White House. We’re governed by corporate wh0res

    • Notice the locations? Some of those will be underutilized given the locales. Not many people riding the bus drive an EV. Downtown locations? I guess that’s one way to increase parking revenue. Charging at the airport; will the Gestapo even allow that? Most EVs are driven by tree huggers and the affluent, and not many of those travel to the Eastern part of the city.
      May be good intentions but it looks to be very poor implementation.

      • Yeah, I noticed the locations, too.

        I also noticed, “Stations in East Gainesville were proposed, in part, to reach under-served low and moderate income communities where private sector investment was unlikely”.

        There’s a reason for this “unlikely” private investment, namely EVs are NOT an option, now or in the foreseeable future, for “low and moderate income communities” especially when you factor in higher costs for maintenance and battery replacement along with the up front higher purchase price.

        Though, I have to agree with Ward’s statement, “There are going to be even more of them [EVs] on the road than there are now”, because drivers from the west side may be making extra trips across town, adding to congestion and resource consumption, all trying to find chargers.

        Proposed and possible future locations should be based on current distribution of EVs, according to DMV data overlaid with income data from the Census Bureau.

        “Looks to be very poor implementation”? Nope. It IS very poor implementation.

  • $11.65 million… that’s about 7 hotels, 253 Tiny homes, 72,000 Residential GRU bills, or about 5 years’ work from Hunter Biden.

    Add in the additional $2.91 million “private” contribution, (remember, nothing’s free), and one can’t help but wonder who else is getting “paid.”

  • Gainesville going to be zero emissions in 2045? What is everyone going back to horse and buggies? EV Charging comes from coal burning power stations. 🤡

  • Dan Zhu was appointed as Gainesville’s “Chief Climate Officer” in Feb 2023. Why is this press release now calling her the “Chief Resiliency Officer”? To try and disguise this woke idiocy, now that the entire country is rejecting global warming and the scammers that prop it up? Another useless government position that should be cut.

    Building EV charges in low-income areas is a really stupid idea, even for Harvey Ward. Low-income people don’t drive EVs. The cables are going to be stolen the first week for scrap copper.

  • That is an absurd amount for these stations.

    Do you realize that is $247,000 PER CHARGING STATION??

    Seriously, who is getting the kickback on this.

    • Think you picked up the wrong number, Wendy.

      It’s 47 locations with the ability to charge 94 cars at a time total.

      Using 94 instead of 47 it figures around $124,000 without the extra $2.91 million being added to the pot later.

      With the extra $2.91 million the cost per charging port is about $155,000.

  • So what kind of equipment is going to run all these “EV” stations ? Solar power won’t be able to handle it. We have no wind turbines, oh wait, do you mean they are to be run by Natural Gas fired turbines that produce sustainable electricity day and night ? Back to relying on the good ole Fossil Fuel. Once again the hidden source to the rescue nobody likes to think of. Go look around at the Post Office on SW 34th St. what you’ll see are about 50 charging stations already being built. Soon we will all be in the dark after the sun goes down. Creating new things is a good deal, but using what is already there in abundance is also.

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