Court Order Restores NEVI’s $5B EV Charging Program After

A federal district court ordered the restoration of National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program funding in June 2025, ruling that the Federal Highway Administration acted capriciously when it froze the $5 billion EV charging initiative in February. Judge Tana Lin of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington enjoined FHWA from withholding funds from states whose deployment plans had already received federal approval, finding the administration had no legal authority to rescind those approvals unilaterally.

The Freeze and What Triggered It

FHWA suspended the NEVI program on February 6, 2025, rescinding existing guidance and halting approval of all state deployment plans under a presidential executive order directing a pause on disbursement of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds. States that had already received plan approvals and were mid-procurement found projects halted. The freeze affected the full $5 billion NEVI allocation distributed to states on a formula basis from fiscal year 2022 through fiscal year 2026. At the time of the freeze, only 384 charging ports had been built through the program despite more than three years of operation since the IIJA’s passage.

The Court Ruling

The court found that FHWA lacked authority to rescind approvals for state plans that had already completed federal review. The ruling in Washington v. U.S. Department of Transportation determined that the administration’s action was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. The injunction immediately restored funding access to 14 states: Washington, California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island. FHWA issued new interim guidance in August 2025 with expanded state flexibility on site selection, station spacing, and procurement structure while maintaining minimum charging standards. The program fully resumed with $885 million apportioned for fiscal year 2026.

Grid Infrastructure Implications

The NEVI program funds charger hardware and installation but does not cover utility grid upgrades, which analysis by EPRI and NREL shows can represent 30 to 60 percent of total project costs in grid-constrained regions. The six-month freeze pushed interconnection queue positions for EV charging projects further back in utility queues that were already backlogged 18 to 36 months for new large-load connections. States resuming NEVI procurement in late 2025 face transformer lead times exceeding 18 months for the pad-mount distribution equipment required for multi-charger sites, a constraint the court ruling does nothing to address. The August 2025 guidance added a provision allowing flexible interconnection, where sites begin limited operations with available grid capacity while awaiting full distribution upgrades, as a tool for states to accelerate deployment despite infrastructure bottlenecks.

Critical Analysis

NEVI-funded DC fast chargers (150-350 kW per unit) are six-pulse or twelve-pulse rectifier loads injecting characteristic 5th/7th/11th/13th harmonic currents at 480V service entrances. Thousands of simultaneous NEVI sites each require 1-2 MVA padmount transformer upgrades and 480V service entrance modifications.

5-Year Projection

Within 5 years, these regulatory frameworks surrounding EV Charging will strictly govern hardware procurement, rendering non-compliant legacy systems obsolete.

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