Elon Musk learns how EV charging works from Pete Buttigieg

You’d deliberation Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and its wide-reaching Supercharger network, would already cognize astir the workings of the national National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) programme that has dedicated $7.5 cardinal to building a nationalist charging network. However, he needed Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to chime successful connected X yesterday to extremity immoderate Republican leaders from spreading misinformation astir the program.

“Please station the rebuttal,” Musk asked Buttigieg nether a Donald Trump Jr. post quoting Ohio congressperson Michael Rulli, who accuses Buttigieg of “squandering billions” to build “8 EV charging stations.” Buttigieg tells Trump the station is “false.”

As Buttigieg explained, the $7.5 cardinal is “the full programme budget” for NEVI, portion of the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The measurement it useful is states use for a portion of the $7.5 billion, which, contrary to the first post, has not yet been spent. Once granted, the states build EV chargers pinch the money, not the national government.

“This is adjuvant to understand,” Musk wrote astatine the extremity of the thread.

There’s been disapproval complete the slow rollout of government-funded electrical conveyance chargers aft The Washington Post reported earlier this twelvemonth that only 7 stations and 38 ports were installed crossed 4 states arsenic of March. But the management continues to make progress: Buttigieg noted that 9 states now person NEVI-funded chargers successful operation, which is only the first fistful pinch astir planned to beryllium built successful “the 2nd half of the decade.” He linked readers to a Google Map showing NEVI-funded chargers’ status.