EVgo got a jolt of good news to begin October announcing that the U.S. Department of Energy had given it a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $1.05 billion of debt financing.
The DOE is providing the financing under its Title 17 program, which aims to accelerate the expansion of a fast-charging network in community locations. The top anticipated states for the stalls include California, Illinois, Florida and Pennsylvania.
The Federal Financing Bank will directly issue the loan, which comes with limited recourse project financing and is guaranteed by the DOE’s Loan Programs Office; EVgo will not have to raise any third-party equity.
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The news comes just weeks after EVgo expanded its partnership with General Motors where the two will build more than 400 fast-charging stalls in major metropolitan areas in states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Texas. The first of those locations is set to open next year.
If the loan is approved, EVgo executives expect to add more than 1,000 jobs (mostly contracted roles) and build roughly 7,500 new fast-charging stalls across the country by 2030.
Alongside the loan, EVgo will also take advantage of a federal 30C clean energy tax credit, which provides a credit for up to 30% of the cost to install “qualified alternative fuel vehicle refueling property” such as EV chargers or hydrogen refueling stations. Businesses can claim up to $100,000 for each item on an eligible census tract; eligible tracts are defined as “any population census tract that is a low-income community or that is not an urban area” and applies to approximately two-thirds of Americans.
According to a press release, at least 40% of the stalls are anticipated to be in “marginalized areas” overburdened by environmental impacts, in line with the Justice40 Initiative begun by the Biden-Harris administration to investment more federal dollars in disadvantaged communities affected by pollution.
“EVgo shares the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of increasing EV charging access in the communities that need it most,” said Badar Khan, CEO of EVgo. “This historic investment would meaningfully accelerate our network expansion to provide public charging to EV drivers across the United States.”
Formed in 2010, EVgo now has installed more than 1,000 charging stations in 65 metropolitan areas and 35 states.
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