Posted on 02/25/2025 12:41:19 PM PST by Signalman
Electric vehicles are “not mission critical,” said the Trump administration, which has ordered all EV chargers located at federal buildings to be shut down nationwide and newly purchased EVs to be offloaded. This comes on the heels of pausing already-promised EV infrastructure funding.
The U.S. General Services Administration, or GSA, is the federal agency responsible for contracts and procurement as they relate to the government’s real estate, IT, products, and equipment, which includes vehicles. According to The Verge, there are several hundred charging stations managed by the GSA, which amounts to roughly 8,000 charging ports across the country. And they now they’re going to be turned off.
“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA owned charging stations are not mission critical,” said an agency email viewed by The Verge. “Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they’re out of service.”
These EV chargers were available for government-issued EVs as well as those personally owned by federal employees. An internal announcement is scheduled to be made next week. However, some federal offices have already been instructed to take their chargers offline.
Also offline is the GSA’s Electrify the Fleet page, though you can view an archived version via the Wayback Machine. The agency’s electrification-related blogs are still up and searchable (for now), including one referencing the benefits of EVs.
The Verge reports that under the Biden administration, gas-powered vehicles were being phased out in favor of electrification. The GSA currently manages a fleet of approximately 650,000 vehicles—more than half of which were slated to be replaced by EVs.
In a March 2024 press release, the GSA announced that more than 58,000 zero-emission vehicles had been ordered and that more than 25,000 new charging ports had begun installation. Actually, how many ZEVs were received and chargers installed between then and now is unclear.
What happens to the disconnected EV chargers isn’t known. What happens to the recently purchased EVs is also one big shrug emoji. They will be offloaded from the fleet, yes, but whether they are sold or simply put into storage is anyone’s guess at the moment. And will they be replaced with gas-powered vehicles? If so, will the gas cars be resurrected older vehicles or new ones that require additional agency spending? Can they at least be hybrids because gas is expensive again?
Another question mark is whether other federal agencies will follow suit. The Verge says that many of them use the GSA-managed EV chargers. If those are out of service, where’s a federal, law enforcement, or military EV supposed to go?
The first thing you see on the GSA website is its motto: “Delivering effective and efficient government services for the American people.” However, given that there’ll be 8,000 fewer chargers for thousands of existing government-issued EVs that could now be stranded or see increased costs, the GSA seems to be doing the opposite.
Why is he doing this?
I assume we taxpayers pay for the fuel in either case.
If they replace government electric vehicles, then there’s no need for electric charging stations for electric vehicles.
This truly is a Trump ZOT.
Those people can trade in their EVs for Hybrids which get good mileage and don’t requiring recharging. Or not.
“… These EV chargers were available for government-issued EVs as well as those personally owned by federal employees….”
*************************************************************
Jeez… another reason for federal employees NOT to go in to their office… TRUMP’S elimination if their opportunity to access a free full charge of their EV’s battery.
There are many employees who get free charging at these stations.
Do you get free gas when you park at work?
I didn’t think so.
You can bet we are for the private ones as well.
Sounds like he’s opening the door for a privately owned company to see if there is a market for such a service. A service which could possibly create a few jobs, a service which could generate tax revenue. Sounds like an opportunity for the free market and competition, the government doesn’t need to be involved.
Elon Musk may not care, but Tesla shareholders m8ght
If we can get electric car owners fed up with their job conditions, then we can see more voluntary resignations.
Don’t turn them off. Add credit card readers to them and charge for the refills.
Would this be more clearer to some confused people here if he was getting rid of government gas pumps that employees were taking energy from, as well as fueling government vehicles?
Sell them to Chargepoint. Let Fedzilla make a token amount on sales.
This seems petty to me. We’ve already paid for the charging stations. It’s no a perk for Federal employees... ones that actually come to the office. I’m OK with that.
It is possible for Trump to overstep here.
At this time, one shouldn’t question what Trump is doing. Rather, ask yourself what YOU are doing to straighten your own life out and get back to right thinking.
If there were ever a signal example of how out of control, bloated, and unaccountable the government is, this is it.
Every citizen should be able to log onto a website for any organization or project and see at a glance how much was appropriated, how much was spent, and what the current status is with a relative degree of accuracy.
The fact that it is "unclear" (meaning "impossible to know") speaks volumes.
as he cuts non-essentials i sure hope he is notifying Congress (Thune and Johnson) to make corresponding cuts in their spending.
This (if they are not doing something similar already).
My guess is this article is missing some important detail, like the chargers are obsolete.
Let me guess, the charging is “free”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.