NCDOT awards $14.4M in NEVI funds for 14 corridor charging sites

The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced on September 11, 2026 the second round of awards from the state's share of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program: $14.4 million to eight businesses that will build and operate charging stations at 14 locations along major travel corridors, including Asheboro, Columbus, High Point, Kinston, Raleigh, Wadesboro, and Weaverville. The release says the stations will join five NEVI-funded stations from 2024, that NCDOT received $109 million through the program, and that the full network it funds is expected to be complete by September 2029, three years from the release, with a later phase placing chargers in communities and rural areas.

NCDOT's awards page puts the round at $14,405,524, calls the awards conditional until contracts are signed, and names the applicants: PowerUp, LLC on four sites, whose listed awards sum to $7,005,120, Lightning Grown, LLC on three at $906,000 each, Universal EV, LLC on two, and one each for Charged EV Raleigh, LLC, GPM Southeast, LLC, GPM Empire, Triledo Investment, LLC, and Walid and Sahar Fakhoury. The listed awards run from $368,000 in Columbus to $1,825,497 in Wadesboro. An applicant named Universal EV LLC also took 25 of Wisconsin's 42 sites on September 8 (Wisconsin's $25 million round).

The round is smaller than the state once planned. On September 11, 2024, NCDOT announced $5.92 million in conditional first-round awards to six businesses for nine locations, "the first of about 50 locations" needed to build out the state's alternative fuel corridors, with installations that release expected to be complete by September 2025. The awards page now lists five round-one stations as currently being constructed; Marion, Charlotte, New Bern, and Williamston are not among them, and Williamston reappears as a round-two award to Universal EV. A December 17, 2024 release mapped 41 more corridor stations for the second request for proposals; on January 27, 2026, NCDOT said it would cut those 41 locations to 16 and redirect funds to rural areas and highways with less coverage, citing the Federal Highway Administration's August 11, 2025 interim final guidance, which NCDOT says removed the 50-mile spacing requirement and lets states account for privately built chargers. The September 11, 2026 round came in at 14. Minnesota opened a round on September 1, 2026 (up to $41.2 million) and Pennsylvania on September 8, 2026 ($11 million).