On Friday, the New Mexico Department of Transportation (DOT) gave a presentation about its electrification program at the Urban Land Institute’s “Unlocking Infrastructure in New Mexico” meeting.

Jerry Valdez the department’s executive director, was one of five panelists at the event and spoke on electric vehicle charging station infrastructure in the state, especially in rural areas.

“I think traditionally and historically we’ve left out a tremendous amount of our residents because we focus on urban areas,” Valdez said. “We wanted to make sure that disadvantaged communities were the first to get these.”

In 2021, the program got its first funding through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formulaic Program, which gave $38.3 million over five years to focus on interstates and alternative fuel corridors.

That same year, the program received $10 million in Covid-19 relief funds, which helped to install over 80 charging stations in 40 rural areas of New Mexico, including Angel Fire, Pecos, Chama and Columbus.

The Department of Transportation also received a Charging and Fueling Infrastructure grant of $67.7 million from the Biden-Harris administration in January. Of that, $63 million will go to two electric vehicle charging locations on I-10 in Lordsburg and Vado, New Mexico, installed by California-based company TeraWatt Infrastructure.

The electrification program has now reached $132 million in funding, Valdez added.

With that funding, the program has already awarded contracts for almost 45 more locations, 24 of which they closed on Sept. 18, that will be along 1,200 miles of rural locations, which includes Highway 60 and Pie Town.

“This is just the beginning,” Valdez said. “When you look at the state, there’s still a tremendous number of opportunities in Navajo Nation, Clayton and other areas in Northwest New Mexico.”

The hope, he added, is to have 800 charging stations around New Mexico in the next three years.

“I want to make sure we’re touching every community in New Mexico,” Valdez said. “I don’t care if they have more cows than people, there should be charging infrastructure.”

Source: “NM Department of Transportation Lays Out Plans for EV Infrastructure Program“