Tesla is pushing a plan to build a charging corridor for large electric trucks stretching from Texas to California, despite being rejected for a lucrative federal funding program that is part of Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. But the original scope of the project could still change, TechCrunch found.
The company had been seeking almost 100 million dollars from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) discretionary charging and fueling infrastructure (CFI) grant program. Combined with about $24 million of his own money, Tesla wanted to build nine charging stations for electric semi-trucks between Laredo, Texas and Fremont, California.
The corridor, if built, would be a first-of-its-kind charging network that could enable long-distance and regional electric transportation and help clean up a large swath of the otherwise dirty transportation sector. However, without it, Tesla’s promise to electrify heavy trucks could be delayed even further than it already is.
The project submitted to the FHWA was called TESSERACT, which stands for “Transport Electrification Supporting Semis Operating in Arizona, California, and Texas,” according to a slide buried in a 964-page document. presentation with the South Coast Air Quality Management District. (Tesla collaborated with SCAQMD on the app.)
But Tesla was not among the 47 beneficiaries that the Biden administration Announced in January. Collectively, the winners received $623 million to build electric vehicle charging and refueling stations across the country. This is even though Tesla won 13% of all other cargo premiums so far from the Infrastructure Act, although that has only netted the company about $17 million.
Rohan Patel, who left his vice president position at Tesla this week when the company laid off 10% of its workforce, said in a message to TechCrunch that Tesla could turn to government funding opportunities or future rounds of the CFI program. Some of the sites along the route “are obvious even without funding,” he said.
Image credits: TechCrunch
In theory, the 1,800-mile route would connect Tesla’s two North American vehicle factories, as well as a planned but delayed one in Mexico. Originally, each station was scheduled to be equipped with eight 750 kW chargers for Tesla Semis and four open chargers for other electric trucks. It’s unclear how effective it would be if the company couldn’t build all nine stations, which are located at roughly equal distances along the route.
About half of the members of the Biden administration options for financing the CFI focused on building electric vehicle charging infrastructure in “urban and rural communities, including in convenient, high-use locations such as schools, parks, libraries, multifamily housing and more.”
The other half went to funding 11 “corridor” projects, including several on the same I-10 corridor that is part of Tesla’s proposed route. That includes $70 million for the North Texas Council of Governments to build up to five hydrogen fueling stations for medium and heavy-duty trucks in the Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio areas.
“The project will help create a hydrogen corridor from Southern California to Texas,” the Department of Transportation wrote in a statement in January.
“Financing for hydrogen stations will become purely wasted money,” Patel told TechCrunch this week.
While he no longer speaks for Tesla, he also criticized the funding of hydrogen infrastructure when he was still at the company.
“Governments around the world are wasting tax money on hydrogen for light and heavy infrastructure,” he said. wrote in X in February. “Just like smoking, it’s never too late to quit.”
Financing is not the only challenge of the project. Another complicating factor could be Tesla’s recent restructuring.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the company now “balls against the wall for autonomy” and has reportedly already sacrificed a planned low-cost electric vehicle in favor of making a purpose-built robotaxi the company’s priority. The Semi is years behind schedule and Tesla has only built about 100 to date.
Despite all this, the Tesla Semi program is still slowly attracting customers. Just a few days after the restructuring, Semi program director Dan Priestly announced via social media a new potential client for trucks. Priestly also said in March that Tesla has been using Semis to boat battery packs from Nevada to the Fremont factory.
